The Physics of War (16 page)

And finally, Benjamin Robins's advances in gunnery were based primarily on physics, and they would dramatically change war over the next few decades.

While the Industrial Revolution was sweeping across Europe and changing the structure of society, much of Europe was at war. In France the French Revolution began in 1789 with the storming of the Bastille in Paris; three years later Louis XVI was beheaded and the revolution was in full swing with twenty to forty thousand people beheaded in two years. France was bankrupt, but surprisingly, several important scientific advances were being made, and they were mainly associated with one man, Antoine Lavoisier. Then, to the amazement and grief of many, Lavoisier was beheaded, and scientific advances stopped. During the Napoleonic Wars, few scientific advances were made, and most efforts in this direction were focused on the military.

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

When Louis XVI came to the throne in 1774 he was surprised to find that the military had a serious problem: lack of gunpowder. The warehouses were almost depleted and sources were drying up. In particular, the major component of gunpowder, saltpeter, was in short supply. For years it had come mainly from stables and old buildings. Louis decided that action was needed; he appointed Antoine Lavoisier, the best-known chemist in France, to head up a commission. As it turned out, Lavoisier was the right man for the job. He went to work immediately, offering a cash reward for any new advance in the production of saltpeter or gunpowder in general. He quickly got rid of all outdated procedures and looked carefully at the formula for gunpowder to see how it could be improved. And within a short time he had made significant changes. Four years later the formula for gunpowder had been improved so much that foreign nations were eager to buy it from France, and the formerly empty warehouses were now full.
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But the improvement of gunpowder was only one of Lavoisier's achievements. He made so many discoveries in chemistry that he came to be known as the father of modern chemistry. And although he was primarily a chemist, his breakthroughs had a strong influence on physics. In particular, he made important contributions to physical chemistry and thermodynamics. He burned sulfur and phosphorus in air and proved that the product of the combination weighed more than the original elements. He then went on to show that the weight gained was lost from the air, and that, as a result, mass was conserved, leading to the law of conservation of mass.

He also showed that air has two components, one of which causes metals to rust. He named this component oxygen. Then he showed that the component of air discovered years earlier by Henry Cavendish was present in water. In particular, oxygen and the new component, which he called hydrogen, appeared to make up water. Furthermore, he noticed that nitrogen was also a major component of air.
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For years the accepted theory of combustion was the “phlogiston theory,” in which it was assumed that a mysterious element called phlogiston was contained in all combustible bodies and was released during combustion. Lavoisier showed that the theory was wrong. It was oxygen that was the key concept in combustion. He was also the first to make a comprehensive list of the known elements (or substances that could not be broken down), namely oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, phosphorus, mercury, zinc, and sulfur.

It was perhaps not a surprise that Lavoisier was arrested in 1794. Many well-known scientists of the time pleaded with the assembly to spare his life, pointing out his numerous contributions to the science of France. But the judge, according to an apocryphal story, replied, “The Republic needs neither scientists nor chemists; the cause of justice cannot be delayed.”
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He was beheaded on May 8 at the age of fifty. The well-known mathematician Lagrange stated, “It took them only an instant to cut off that head, but France may not produce another like it in a century.”
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It wasn't long, however, before elected officials realized that they had gone too far. They released Lavoisier's widow from jail and returned his belongings to her, and years later a statue was erected in Paris in his honor.

JEAN-BAPTISTE VAQUETTE DE GRIBEAUVAL

The French army sank to new lows during the revolution, and even in the years before. Its artillery had grown outdated compared to that of other nations, and the army was ill-trained and generally in disrepair after years of neglect.
Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval, a young lieutenant colonel, was loaned out to the Austrian army (an ally) upon the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, and he was amazed to discover that French cannons and other guns were much inferior to Austrian guns. Within a few years, however, Gribeauval had changed the French cannon into a lighter, more powerful gun with an equivalent range.

Gribeauval did for France what Wilkinson had done for England. At the time, cannon barrels were cast by pouring molten iron or bronze around a clay cylinder. When the material cooled, the clay was removed and the interior was polished. This left guns that differed in size, which made it difficult to produce tight-fitting cannonballs. Because of this, much of the firepower of the explosion was lost. Gribeauval instituted a new system that involved casting cannonballs from a solid block then drilling a hole through the block. As a result, cannons were made more precisely so that parts from one would fit another. Furthermore, cannonballs now fit the barrel much better. This allowed manufacturers to make much lighter cannons that were easier to maneuver but had the same range, or better, than the old cannons. Furthermore, Gribeauval trained his officers to use the cannons in the best way. One of these officers was Napoleon Bonaparte.

Napoleonic cannon.

