Part 7

In other words, he had needed to strike a harder blow than the blow of his fist, at a greater distance than the length of his arm, and his brain showed him how to do it. After all, what is a modern rifle but a device which man has made with his brain permitting him to strike an enormously hard blow at a wonderful distance? Firearms are really but a more perfect form of stone-throwing, and this early Cave Man took the first step that has led down the ages to the present-day arms and ammunition.

This strange story of a development that has been taking place slowly through thousands and thousands of years, so that today you are able to take a swift shot at distant game instead of merely throwing stones.

The Earliest Hunters.

The Cave Man and his descendants learned the valuable lesson of stone-throwing, and it made hunters of them, not big-game hunters--that was far too risky; but once in a while a lucky throw might bring down a bird or a rabbit for food. And so it went on for centuries, perhaps. Early mankind was rather slow of thought.

At last, however, there appeared a great inventor--the Edison of his day.

He took the second step.

A Nameless Edison.

We do not know his name. Possibly he did not even have a name, but in some way he hit upon a scheme for throwing stones farther, harder and straighter than any of his ancestors.

The men and women in the Cave Colony suddenly found that one bright-eyed young fellow, with a little straighter forehead than the others, was beating them all at hunting. During weeks he had been going away mysteriously, for hours each day. Now, whenever he left the camp he was sure to bring home game, while the other men would straggle back for the most part empty-handed.

Was it witchcraft? They decided to investigate.

What They Saw.

Accordingly, one morning several of them followed at a careful distance as he sought the shore of a stream where water-fowl might be found. Parting the leaves, they saw him pick up a pebble from the bank and then, to their surprise, take off his girdle of skin and place the stone in its center, holding both ends with his right hand.

Stranger still, he whirled the girdle twice around his head, then released one end so that the leather strip flew out and the stone shot straight at a bird in the water.

The mystery was solved. They had seen the first slingman in action.

The Use of Slings.

The new plan worked with great success, and a little practice made expert marksmen. We know that most of the early races used it for hunting and in war. We find it shown in pictures made many thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt and Assyria. We find it in the Roman army where the slingman was called a “funditor.”

We find it in the Bible where it is written of the tribe of Benjamin: “Among all these people there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed; _every one could sling a stone at an hair breadth and not miss_.” Surely, too, you remember the story of David and Goliath when the young shepherd “prevailed over the Philistine _with a sling and with a stone_.”

Today shepherds tending their flocks upon these same hills of Syria may be seen practicing with slings like those of David. Yes, and slings were used in European armies until nearly a hundred years after America was discovered.

Something Better.

Yet they had their drawbacks. A stone slung might kill a bird or even a man, but it was not very effective against big game.

What was wanted was a missile to pierce a thick hide.

Man had begun to make spears for use in a pinch, but would you like to tackle a husky bear or a well-horned stag with only a spear for a weapon?

No more did our undressed ancestors. The invention of the greatly desired arm probably came about in a most curious way.

Long ages ago man had learned to make fire by patiently rubbing two sticks together, or by twirling a round one between his hands with its point resting upon a flat piece of wood.

In this way it could be made to smoke, and finally set fire to a tuft of dried moss, from which he might get a flame for cooking. This was such hard work that he bethought him to twist a string of sinew about the upright spindle and cause it to twirl by pulling alternately at the two string ends, as some savage races still do. From this it was a simple step to fasten the ends of the two strings to a bent piece of wood, another great advantage, since now but one hand was needed to twirl the spindle, and the other could hold it in place. This was the “bow-drill” which also is used to this day.

A Fortunate Accident.

But bent wood is apt to be springy. Suppose that while one were bearing on pretty hard with a well-tightened string, in order to bring fire quickly, the point of the spindle should slip from its block. Naturally, it would fly away with some force if the position were just right.

This must have happened many times, and each time _but once_ the fire-maker may have muttered something under his breath, gone after his spindle, and then settled down stupidly to his work. He had had a golden chance to make a great discovery, but didn’t realize it.

But, so it has been suggested, there was one man who stopped short when he lost his spindle, for a red-hot idea shot suddenly through his brain.

He forgot all about his fire-blocks while he sat stock still and thought.

Once or twice he chuckled to himself softly. Thereupon he arose and began to experiment.

He chose a longer, springier piece of wood, bent it into a bow, and strung it with a longer thong. He placed the end of a straight stick against the thong, drew it strongly back and released it.

The shaft whizzed away with force enough to delight him, and, lo, there was the first bow-and-arrow!

What Came of It.

