9781422277584

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mixture of saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur . This is explosive in the sense that once ignited, it continues to burn even without air. A great quantity of hot gas is produced in a few seconds and the resulting high pressure can be used to bring about general destruction—for example, to destroy the foundations of a building—or controlled to fire projectiles from cannon or small arms such as muskets or pistols. Artillery began to come into use in about the mid-thirteenth century, but Crécy (1346) was probably the first major European battle in which it was used. Guns were quite small at first, but as early as 1453, the Turks used a 19-ton cannon in the siege of Constantinople. At first solid balls were fired, of stone or iron. But quite soon hollow projectiles were filled with gunpowder, and fused to explode on reaching their target. Sometimes such explosive shells were filled with pieces of iron to rain a hail of small missiles on a massed enemy. Although explosive shells of this type were possibly used by the Venetians at Jadra in 1376, they were not widely used in warfare until the seventeenth century. Shrapnel, the invention of Henry Shrapnel (1761–1842), received official approval in 1803 and was extensively used in the Peninsular War and at Waterloo. The other important

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