Monge, Gaspard -- Description de l'Art de Fabriquer les Canons

[Nasty Jack]

Monge, Gaspard Description de l'Art de Fabriquer les Canons, N.P:Paris, 1794

(Description of the Art of Fabricating Cannons)

I Googled this and seemingly got a .pdf excerpt from some sort of archive compliation which was impossible to parse on a dial-up connection. (Damn dial-up, damn! damn!)

The exerpt I found discussed boring, and the page reference was like in the mid 200's so I expect there'd be discussions of metals, casting, carriages, rigging, etc.

Anyone know where I might find this book . . . in French or English?

[Nasty Jack]

Google:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A9f%C3%A9rence:Description_de_l'art_de_fabriquer_des_canons_(Gaspard_Monge)

# Titre : Description de l'art de fabriquer des canons
# Auteur : Gaspard Monge
# Éditeur : Imprimerie du comité de salut publique
# Lieu : Paris
# Publication : an 2 de la république française (1793-1794)
# Pages : 307
# Lire en ligne : http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k56990q



I found this Table of Contents, online, some sort of funky pdf file and I can't seem to get access. My French is pretty fair, but French Adobe .pdf files are something else:



http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k56990q

TABLE
DES MATIÈRES.
PREMIÈRE PARTIE.
Des matières que l'on a coutume d'employer à la fabrication des bouches-à-feu    2
CHAP. Ier. Du fer    Ibid.
   ART. Ier. De la mine de fer    3
   ART. II. Du fer coulé    12
   ART. III. Du fer forgé    20
   ART. IV. De l'acier    30
CHAP. II. Du bronze    42
   ART. Ier. Du cuivre    44
   ART. II. De l'étain    48
   ART. III. De l'alliage du cuivre et de l'étain, pour la composition du bronze    53
   ART. IV. Séparation du cuivre du métal des cloches    54
SECONDE PARTIE.
Des procédés de fabrication    59
CHAP. Ier. De la confection des moules    Ibid.
   ART. Ier. Du moulage en terre    62
   ART. II. Du moulage en sable    67
CHAP. II. Des fourneaux et coulage des pièces    78
CHAP. III. Du forage des canons    86
CHAP. IV. Du forage des lumières    97
CHAP. V. Des visites et épreuves    100
EXPLICATION DES PLANCHES.
Hauts-fourneaux et machine pour connoître comparativement la force de la fonte de fer    103
Moulage en terre, selon la méthode ordinaire    110
Moulage en terre, selon la nouvelle méthode pratiquée à l'arsenal de Paris    116
Moulage en sable    119
Grues de différens genres    136
Fourneaux à reverbère    139
Marmite pour l'usage des fonderies    148
Églises transformées en fonderies de canons    151
Foreries verticales et horizontales    155
Forets et alézoirs pour les canons et obus    179
Charriot-treuil pour le service des foreries    184
Forerie adaptée à une forge    186
Tour et outils de tour pour les pièces en bronze    188
Machine pour tourner les tourillons des pièces en bronze    191
Forage des lumières    193
Machine pour la pose des grains    198
Instrumens pour la vérification des canons    202
Canons en fer et en bronze pour l'artillerie de mer et de terre    212
Réglement pour la visite, l'épreuve et la réception des canons de fer    217
Autre réglement pour les canons de bronze    228

[thelionspaw]

I opened page after page. There are no illustrations and a picture is worth a thousand words.

rc

[Nasty Jack]

Google search reveals some "folding plate prints" -- like 40 or 60 of them. The prints are for sale, which probably explains why they're not available online. It looks like some French archive resource has reprinted the book and put some of the text online.

The pages I was able to open at this site refer to lots of illustrations and charts -- which aren't posted in the pages. It'd be nice to be able to find a copy of this at Amazon or Barnes & Noble . . . whatever. I'd shell out some $$$ for a decent edition WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

Not sure who in here reads French -- the table of contents discusses, metals (iron/copper), casting methods (sand / dirt, horizontal/vertical casting), forge tools, carriages, fortifications and mobility, English improvements . . .

[Double D]

Go to http://babelfish.yahoo.com/

Paste in the URL for the page you want translate and select the language you want to tran slate from and to.

[Cannoneer]

Nasty Jack and Pacific Richard,

 This French artillery treatise was published in London in 1746, and it contains a few decent plates. On a past thread I think it was Dan who was describing how a bronze gun's enlarged vent was repaired with molten bronze: There's an interesting chapter on this subject in this book.

http://www.napoleonic-literature.com/Book_17/001-Title_Page.htm

[thelionspaw]

Interethting book Boomer but I had better thop lithping before my wife comth home.

