THE INVENTION OF INVENTION^53knew gunpowder by the eleventh century and used it at first as an in
cendiary device, both in fireworks and in war, often in the form of
tubed flame lances. Its use as a propellant came later, starting with in
efficient bombards and arrow launchers and moving on to cannon
(late thirteenth century). The efficiency and rationality of some of
these devices may be inferred from their names: "the eight-sided mag
ical awe-inspiring wind-and-fire cannon" or the "nine-arrows, heart-
penetrating, magically-poisonous fire-thunderer."^11 They were
apparendy valued as much for their noise as for their killing power. The
pragmatic mind finds this metaphorical, rhetorical vision of technology
disconcerting.
The Chinese continued to rely on incendiaries rather than explosives,
perhaps because of their superior numbers, perhaps because fighting
against nomadic adversaries did not call for siege warfare.* Military
treatises of the sixteenth century describe hundreds of variations: "sky-
flying tubes," apparently descended from the fire lances of five hundred
years earlier, used to spray gunpowder and flaming bits of paper on the
enemy's sails; "gunpowder buckets" and "fire bricks"—grenades of
powder and paper soaked in poison; other devices packed with chem
icals and human excrement, intended to frighten, blind, and presum
ably disgust the enemy; finally, more lethal grenades filled with metal
pellets and explosives.^12 Some of these were thrown; others shot from
bows. One wonders at this delight in variety, as though war were a dis
play of recipes.
The Chinese used gunpowder in powder form, as the name indi
cates, and got a weak reaction precisely because the fine-grain mass
slowed ignition. The Europeans, on the other hand, learned in the
sixteenth century to "corn" their powder, making it in the form of
small kernels or pebbles. They got more rapid ignition, and by mixing
the ingredients more thoroughly, a more complete and powerful ex
plosion. With that, one could concentrate on range and weight of pro
jectile; no messing around with noise and smell and visual effects.
This focus on delivery, when combined with experience in bell
founding (bell metal was convertible into gun metal, and the tech
niques of casting were interchangeable), gave Europe the world's best
cannon and military supremacy.^13
* The Chinese would seem to have been more afraid of rebellion from within than
invasion from without. More modern armaments might fall into the wrong hands, and
these included those of the generals. Cf. Hall, Powers and Liberties, pp. 46-47.