After that it was merely a matter of improvement. The arrow-end was apt to slip from the string until some one thought to notch it. Its head struck with such force that the early hunter decided to give it a sharp point, shaped from a flake of flint, in order that it might drive deep into the body of a deer or bear.

But, most of all, it must fly true and straight to its mark. Who of all these simple people first learned to feather its shaft? Was it some one who had watched the swift, sure-footed spring of a bushy-tailed squirrel from branch to branch? Possibly, for the principle is the same. At all events with its feathers and its piercing point the arrow became the most deadly of all missiles, and continued to be until long after the invention of firearms.

A Great Variety.

It is interesting to see how many different forms of bow were used. The English had a six-foot “long bow” made of yew or ash, in a single straight piece, that shot arrows the length of a man’s arm. The Indians had bows only forty inches on the average, since a short bow was easier to handle in thick forests. They used various kinds of wood, horn or even bone, such as the ribs of large animals. These they generally backed with sinew.

Sometimes they cut spiral strips from the curving horns of a mountain sheep, and steamed them straight. Then they glued these strips together into a wonderfully tough and springy bow. Once in a while they even took the whole horns of some young sheep, that had not curved too much, and used the pair just as they grew. In this case each horn made one-half of the bow, and the piece of skull between was shaped down into a handle. This gave the shape of a “Cupid’s Bow,” but it could shoot to kill.

As to Arrows.

The arrows were quite as important, and their making became a great industry with every race. This was because so many must be carried for each hunt or battle.

Who is not familiar with the chipped flint arrow-heads that the farmer so often turns up with his plow as a relic of the period when Americans were red-skinned instead of white? These arrow-heads have generally a shoulder where the arrow was set into the shaft, there to be bound tightly with sinew or fiber. Many of them are also barbed to hold the flesh.

A Shooting Machine.

But the age of machinery was coming on. Once in a while there were glimpses of more powerful and complicated devices to be seen among these simple arms.

A new weapon now came about through warfare. Man has been a savage fighting animal through pretty much all his history, but while he tried to kill the other fellow, he objected to being killed himself.

Therefore he took to wearing armor. During the Middle Ages he piled on more and more, until at last one of the knights could hardly walk, and it took a strong horse to carry him. When such a one fell, he went over with a crash like a tin-peddler’s wagon, and had to be picked up again by some of his men. Such armor would turn most of the arrows. Hence invention got at work again and produced the cross-bow and its bolt. We have already learned how the tough skin of animals brought about the bow; now we see that man’s artificial iron skin caused the invention of the cross-bow.

What It Was.

What was the cross-bow? It was the first real hand-shooting machine. It was another big step toward the day of the rifle. The idea was simple enough. Wooden bows had already been made as strong as the strongest man could pull, and they wished for still stronger ones--steel ones. How could they pull them? At first they mounted them upon a wooden frame and rested one end on the shoulder for a brace. Then they took to pressing the other end against the ground, and using both hands. Next, it was a bright idea to put a stirrup on this end, in order to hold it with the foot.

Still they were not satisfied. “Stronger, stronger!” they clamored; “give us bows which will kill the enemy farther away than he can shoot at us! If we cannot set such bows with both arms let us try our backs!” So they fastened “belt-claws” to their stout girdles and tugged the bow strings into place with their back and leg muscles.

“Stronger, stronger again, for now the enemy has learned to use belt-claws and he can shoot as far as we. Let us try mechanics!”

So they attached levers, pulleys, ratchets and windlasses, until at last they reached the size of the great siege cross-bows, weighing eighteen pounds. These sometimes needed a force of twelve hundred pounds to draw back the string to its catch, but how they could shoot!

And Now for Chemistry.

Human muscle seemed to have reached its limit, mechanics seemed to have reached its limit, but still the world clamored, “Stronger, stronger! How shall we kill our enemy farther away than he can kill us?” For answer, man unlocked one of the secrets of Nature and took out a terrible force. It was a force of chemistry.

Who first discovered the power of gunpowder? Probably the Chinese, although all authorities do not agree. Strange, is it not, that a race still using cross-bows in its army should have known of explosives long before the Christian Era, and perhaps as far back as the time of Moses? Here is a passage from their ancient Gentoo Code of Laws: “The magistrate shall not make war with any deceitful machine, or with poisoned weapons, or with cannons or guns, or any kind of firearms.” But China might as well have been Mars before the age of travel. Our civilization had to work out the problem for itself.

Playing with Fire.

It all began through playing with fire. It was desired to throw fire on an enemy’s buildings or his ships, and so destroy them. Burning torches were thrown by machines, made of cords and springs, over a city wall, and it became a great study to find the best burning compound with which to cover these torches. One was needed which would blaze with a great flame and was hard to put out.

