Author: BINNING (Capt. Thomas)
Title: A Light to the Art of Gunnery. Wherein is laid down the True Weight of Power, both for Proof and Action, of all sorts of Great Ordnance. Also the true Ball, and allowance for Wind. With the most necessary Conclusions for the Practice of Gunnery, either in Sea or Land-Service. Likewise the Ingredients, and making of most necessary Fire-Works: As also many Compositions for the Gunner's Practice, both at Sea and Land.
Description: London: Printed for R. Mount, 1703. Fourth edition, small 4to, [14], 146pp., with engraved frontispiece portrait and additional engraved title page, 4 engraved plates of which 2 are folding (of 6?), frontispiece a the 2 folding plates with repairs to rears, woodcut diagrams within the text, worm track to upper blank margin of 30 leaves in middle of the book, cont. calf, nicely rebacked, with the bookplate of Thomas Francis Fremantle. First published in 1676 with further seventeenth-century editions in 1677 and 1689, all editions being rare. Captain Thomas Binning was born in 1620, and in his teenage years he served as a gunner on sea and land. He was present when the Spanish ships came to the Downs in 1639, and was a master gunner in Edinburgh Castle when it was besieged by Cromwell in 1650. ESTC locating just a single copy (BL) of this 1703 edition.

Keywords: MILITARY NAVAL PYROTECHNICS FIREWORKS GUNNERY