content_output-065_8 (Q6450)

Various substitutes for metal have been used for constructing cannon and mortars. Leather was probably the most successful; it was often used by the Venetians, sometimes in conjunction with hempen rope, sometimes alone. A leather cannon was fired three times at King's Park, Edinburgh, in October, 1788. Cannon of paper, brought from Syria by the Crusaders, are preserved at Malta, and considered great curiosities. According to Nathaniel Nye, who wrote in 1640, an artificer of Bromsgrove, near Worcester, was very successful in making fire-arms or paper and leather, and they were recommended by Nye, as master gunner of Worcester, because of their lightness and strength.