Hence the early chemists made all possible mixtures of pitch, resin, naphtha, sulphur, saltpeter, etc.; “Greek fire” was one of the most famous.

What Two Monks Discovered.

Many of these were made in the monasteries. The monks were pretty much the only people in those days with time for study, and two of these shaven-headed scientists now had a chance to enter history. Roger Bacon was the first. One night he was working his diabolical mixture in the stone-walled laboratory, and watched, by the flickering lights, the progress of a certain interesting combination for which he had used pure instead of impure saltpeter.

Suddenly there was an explosion, shattering the chemical apparatus and probably alarming the whole building. “Good gracious!” we can imagine some of the startled brothers saying, “whatever is he up to now! Does he want to kill us all?” That explosion proved the new combination was not fitted for use as a thrown fire; it also showed the existence of terrible forces far beyond the power of all bow-springs, even those made of steel.

Roger Bacon thus discovered what was practically gunpowder, as far back as the thirteenth century, and left writings in which he recorded mixing 11.2 parts of the saltpeter, 29.4 of charcoal, and 29 of sulphur. This was the formula developed as the result of his investigations.

Berthold Schwartz, a monk of Freiburg, studied Bacon’s works and carried on dangerous experiments of his own, so that he is ranked with Bacon for the honor. He was also the first one to rouse the interest of Europe in the great discovery.

And then began the first crude, clumsy efforts at gunmaking. Firearms were born.

The Coming of the Matchlock.

Hand bombards and culverins were among the early types. Some of these were so heavy that a forked support had to be driven into the ground, and two men were needed, one to hold and aim, the other to prime and fire. How does that strike you for a duck-shooting proposition? Of course such a clumsy arrangement could only be used in war.

Improvements kept coming, however. Guns were lightened and bettered in shape. Somebody thought of putting a flash pan for the powder, by the side of the touch-hole, and now it was decided to fasten the slow-match, in a movable cock, upon the barrel and ignite it with a trigger. These matches were fuses of some slow-burning fiber, like tow, which would keep a spark for a considerable time. Formerly they had to be carried separately, but the new arrangement was a great convenience and made the matchlock. The cock, being curved like a snake, was called the “serpentine.”

The Gun of Our Ancestors.

Everybody knows what the flint-lock was like. You simply fastened a flake of flint in the cock and snapped it against a steel plate. This struck off sparks which fell into the flash-pan and fired the charge.

It was so practical that it became the form of gun for all uses; thus gunmaking began to be a big industry. Invented early in the seventeenth century, it was used by the hunters and soldiers of the next two hundred years. Old people remember when flint-locks were plentiful everywhere. In fact, they are still being manufactured and are sold in some parts of Africa and the Orient. One factory in Birmingham, England, is said to produce about twelve hundred weekly, and Belgium shares in their manufacture. Some of the Arabs use them to this day in the form of strange-looking guns with long, slender muzzles and very light, curved stocks.

Caps and Breech-Loaders.

Primers were tried in different forms called “detonators,” but the familiar little copper cap was the most popular. No need to describe them. Millions are still made to be used on old-fashioned nipple guns, even in this day of fixed ammunition.

Then came another great development, the breech-loader.

From Henry VIII to Cartridges.

Breech-loaders were hardly new. King Henry VIII of England, he of the many wives, had a match-lock arquebus of this type dated 1537. Henry IV of France even invented one for his army, and others worked a little on the idea from time to time. But it was not until fixed ammunition came into use that the breech-loader really came to stay--and that was only the other day. You remember that the Civil War began with muzzle-loaders and ended with breech-loaders.

Houiller, the French gunsmith, hit on the great idea of the cartridge. If you were going to use powder, ball and percussion primer, to get your game, why not put them all into a neat, handy, gas-tight case? Simple enough, when you come to think of it, like most great ideas. But it required good brain-stuff to do that thinking.

A Refusal and What Came of It.

Two men, a smith and his son, both named Eliphalet Remington, in 1816, were working busily one day at their forge in beautiful Ilion Gorge, when, so tradition says, the son asked his father for money to buy a rifle, and met with a refusal.

The boy set his wits to work. Looking around the forge, he picked up enough scrap iron to make a gun barrel, and with this set to work to make a rifle for himself. At that time gun barrels were made, not by drilling the bore out of a solid rod of metal, but by shaping a thick, oblong sheet of metal around a rod the size of the bore, and lapwelding the edges. When the rod was withdrawn, there was your barrel.

