The discovery of gunpowder, a compound of saltpeter,
charcoal, and sulphur, has often been attributed to Bacon, probably
incorrectly. Bacon and other men of his time seem to have been familiar with
the composition of gunpowder, but they regarded it as merely a sort of
firework, producing a sudden and brilliant flame. They little suspected that in
a confined space the expansive power of its gases could be used to hurl
projectiles. Gunpowder was occasionally manufactured during the fourteenth
century, but for a long time it made more noise than it did harm. Small brass
cannon, throwing stone balls, began at length to displace the medieval siege
weapons, and still later muskets took the place of the bow, the cross-bow, and
the pike. The revolution in the art of warfare introduced by gunpowder had vast
importance. It destroyed the usefulness of the castle and enabled the peasant
to fight the mailed knight on equal terms. Gunpowder, accordingly, must be
included among the forces which brought about the downfall of feudalism.
CHEMISTRY AND ALCHEMY
The study of chemistry also engaged the attention of
medieval investigators. It was, however, much mixed up with alchemy, a false
science which the Middle Ages had received from the Greeks, and they, in turn,
from the Egyptians. The alchemists believed that minerals possessed a real life
of their own and that they were continually developing in the ground toward the
state of gold, the perfect metal. It was necessary, therefore, to discover the
"philosopher's stone," which would turn all metals into gold. The
alchemists never found it, but they learned a good deal about the various
metals and discovered a number of compounds and colors. In this way alchemy
contributed to the advance of chemistry.
