User:Mcapdevila/Catalan gunpowder

Bernardino Gómez Miedes chronicle

Introduction

Two chronometers provided dual modular redundancy, allowing a backup if one should cease to work, but not allowing any error correction if the two displayed a different time, since in case of contradiction between the two chronometers, it would be impossible to know which one was wrong (the error detection obtained would be the same of having only one chronometer and checking it periodically). Three chronometers provided triple modular redundancy, allowing error correction if one of the three was wrong, so the pilot would take the average of the two with closer reading (vote for average precision). There is an old adage to this effect, stating: "Never go to sea with two chronometers; take one or three." At one time this observation or rule was an expensive one as the cost of three sufficiently accurate chronometers was more than the cost of many types of smaller merchant vessels. Some vessels carried more than three chronometers – for example, the HMS Beagle carried 22 chronometers.

The term Catalan gunpowder refers to the use of gunpowder by the king James I of Aragon during the conquest of Valence in the xiii century (1234). Herein you will find a compilation of all the authorities they mention that fact: The Bernardino Gómez Miedes chronicle (1584), an article appeared in Espasa Encilopedia (1934) and some conferences (papers) presented at two IAA symposia 1970 and 1971, and published by NASA. Given the big difficulty in finding the "Memorial de artillería" of 1929 mentioned by them, it has been substituted by other documents concerning the conquest of Valencia, that provide the same evidence of the use of gunpowder by the troops of James I, though not in the form of guns used by the English at Crècy (1345), narrated on Froissart's chronicle and universally accepted as the first use of guns in a battle.

Bernardino Gómez Miedes chronicle

... It's said that the next night in the camp they were made some little instruments of fire, commonly called rockets. And when given fire and thrown high, they were falling like lightning, and burst like thunder inside the city. So many of them were thrown by those in the camp that it's said that, the Moors seeing those monsters of fire were frightened and took them as a bad omen ...

...Dice se que la siguiente noche, se hicieron en el real ciertos instrumentillos de fuego, que vulgarmente llaman cohetes. Los quales dando fuego y echados en alto cahian como rayos, y rebentauan como truenos dentro la ciudad. Dellos echauan tantos del campo que se dice, q los Moros viendo aquellos como monstruos de fuego se atemorizauan y los tuuieron por mal aguero...

Gunpowder used in Museros Castle in 1234 by James I of Aragon (Espasa)

".. But this does not in any way signify that the Chinese knew the guns, for they used arrows they had a rocket at its tip, similarly to the so called "falaricas", which were in use in Spain in 1234, being employed by the army of [James I of Aragon|Jacme I the Conqueror] against Museros Castle... "- 1934 Espasa Encyclopedia

“..Pero este hecho no significaba en modo alguno que los chinos conocieran los cañones sino que usaban flechas que tenían un cohete en su extremidad, análogamente a las llamadas falaricas, que estaban en uso en España en el año 1234, siendo empleadas por el ejército de don Jaime I el Conquistador contra el castillo de Museros...” – Enciclopedia Espasa 1934

Pedro Mateu Sancho (IAA Symposium, Constance, Germany, October 1970)

1238, The first reference to spanish rocketry involved King James I and the use made of rockets against the Moors In Valencia. In the Memorial de Artilleria the author observed: "In 1238 King James I of Aragón made use of a type of bomb against the Moors in Valencia, which the chronicler calls rockets (cohetes) composed of four sheets of parchment filled with a material that would burn Instantly: these flaming projectiles were hurled by means of machines against the enemy on the beach where they burst upon dropping." Of course there is some doubt concerning the correct use of the word roccket. 1547-1617. Miguel de Cervantes, in the second part of the Quixote, wrote "por la cola de Clavileño le pegaron fuego con unas estopas y al punto por estar el caballo lleno de cohetes tronadores boló por los aires con estraño ruido 1573-1582, Santa Teresa de Jesus wrote in her Fundaciones , , " Como hubo tantos tiros de artilleria y cohetes, después de acabada la procesión, gue era casi de noche, antojóseles de tirar más.."

Juan J. Maluquer (IAA Symposium, Brussels, Belgium, September 1971)

Thus, in the conquest ot Valencia (1238) It was said (Memorial de Artilleria) that James I used a kind of bomb of inflamable material against the Moors, which, thrown against a city, exploded on impact. The chronicler naned them rockets, but as Artillery Major Juan Barrios (1963) observed: "they were not rockets because they were thrown by machines." Again in the siege of Niebla in 1262 by Alfonso X the Wise, his chronical asserted that "ingenios" (machines) threw rockets that exploded and caused the terror of the supernatural among the besieged. Some see rockets in this account, but Antonio Ballesteros Beretta (1963) in his well documented work about this Monarch conceded only: “some believe that gunpowder was used for the first time in this siege of Niebla”

S.XIII's gunpowder scenario allowing its use by Jacme I

Rockets used by chinese and mongols on s.XIII

One of the earliest recorded instances of the use of rockets was as military weapons against the Mongols by the Chinese at the siege of Kai Fung Foo in 1232 A.D. An arrow with a tube of gunpowder produced an arrow of flying fire. The Mongol attackers fled in terror, even though the rockets were inaccurate and relatively harmless.

Rocket technology first became known to Europeans following their use by the Mongols Genghis Khan and Ögedei Khan when they conquered Russia, Eastern Europe, and parts of Central Europe, i.e., Austria. The Mongolians had stolen the Chinese technology by conquest of the northern part of China and also by the subsequent employment of Chinese rocketry experts as mercenaries for the Mongol military. Reports of the Battle of Sejo in the year 1241 describe the use of rocket-like weapons by the Mongols against the Magyars. [1]

Additionally, the spread of rockets into Europe was also influenced by the Ottomans at the siege of Constantinople in 1453, although it is very likely that the Ottomans themselves were influenced by the Mongol invasions of the previous few centuries. They appear in literature describing the capture of Baghdad in 1258 by the Mongols.[1]

Gunpowder used by muslims in Spain on s.XIII

In some documented histories of warfare and weapons in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance there is a noticeable gap in the history of gunpowder and cannon in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Some Authors jump from China in the far east to Europe in the far west with the slightest reference or no reference at all to the Arabic and Islamic lands that spanned the whole distance between east and west. In the thirteenth century, technology could hardly have been transferred between the two extremities of the old world unless it passed through the Arabic and Islamic medium and subjected to more developments.

Còdex

• Còdex, 1314: Manuscrit. Ms. 64. Biblioteca Universitària de Barcelona
• Còdex, 1343, (H): Manuscrit. Ms. 1. Biblioteca de Catalunya

External links

• ca.wikipedia.org/Llibre dels fets

Agencias gubernamentales, asociaciones civiles y compañías aeroespaciales

• Página web de la NASA (en inglés)