The Development And Application Of Gunpowder

Ralph Turner, Technology and National Power (printed in Foundations of National Power, ed by Harold & Margaret Sprout, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1945), 49, 50.

‘When gunpowder, invented in China about 100 B.C., was adapted to military uses in Europe some time after A.D. 1200 . . . military history got under way.

 ‘Gunpowder was originally more important for breaching defensive works than for combat; in fact, it was not until the last half of the seventeenth century that firearms finally displaced late medieval weapons.

At this time the smooth-bore, muzzle-loading musket which fired a heavy ball came into general use.

It was effective about two out of five times at one hundred yards; at two hundred yards it had no accuracy at all.

This was the technological basis of eighteenth century warfare.

The volley was the leading device for achieving a maximum firepower. Close-order movement of highly disciplined troops was necessary in order to concentrate this firepower. For this reason manoeuvring became an essential element of generalship. To offset these offensive methods defensive masonry and earthworks were highly developed. Both the cost of weapons and the difficulty of supplying an army kept the armies small.

‘Napoleon took advantage of a development of artillery. His smooth-bore, muzzle-loading cannon which fired “case shot” had an effective range of four hundred yards; for this reason, his batteries, remaining out of range of the musket, could destroy the closed ranks of the old-style infantry. The English open-square, as well as the loose ranks introduced in the French armies, was an answer to this method of concentrating firepower. It was finally overcome by the development of the rifle that fired the conical bullet; against men armed with this weapon, which had an effective range of six hundred and fifty yards, the men of the old-style batteries had no chance.

‘The rifled gun barrel, invented in England, first came into common use in the English colonies of the Atlantic seaboard where its accuracy at a range of two hundred yards was especially useful to the woodsman for whom it was both an economic implement and a weapon. Difficulties of manufacture prevented its wide adoption for military purposes.’

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