Bronze Artillery, good article with lots of photos and drawings

[cannonmn]

Found this on web just now, by accident while looking for a book.  Note the cover illustration is one of those from "The Art of Gunfounding" discussed on this board under another topic.  I just skimmed it quickly and noted some errors like the author identifying gunades as carronades, but the pix are worthwhile so I won't hold that against him.

http://www.staugustinelighthouse.com/downloads/lamp_Meide_2002_Bronze_Ordnance.pdf

[dan610324]

thanks John
very interesting reading

[rifleshooter2]

Thanks that's a great book.

Andy

[Bob Smith]

I wonder if you know about Sara Hoskin's thesis about a group of 16th century guns in the Azores? Mainly Portuguese, with some French and English. It's quite a big download:
http://txspace.tamu.edu/bitstream/1969.1/556/1/etd-tamu-2003C-ANTH-Hoskins-1.pdf

Bob Smith

[cannonmn]

Thanks again Bob, yes 10MB took a while to wind its way thru my encoded router, but it was worth it.  She was very systematic indeed.  I looked at all the pix and barely skimmed the text so far, but noticed one controversial statement:

In addition, if a gun was rammed too hard, the metal at the
breech would be strained upon firing, because it would take longer for the powder to
properly ignite and expel the shot, all the while building up pressure in the breech.

Anyway, that's a great but small collection.  I'd trade most of what I own for guns no. 1 and 2, fantastic pieces. 

This article has a good discussion of the function and characteristics of the crown or castle, aka cruzeta.  There's an older article by Guilmartin which goes into those important items in great detail, including x-rays.