Gunpowder and Ammunition, Their Origin and Progress

Gunpowder and Ammunition, Their Origin and Progress

The following works are frequently quoted, and are only designated by the authors name. Thus, Elliot, ii. 75, means Sir H. M. Elliots Hist. of India, as told, &c. &c., vol. ii. p. 75. Explosion.The sudden and violent generation, with a loud noise and in a time inappreciable by the unaided senses, of a very great volume of gas, by the combustion of a body occupying a comparatively very small volume. The first is the want of simple exactness in most early writers when recording the facts from which we have to draw our conclusions. At times their descriptions are so meagre that it is difficult, if not impossible, to decide whether certain projectiles were incendiary or explosive. At other times they abound in tropes and figures of speech which amount to an unintentional suggestio falsi. The missiles spread themselves abroad like a cloud, says a Spanish Arab; they roar like thunder; they flame like a furnace; they reduce everything to ashes.1 A projectile full of blazing Greek fire appeared to Joinville to be of portentous bulk. It flew through the midnight sky with thundering noise like a fiery dragon, followed by a long trail of flame; and it illumined the whole camp as with the light of day.2 Even to approach the truth, we must prune such figures of rhetoric; and this is a dangerous operation, for we may prune too much. The 5only safeguard against these suggestive metaphors is to keep steadily in view the distinctive peculiarities of incendiary and explosive projectiles. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 54411
Author: Hime, H. W. L. (Henry William Lovett)
Release Date: Mar 22, 2017
Format: eBook
Language: English