Ancient Artillery: With Some Notes on Mons Meg

Abstract

Artillery in the widest sense of the word, that is, offensive projectiles, is coeval with the beginnings of man but artillery in the modern sense of the word was not possible till after the invention of gunpowder. The practical application of gunpowder as an explosive force capable of expelling a projectile from some chamber or receptacle did not take place till long after the discovery of the substance itself. Flanders became the seat of the new industry of gun manufacture in the later medieval period. Mons Meg which is housed at Edinburgh Castle is a good example of the type of gun being made.