gunpowder

[Eng. gun and powder.] 2. Hist .: According to Sir George Staunton gunpowder has been known in China and India from a remote period of antiquity as an agent for blasting rocks. The statement, however, is doubtful. In Europe, Roger Bacon alluded to it in his work De Null it ate Magicæ , about A. D. 1267. A German monk, Schwartz, about 1336, is said to have discovered the method of its manufacture. arms; the trade or occupation of a gunsmith. *gun-ster, s. [English gun ; suff. -ster (q. v.).] The same as GUNNER (q. v.). Steele uses gunner and gunster in a ludicrously figurative sense. "Those who recount strange accidents and circumstances which have no manner of foundation in truth, when they design to do mischief, are comprehended under the appellation of gunners; but when they endeavor only to surprise and entertain, they are distinguished by the name of gunsters ." -Tatler , No. 88. *gun-stick, s . [Eng. gun , and stick .] A stick or rod for ramming down the charge into a gun; a rammer, a ramrod. *gun-stone, *gone-stone, s. [English gun , and stone .] A shot for a cannon, round stones having been originally used for the purpose. "Tell the pleasant prince this mock of his Hath turned his balls to gunstones." Shakesp.: Henry V., i. 2. Gun-těr, s . [Edmund Gunter, profe or of astronomy in Gresham College, London, England from A. D. 1619 to his death in 1626.] Gunter-rig, s. Gunter's-chain Gunter's-chain, s . Surv.: A surveyor's chain 66 feet or 4 rods (of 54 yards each) in length, having 100 links, each joined to the adjacent one by three links. A square chain is one-tenth of an acre, or 10,000 square links. It was invented by Edmund Gunter to aid in calculating areas. 7·92 inches=1 link; 100 links=1 chain, or 4 rods, or 22 yards; 80 chains=1 mile. Gunter's-line, s . A line of numbers on Gunter's scale used for performing the multiplication or division of numbers. It is the logarithmic scale of proportionalembich, being graduated upon the ruler, serves to solve problems in the same manner as logarithms do arithmetically. It is usually divided into 100 parts, every tenth of which is numbered, beginning with one and ending with ten, so that if the first great division stand for the one tenth of an integer, the next great division will stand for two-tenths, and the intermediate divisions will represent hundredths of an integer, while the large divisions beyond ten will represent units; and if the first set of large divisions represent units, the subdivisions will represent tenths, while the second set of large divisions will represent tens, and the subdivisions units, . Gunter's-scale, s. A large plane scale invented by Mr. Gunter. It has various lines of numbers engraved on it, by which questions in calculation, navigation, and surveying are solved mechanically by the aid of the dividers or a slider. On one side of it are scales of equal parts, chords, sines, tangents, rhombs, .; on the other side are the corresponding logarithmic lines. It consists of a flat ruler of boxwood, two feet long, having various lines laid down upon it, by means of which various problems may be performed by the extension of the compa es only.