[Sca-cooks] Muslims with Guns, was: Irish Stew recipe

[Terry Decker]

The first reference is 1268 which is only 3 years before Marco Polo began
his travels, but 27 years before they ended.  Of course, there is the
possibility that Polo never got to China.

Needham suspects that Bacon may have been introduced to Chinese fireworks by
William of Rubruck, because the initial description seems to be of
firecrackers, which were being manufactured in China at the time.  The two
men were both Franciscans.

Bear


>Roger Bacon is said to have come up with a working formula for
>gunpowder in the 13th century, fairly long before Polo's journeys.
>Whether it was a case of parallel evolution or whether he had Chinese
>samples to work with, I don't know.
>
>Adamantius