A
DISCOURSE
ON THE
Theory of Gunnery.
A
DISCOURSE
ON THE
Theory of Gunnery.
DELIVERED AT THE
Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Society,
November 30, 1778.
By Sir JOHN PRINGLE Baronet.
PUBLISHED BY THEIR ORDER.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY.
MDCCLXXVIII.
Gentlemen,
Among the several experiments communicated tothe society, during the course of the precedingyear, none seeming so much to engage your attention,as those contained in the Paper, intituled, The force offired gun-powder, and the initial velocity of cannon-balls,determined by experiments: with much pleasure thereforeI acquaint you, that, on account of the pre-eminenceof that communication, your Council have judgedthe author, Mr. Charles Hutton, worthy of the honourof the annual medal, instituted on the bequest of SirGodfrey Copley Baronet, for raising a laudable emulationamong men of genius, in making experimentalinquiries. But, as on former occasions, so now, yourCouncil, waving their privilege of determining thechoice, have acted only as a select number deputed by[4]you, to prepare matters for your final decision. I comethen, on their part, briefly to lay before you the stateof the Theory of Gunnery, from its rise to the time whenits true foundation was laid, in order to evince howconducive those experiments may be to the improvementof an art of public concern, as well as to the advancementof natural knowledge, the great object ofyour institution. And if, upon a review of the subject,you shall entertain no less favourable an opinion of Mr.Hutton’s performance, than what your Council havedone, it is their earnest request that you would enhancethe value of this prize, by authorizing your Presidentto present it to our ingenious brother in your name.
Artillery (in the large acceptation of theterm) took place long before the invention of gun-powder.We trace the art to the remotest antiquity,since the Sacred Records acquaint us, that one of thekings of Judah, eight hundred years before the Christianæra, erected on the towers and bulwarks of Jerusalemengines of war, the contrivance of ingeniousmen, for shooting arrows and great stones for the defenceof that city[1]. Such machines were afterwards[5]known to the Greeks and Romans by the names ofbalista, catapulta and others, which had amazingpowers, and were not less terrible i