Artillery

firearms too heavy to carry in the hand. Artillery was used before muskets. There is some reason to believe that cannon were invented by the Chinese, and were used by the Saracens. Historically, cannon were used by the English at the battle of Crecy in 1346. They were made of iron bars held together with hoops. From that time until the present, light artillery for field work, and heavy artillery for siege and defense, have formed an important part of military equipment. Various terms, as cannon, mortars, howitzers, and the like have of late given way to the general term gun. Some of the famous guns of the present day are the Armstrong, noticed under this head, the Rodman, with a heavy breech and light barrel, and the breech-loading Krupp. The artillery corps of the United States consists of a chief of artillery detailed by the president, fourteen colonels, a complete force of subordinate officers, and 18,000 men. The guns are divided into 30 batteries of field artillery and 126 batteries of coast artillery. To this showing the guns of the American navy should be added. Describing a recent test, Colonel Church gives a striking illustration of the power of modern ordnance. He says:

The range of the sixteen-inch breech-loading rifle now at Sandy Hook is estimated at between twenty and twenty-one miles, the gun being elevated at the extreme angle of forty-five degrees, and firing a 2,400-pound projectile. At this range the projectile would rise at the highest point of its trajectory over five and one-half miles above the earth, 29,040 feet. This would carry it over Mont Blanc, with Pike's Peak piled on top of it.

See Armstrong; Krupp; Fortifications; Battleships