NAPOLEON AND HIS WEAPONS

Napoleon studied physics along with mathematics and astronomy in military school, and he knew the importance of science to war. And he made some effort to make sure France was at the forefront of technology; he made the École Polytechnique into a military school, and it eventually became one of the most
technologically advanced schools in Europe. And he made sure the weapons he was using—particularly the cannons—were the best in Europe. Most of his victories came about, however, not because of his new innovations in weapons, but because he used new and clever strategies and tactics. He was not responsible for any “miracle” weapons that used new breakthroughs in physics, and there's no indication he took a lot of interest in physics or science in general. If it didn't help the war effort he had little interest in it. And in some cases he made mistakes when new innovations were presented to him. One example was the balloon, which was developed in 1782. One of his scientific advisers told him about balloons in 1800 and pointed out that they could be used for surveillance of the enemy and possibly even for dropping bombs on them. Napoleon was curious about the idea at first, but he soon lost interest, and nothing came of it. In addition, even though “rifling” of musket barrels was known at the time, and rifled muskets were known to be more accurate and have a range over three times that of smoothbore muskets, Napoleon didn't like them. They were too slow for his taste, and he stuck with the smoothbore guns for the most part.
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The main weapons of the time were muzzled-loaded, smoothbore muskets, along with pistols, bayonets, swords, and pikes. And Napoleon, strangely, was particularly attached to the bayonet, mostly because it was a very effective terror weapon. There's no doubt, however, that his most effective weapon was Gribeauval's new cannons. It was the cannons, along with his new tactics and strategies, which produced victory after victory during his early years as a commander. More than anything, Napoleon looked for his enemies' greatest vulnerabilities and quickly took advantage of them. The speed and efficiency with which he maneuvered his men and cannons on the battlefield surprised and frequently demoralized his enemies. One of his major tactics was to “feint” from the front while he was secretly surrounding his enemies. Then, to their surprise, he would attack from the rear and sides, cutting off their communications and supplies.
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Napoleon rose rapidly through the ranks as a young officer, and in 1796, when France attacked Austria, he was given command of the French army in Italy, and in battle after battle he was victorious, returning to France in 1797 as the nation's hero. And it wasn't long before he was on the march again; in May 1798 he left for a campaign in Egypt, where he hoped to draw the British into battle by threatening their commercial interests in the region. He had no problems with the ill-equipped Egyptian army and easily slaughtered over two thousand Egyptian troops with light losses on his side.

But his problems with the British were only beginning. Admiral Horatio Nelson's battleships swept into the bay that contained Napoleon's ships and sank most of them, leaving the French army with no escape. Napoleon quickly
abandoned his army and managed to get back to France with a few bodyguards and army marshals. And surprisingly he was greeted as a hero for his victory in Egypt, which contributed to his election as first consul in 1800. Napoleon was now leader of the best-equipped army in Europe, and he soon took advantage of it. He attacked the Austrians first, and with his emerging new tactics and skills he quickly defeated them at Ulm in October 1805. Then most of the Austrian army surrendered to him. Next came the Russians and the remains of the Austrian army at Austerlitz. Napoleon quickly cut the army in half and surrounded them, in the process inflicting tremendous casualties.

Napoleon Bonaparte.

The following year he attacked Prussia, one of the strongest, best-equipped armies in Europe, and to everyone's surprise he defeated it. He now had much of Europe under his command, but he had not yet overcome his major foe—the British. And they were still a thorn in his side. The major problem was the British navy; the French navy was no match for it, and unless he invaded the mainland of England, his armies would do him no good.

After a couple years of relative peace, Napoleon decided to invade Spain, which was known to have a relatively weak army, and, indeed, he soon overcame it. But suddenly he was faced with a new type of war: guerrillas hid in the mountains and ambushed and sabotaged his army again and again. In addition, the British soon came to the assistance of the Spanish, and to make things even worse, Austria was threatening France. Napoleon therefore withdrew, leaving his troops again to a slow but decisive disaster. Over the next few years many of his best troops were killed.

But his biggest defeat came in 1812 when he attacked Russia. With one of the largest armies ever assembled, numbering approximately six hundred thousand troops, Napoleon expected an easy victory. As it turned out, his army was too big, and the Russians were too cunning. They retreated as Napoleon swept across the land, getting closer and closer to Moscow. And they knew what they were doing; they were waiting for the harsh and cruel Siberian winter. Furthermore, as the Russians retreated they applied a scorched-earth tactic to the areas they passed through, and, as a result, the French, who depended on foraging for food in conquered lands, found themselves short of everything they needed for survival. Napoleon was sure, however, that once he got to Moscow there would be enough food, and the war would soon be over. But the ever-cunning Russian army retreated past Moscow, leaving nothing in it. Napoleon entered the city and waited for a surrender from the Russian general, but it never came. After a month of near starvation, he and his troops left Moscow for the long trek back to France in the dead of winter. The war had begun with over six hundred thousand troops under Napoleon's command, and by the time they got back to France there were fewer than thirty thousand left. Napoleon's days of glory were over, but he was still in power.
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