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Dr. Jebb, in his preface to Bacon’s “Opus Majus,” refers to what seems to be an early example of both the rocket and the cracker.

Dutens, in his “Inquiries into the Origin of the discoveries attributed to the Moderns” (1790), makes reference to many early writers, which are mostly so vague and exaggerated that no definite conclusion can be drawn from them; most refer to the early uses of Greek-fire or similar composition.

Don Pedro, Bishop of Leon, says that “in 1343, in a sea combat between the King of Tunis and the Moorish King of Seville ... those of Tunis had certain iron tubes or barrels wherewith they threw thunderbolts of fire.”

This description, if accurate, may be thought to suggest the use of cannons, but it is more likely to refer to the use of Greek-fire; this composition will, in certain proportions, if charged into a strong tube, give intermittent bursts, projecting blazing masses of the mixture to a considerable distance. The writer has seen this effect produced in a steel mortar of 5½ inches diameter, the masses of composition being thrown a distance of upwards of a hundred yards, a considerable range in the days of close warfare. Anyone who has seen this phenomenon will at once realise that here probably is the true solution of many obscure early references to explain which so much ingenuity has been expended.