Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/425

* GUNNERY. 375 GUNPOWDER. States Artillery (Fort Muiiroe. Va., current) ; Annual Ucporls of tlw Office uf Saval Intelligence, particularly lluit tor 1899 (Washington). See Ar- tillery; li.vLLis-ncs ; Co.sT Aktillery; Ex- plosives; Field Artillery; Ul.ns, Naval; Gunpowder; Ordnance; Projectiles; etc. GUNNY (Hind, ytinni. Ben;;, (/vnii. ijOn'i. from Skt. fiuni. sack, probably originally lii<le, cf. Prak. gOiui, ox; connected with Skt, guu, Gk. /Soi/s, hous, ox, Fng. cow). A coarse kind of cloth or sacking, manufactured in India, chielly in Ben- gal, whence it is largely exported to other parts of the world. The fibre of which the cloth is made is cliiclly that of the same species of cor- chorus which yields the jute (q.v.) of commerce, although it is made in Bombay and Madras to some extent from sunn-hemp. Enormous quanti- ties ai'e annually exported to China, Australia, and other countries. It is partly made up into bags in Bengal, partly exported as gunny cluils or chuttees, pieces of size suitable for being im- mediately made up into bags. The manufacture of these bags was at one time the great domestic industry of all the populous eastern districts of lower Bengal, jjervading all classes, and giving occupation to men. women, and children. At present, however, the bags are chiefly made in large steam factories. Gunny, both cloth and bags, is also manufactured in large quantities in Dundee, Scotland. (See .Jute.) There are few articles of commerce so widely diffused over the globe as the Indian gunny hag. being used, as it is, for a covering for large packages of all kinds, including cotton-bales, and bags for hold- ing wheat, pepper, rice, cofl'ec, and many other kinds of pvnchice. GUN-PENDULUM. See Ballistics. GUNPOWDER. An explosive mixture, con- sisting of potas^iium nitrate, sulphur, and char- ccal. used for military purposes, in firearms, and for blasting. For use with cannon anil small arms, and for high-grade sporting rifles and shot- guns, gunpowder is being rapidly superseded, and its place is being taken by the more recent smoke- less powders (q.v.). There are, however, several important uses to which it is now put, the ex- tent of which may be appreciated when it is stated that in 1000 the production of black gim- powder in the United States was valued at .$1,- 452.377. It is employed as a priming charge in firing smokeless powder, and must be used in the older types of rifles and shotguns still owned throughout the United States. It is also neces- sary in the manufacture of fuzes and fireworks, and is much used for saluting, as it is far less expensive and is quite as satisfactory for the purpose as the more modern smokeless powders. The origin of gunpowder is involved in consid- erable uncertainty, but it is believed that the mixture and its characteristic properties have long been known, even before its use to propel a projectile from some form of artillery. There is evidence that the recipe for making gunpowder was in the hands of some of the alchemists of the thirteenth century, and on the strength of pas- sages in the works of Roger Bacon, he is often spoken of as its inventor. In his Dr Serrrtis Oprrihiis Arfifi rf Xntiirfr rf do yjillitafe Magi(B (1270) he gives the following directions for making gunpowder: "'ilix together saltpetre with lura nop cum ubre and sulphur, and you will make thunder and lightning, if you know the mode of mixing." The mysterious 'lura nop cum ubre,' after the fashion of the time, was merely a transposition of the letters of the words car- honuni pitlvere, or charcoal. The discovery of gunpowder is also assigned to Berthold Schwartz, by whom it was mentioned in i;!28. In addition to these references there are other quotations from mediteval writers bearing more or less on the subject, and also numberless traditions which confer on the ancients, and more c>pccially the Eastern nations, the honor of this important dis- covery. .Such legends go back even to the time of Alexander the Great, and it was asserted that he refused to attack the Oxydraca>, a race which occupied the country between the Hyphasis and the Ganges, because they "lived under the pro- tection of the gods, and overthrew their enemies with thunder and lightning which they shot forth from their walls." Tliis would seem to corrobo- rate the theory that gimpowder was well known in China many centuries before its first appearance in Europe, and that it gradually worked its way westward. Passing now to the realm of fact, we know that by the time of the battle of Crecy (1340) cannons in which gunpowder was used as the propellant were well known, and from that time as firearms were developed the amoimt of gun- powder consumed increased. Although its use rapidly extended, nevertheless its improvement then and since took place at a very slow rate. Gunpowder was at one time very generally styled 'meal powder' on account of its fineness of grain and the intimate mixture of its ingredi- ents. Even in the early days of its use it was divided into different qualities, and one William Bourne, writing on gunpowder in 1587. makes a distinction between serpentine and come poicder, the latter being the form known to-day. Serpen- tine powder, according to Sir Henry ilanwaring {Seaman's Dictionary. 1G44). was never used at sea. He says that the cannon-powder of that date was not very strong, while the musket-pow der was the finest, strongest, and best that could be procured. William Bourne, to whose work reference has already been made, speaks of a gunpowder commonly made by the 'Bours in Germanic,' which was very irregular in its qual- ity, and had to be judged by its taste, color, and the rapidity with which it biirned, the amount necessary for a charge being gauge<l by such a test. He advocates the use of a cartridge for the larger gims on shijiboard in order to prevent the frequent explosions due to scattered powder. The difficulty of obtaining powder of an even quality persisted until the middle of the nine- teenth century, and while the numerous wars made its manufacture necessary on a large scale, yet it was not until the end of the eighteenth century that any substantial improvements in apparatus or machinery were efTccled. Gunpowder was made even before the Revolu- tionary War in the United States with crude machinery which consisted mainly of stamp mills having mortars and pestles of wood and bronze, in which the materials were reduced to powder and thoroughly mixed. The powder thus ob- tained was coarse and uneven, and the maniifae- ture was attended with great danger. In the eighteenth century the French Government gun- powder, which was prepared under the direction of the famous chemist Lavoisier, attained con- siderable reputation for high quality, and it was