It took him several weeks to work out this job and get it right, but he succeeded. He had no tools to cut the rifling. There was a gunsmith in Utica, and he walked there, fifteen miles over the hills, to have his barrel finished. The gunsmith was so impressed by the boy and his accomplishment that, after rifling the barrel, he fitted it with a lock. Then when Remington fitted on a wooden stock his weapon was ready.

This was the first Remington rifle, and it proved a surprisingly good one.

Neighbors tried it, and wanted guns like it. Remington made them. The first rifle--or one exactly like the first one, at least--that Remington made is still in Ilion, the property of Walter Green. Before long the demand was so brisk that Remington would take as many barrels as he could carry over to the Utica gunsmith to be rifled, bringing back a load that had been left there on a previous trip, a journey of thirty miles on foot.

When a new business grows at that rate, of course, it soon needs power. So, later, in 1816, the two Remingtons went “up the creek,” building a shop three miles from home, at Ilion Gulph, which was part of the father’s farm. That was the actual beginning of the plant and the industry of which the centennial was celebrated in 1916. During its early years this shop made anything in its line that could be sold in the neighborhood--rifles, shotguns, crowbars, pickaxes, farm tools. The power was taken from a water wheel in Steele’s Creek, and the first grindstones for smoothing down the welded edges in gun barrels were cut from a red sandstone ledge up the gorge.

Guns sold better than all other products. Orders came from greater distances. By and by shipments were made on the new Erie Canal. For a while, as packages were small, they were taken to the canal bridge, a board lifted from the floor, and the package dropped onto a boat as it passed under. There was no bill of lading. Remington took down the name of the boat and notified his customer by mail, so the latter would know which craft was bringing his guns.

When the trade had extended into all the surrounding counties, however, the new business needed another prime essential of industry--transportation facilities. Shipments were growing larger, and materials like grindstones, bought outside, had to be brought from the canal to Ilion Gulph. In 1828, therefore, the elder Remington bought a large farm in Ilion proper, and there, on the canal, the present plant was started. This was also the beginning of Ilion, for at that period the place was nothing more than a country corner. In 1828 the elder Remington met his death through accident and the business was carried on by his son, who brought water for several power wheels from Steele’s Creek, built a house to live in, and installed in his wooden shop quite a collection of machinery for gunmaking--the list names a big tilt hammer, several trip hammers, boring and rifling machines, grindstones, and so on.

The Beginning of Precision in Mechanics.

Not so many years before that, in England, James Watt was complaining about the difficulty of boring a six-inch cylinder for his steam engine with sufficient accuracy to make it a commercial success. No matter how he packed the piston with cork, oiled rags and old hats, the irregularities in the cylinder let the steam escape, and it was believed that neither the tools nor the workmen existed for making a steam engine with sufficient precision. When a young manufacturer named Wilkinson invented a guide for the boring tool, and machined cylinders of fifty inches diameter so accurately that, as Watt testified, they did not err the thickness of an old shilling in any part, it seemed as though the last refinement in machinery had been achieved. That was not very accurate by present-day standards of the thousandth part of an inch, for a shilling is about one-sixteenth of an inch in thickness.

Remington was right in the thick of development with a gunmaking plant, of course, for as his business grew he had to invent and adapt machines to increase output. The lap-welded barrel was standard until 1850, and he got together a battery of trip hammers for forging and welding his barrels. Finer dimensions became a factor in his business when the output grew large enough to warrant carrying a stock of spare parts for his customers, and so he improved those parts in ways that gave at least the beginnings of interchangeability.

Materials were very crude. There was no buying of foundry iron by analysis, no high carbon steels, no fancy tool steels--nor any “efficiency experts” with their stop watches and scientific speed-and-feed tables. Iron was secured by sending teams around the neighborhood to pick up scrap, and when the scrap iron was all cleaned up, fresh metal was brought from ore beds in Oneida County. Coal was scarce, and charcoal made the chief fuel, burnt in the hills round about Ilion.

And the world was fairly swarming with inventors!

That was long before invention became a research department full of engineers. The individual inventor, with a queer-shaped factory process, carried on by a head and a rough model in his carpet-bag, had a chance to influence industry. Few of the useful contrivances had been invented yet, and almost any one of these chaps might be a genius. So, from the very first, Remington was interested in inventors. He was an inventor himself! His pioneer spirit was so strong that Ilion became a place of pilgrimage for men with ideas. Inventors came from everywhere, and Remington listened to them all. Some brought models, others drawings, still others a bare idea, and a few, of course, had just a plain “bug.”

The First Government Contract.