[Cannoneer]

Interethting book Boomer but I had better thop lithping before my wife comth home.

Now, wait a minute here, I thought pacific meant peaceful, I didn't realize it designated a flamer!

[thelionspaw]

I'm Atlantic; not Pacific. Oops! I mean Pathific. BTW why did type setters replace the "s" with an "f"? I can't recall. I once knew. The book is full of good stuff but that slows down the read. Not all of the plates come up for me? Thanks for posting it. Good cannon stuff.

[Nasty Jack]

It's not an "f" . . . it's an archaic letter form for "s." And the "Y" in "ye olde . . . " is not a "y" but rather a "thorn" -- the letter representing "th". German has an "s set" for the double "s" in words. The "s set" looks like a "B".

The reason English spelling is so apparently inconsistent is because spelling was regularized with the advent of moveable type. Then the language underwent a vowel shift -- and consonants were reduced. "Knight" originally was pronounced with an articulation of ALL the letters: "K n ee g h t" (I don't have the font for phonological spellings.)

One of my favorites is the spelling / pronunciation of the MA town "Worchestershire" as "Wooster" . . . This same sort of linguistic reduction is demonstrated when locals refer to San Bernadino as "Burdoo."

-- What was the question again . . .  

[GGaskill]

That's Berdoo, not Burdoo.   

[thelionspaw]

Close! It's Worcester and pronounced Wooster. As for "knight"; I k-no that it's k-nee-gkit because I watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail

[dan610324]

anyone know if its possible to find those engravings in high resolutions somewhere ??
its an extremely interesting book

[Cannoneer]

I'm Atlantic; not Pacific. Oops! I mean Pathific. BTW why did type setters replace the "s" with an "f"? I can't recall. I once knew. The book is full of good stuff but that slows down the read. Not all of the plates come up for me? Thanks for posting it. Good cannon stuff.

If we were living in a parallel universe would Nasty Jack and Pacific Richard read as Rotten Richard and Jolly Jack?
Go to the bottom of the first page and click the gray arrow; in the forward the creator of the site exlains why he used the antique s. I agree with you though, after awhile reading it gets to be more than a little annoying; at times I was tempted to throw a straight left to the middle of the screen.

[Nasty Jack]

"Nasty Jack" -- It's an avatar I use in a chat room. Actually, the "Jolly Roger" ("Jolie Rouge") from Jack Rackham, and "Nasty Jack" from a neighbor's parrot, a yellow fronted Amazon who bites. *S*



Instead of crossed swords -- or "cross-bones" -- I should use crossed cannons.

[Cannoneer]

Instead of crossed swords -- or "cross-bones" -- I should use crossed cannons

 I think that's a good idea, crossed cannons have been used for many moons on military artillery insignia.

[thelionspaw]

How about crossed dead parrots? Monty Python style.

[cannonmn]

Dan, Museum Restoration Service of Ottawa reproduced the book in 1970.  Here's a copy at what seems to be a reasonable price for a limited edition.  MRS does a pretty good job with the graphics.  I have a cy of it somewhere but can't lay hands on it at the moment.

http://www.ilab.org/db/detail.php?booknr=349163937

[Nasty Jack]

I checked the link above. It's not the same book, not the same author. Although the rest of  your description is accurate. There may have been a change in the link.

What's listed is:

LeBLOND, Guillaume
A TREATISE OF ARTILLERY: or, of the Arms and Machines used in War from the Invention of Gunpowder.

Museum Restoration Service Ottawa, ON 1970 Oversized 8vo, pp. 118. A facsimile edition, limited to 700 copies, of which this is copy number 219.

------------------------------------------

This is close in subject matter though . . . I should look for some online texts of it.

I should maybe note too that I'm able to read back and forth French/English and understand entirely when someone who's not bilingual can't parse out the switch-backs.

[cannonmn]

It's not the same book, not the same author.

Several posts back the subject switched to Le Blond's work and Dan (as I understood it) asked where he might find better graphics of it.

______________________________________

Link in Boom J post goes to this online book which I think was the one Dan asked about:

Napoleonic Literature site:

A

TREATISE

OF

ARTILLERY:

OR, OF THE

ARMS and MACHINES
Ufed in WAR fince the
INVENTION of GUNPOWDER
Being the FIRST PART of

LE BLOND'S ELEMENTS OF WAR:

(1746)

http://www.napoleonic-literature.com/Book_17/001-Title_Page.htm

__________________________________

Link in my post goes to what I think must be the same book, since author is same and year published is same:

LeBLOND, Guillaume; 

A TREATISE OF ARTILLERY:

or, of the Arms and Machines used in War fromthe Invention of Gunpowder.


