The root of the word cartridge seems to be "carta," meaning paper. But paper was only one of many materials such as canvas, linen, parchment, flannel, the "woolen stuff" of the 1860's, and even wood. Until the advent of the silk cartridge, nothing was entirely satisfactory. The materials did not burn completely, and after several rounds it was mandatory to withdraw the unburnt bag ends with a wormer (fig. 44), else they accumulated to the point where they blocked the vent or "touch hole" by which the piece was fired. Parchment bags shriveled up and stuck in the vent, purpling many a good gunner's face. PRIMERS When the powder bag came into use, the gunner had to prick the bag open so the priming fire from the vent could reach the charge. The operation was accomplished simply enough by plunging the gunner's pick into the vent far enough to pierce the bag. Then the vent was primed with loose powder from the gunner's flask. The vent prime, which was not much improved until the nineteenth century, was a trick learned from the fourteenth century Venetians. There were numerous tries for improvement, such as the powder-filled tin tube of the 1700's, the point of which pierced the powder bag. But for all of them, the slow match had to be used to start the fire train. [Illustration: Figure 18--LINSTOCKS.] Before 1800, the slow match was in universal use for setting off the charge. The match was usually a 3-strand cotton rope, soaked in a solution of saltpeter and otherwise chemically treated with lead acetate and lye to burn very slowly--about 4 or 5 inches an hour. It was attached to a linstock (fig. 18), a forked stick long enough to keep the cannoneer out of the way of the recoil. Chemistry advances, like the isolation of mercury fulminate in 1800, led to the invention of the percussion cap and other primers. On many a battleground you may have picked up a scrap of twisted wire--the loop of a friction primer. The device was a copper tube (fig. 19) filled with powder. The tube went into the vent of the cannon and buried its tip in the powder charge. Near the top of this tube was soldered a "spur"--a short tube containing a friction composition (antimony sulphide and potassium chlorate). Lying in the composition was the roughened end of a wire "slider." The other end of the slider was twisted into a loop for hooking to the gunner's lanyard. It was like striking a match: a smart pull on the lanyard, and the rough slider ignited the composition. Then the powder in the long tube began to burn and fired the charge in the cannon. Needless to say, it happened faster than we can tell it! [Illustration: Figure 19--FRICTION PRIMER.] The percussion primer was even more simple: a "quill tube," filled with fine powder, fitted into the vent. A fulminate cap was glued to the top of the tube. A pull of the lanyard caused the hammer of the cannon to strike the cap (just like a little boy's cap pistol) and start the train of explosions.