Museum Restoration Service Ottawa, ON 1970 Oversized 8vo, pp. 118. A facsimile edition, limited to 700 copies, of which this is copy number 219. First published in London in 1746. black-&-white illustrations

http://www.ilab.org/db/detail.php?booknr=349163937

[Cannoneer]

anyone know if its possible to find those engravings in high resolutions somewhere ??
its an extremely interesting book

Dan,

 I don't have any of the exact engravings that are in the book , but I've got this beautiful hand tinted engraving of a partridge mortar that's like the one depicted in Chapter VI, Section II.

SECT. II. Of Partridge Mortars, for firing Bombs and Grenadoes together.

BEƒides the mortars already mentioned, one has been invented of a particular conƒtruction, deƒigned to diƒcharge a bomb and a number of grenadoes at the ƒame time. Fig. 5. P1. IX. repreƒents this mortar mounted upon its carriage: it is a common mortar, ƒurrounded by 13 other little mortars, bored round its circumference in the body of its metal, as appears in fig. 6. of the ƒame plate; that in the middle is charged with a bomb, and the others with grenadoes. The touch-hole of the great one being fired, and communicating with thoƒe of the little ones, diƒcharges at once both the bomb and the grenadoes.
        This kind of mortar is called a partridge mortar, becauƒe, when it is fired, the bomb mounts with the grenadoes, almoƒt like a covey of young partridges, of which the bomb repreƒents the mother. They have been very little uƒed in France; in the various experiments made with them, related by M. St Remy, ƒome of the grenadoes have always failed to burƒt, and ƒometimes even the bomb itƒelf has not taken effect. The allies, however, made good uƒe of them during the war in 1701, and more eƒpecially at the ƒiege of Liƒte in 1708, and the defence of Bouchain in 1712.

[thelionspaw]

Yo! Nasty Jack. Or should that be Yo-ho-ho?  Here is what I mentioned a while back for under the death head to celebrate "Nasty Jack" your avatar instead of crossed bones, swords, cannons.

[Cannoneer]

Yo! Nasty Jack. Or should that be Yo-ho-ho?  Here is what I mentioned a while back for under the death head to celebrate "Nasty Jack" your avatar instead of crossed bones, swords, cannons.

 Not exactly crossed dead parrots but close enough; the caption title of the picture is given as "pirateparrotdrumsticks", which is even better.

[thelionspaw]

I know. I wrote the caption. It is a Polish Clan "herbaz" (a device in heraldry). It is supposed to represent the Polish Eagle's legs, as used by "Kismeta", a Polish Light Horse Artillery group. They have a beaut' of a bronze cannon. google them.

Richard
a.k.a. Pan Heretyku

[Cannoneer]

 

They have a beaut' of a bronze cannon. google them.

 I've seen the site, some interesting things there, especially the Hussars.

[cannonmn]

That site has some interesting pix on it, like the interesting Polish combination of mortar shell and numchucks (or so it appears!):

http://www.kismeta.com/diGrasse/images/armata.jpg

There's also a very rotund thunderpot, and a swivel with a very unique yoke.

I went to the page on "artillery design."

[thelionspaw]

Rick Orli is a great guy from northern VA and he started the group. He owns the site and he alone did all of the work in putting it together. His is the bronze Kismet. The tube was cast in Ohio and he built the carriage. He also slipped in an image of the Lion's Paw with my face obscured in the picture. Since I am in the Witness Protection program, that's the way I prefer it to be done.

Muujaajaja!!!!

[Cannoneer]

Rick Orli is a great guy from northern VA and he started the group. He owns the site and he alone did all of the work in putting it together. His is the bronze Kismet. The tube was cast in Ohio and he built the carriage. He also slipped in an image of the Lion's Paw with my face obscured in the picture. Since I am in the Witness Protection program, that's the way I prefer it to be done.

Muujaajaja!!!!

 So, there you are trying to gauge Kismet's bore size with the hilt of your sword, and wearing your wifes mink handmuff on your head as a stylish chapeau, very nice.

RC, there are more than a few pictures on the site of the bronze gun with multiple people in the shot, could you narrow it down a bit.

http://www.kismeta.com/diGrasse/MTA/NotZagloba.jpg

[cannonmn]

Good pic. let's have some captions for that one.


First thing that comes to mind for me is:

"Honey I think you dropped a quoin."

[dan610324]

I cant find anything there more then some instructions about fencing