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Carronade
A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast-iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ... cannon which was used by the Royal Navy. It was first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, and was used from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century. Its main function was to serve as a powerful, short-range, anti-ship and anti-crew weapon. The technology behind the carronade was greater dimensional precision, with the shot fitting more closely in the barrel thus transmitting more of the propellant charge's energy to the projectile, allowing a lighter gun using less gunpowder to be effective. Carronades were initially found to be very successful, but they eventually disappeared as naval artillery advanced, with the introduction of rifling and consequen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carronade 12 Pounder
A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast-iron cannon which was used by the Royal Navy. It was first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, and was used from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century. Its main function was to serve as a powerful, short-range, anti-ship and anti-crew weapon. The technology behind the carronade was greater dimensional precision, with the shot fitting more closely in the barrel thus transmitting more of the propellant charge's energy to the projectile, allowing a lighter gun using less gunpowder to be effective. Carronades were initially found to be very successful, but they eventually disappeared as naval artillery advanced, with the introduction of rifling and consequent change in the shape of the projectile, exploding shells replacing solid shot, and naval engagements being fought at longer ranges. History The carronade was designed as a short-range naval weapon with a low muzzle velocity for merchant ships, bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carron Company
The Carron Company was an ironworks established in 1759 on the banks of the River Carron near Falkirk, in Stirlingshire, Scotland. After initial problems, the company was at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdom. The company prospered through its development and production of a new short-range and short-barrelled naval cannon, the carronade. The company was one of the largest iron works in Europe through the 19th century. After 223 years, the company became insolvent in 1982 and was later acquired by the Franke Corporation, being rebranded Carron Phoenix. Early years The original founders of the Carron Works were: John Roebuck, a medical doctor and chemist from Sheffield; his two brothers, Thomas Roebuck and Ebenezer Roebuck; Samuel Garbett, a merchant from Birmingham; William Cadell, Senior, an industrialist from a merchant family, from Cockenzie, East Lothian; his son, William Cadell, Junior; and John Cadell. The factory of "Roebuck, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cannon
A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during the late 19th century. Cannons vary in gauge, effective range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees, depending on their intended use on the battlefield. A cannon is a type of heavy artillery weapon. The word ''cannon'' is derived from several languages, in which the original definition can usually be translated as ''tube'', ''cane'', or ''reed''. In the modern era, the term ''cannon'' has fallen into decline, replaced by ''guns'' or ''artillery'', if not a more specific term such as howitzer or mortar, except for high-caliber automatic weapons firing bigger rounds than machine guns, called autocannons. The earliest known depict ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Gascoigne
Charles Gascoigne (1738–1806) was a British industrialist at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. He was a partner and manager of the Carron Company ironworks in its early years, but left in 1786, before the company's success became obvious, to reorganise the production of iron and cannon in Ukraine. He remained in Ukraine for 20 years, until his death. Early life Charles Gascoigne was born in 1738 in England. His father was Captain Woodroffe Gascoigne, who was deployed in Scotland after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. His mother was Grizel, eldest daughter of Charles Elphinstone, 9th Lord Elphinstone and his wife Elizabeth Primrose. Career He worked for the British East India Company and as a partner in "Coney and Gascoigne", a firm of drysalters in London. He married Mary, the daughter of Samuel Garbett, at St Martin's, Birmingham, in 1759. Garbett was a founding partner in the Carron Company, also founded in 1759, and Gascoigne become a partner in the ironwork ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Action Of 4 September 1782
The action of 4 September 1782 was a small naval engagement fought off the Île de Batz between a French naval frigate, , and a Royal Naval frigate, . This battle was notable as the first proper use of a carronade, and so effective was this weapon that the French commander promptly surrendered just after the first broadside.Rodger (2004), p. 420 Action On 4 September the 44-gun frigate under Captain Henry Trollope, armed entirely with carronades, was off the French coast near the Île de Batz when a frigate was sighted. Having then chased the vessel, it turned out to be a French frigate, . The 1,063-ton ''Hébé'' was a new ship of the class of the same name whose armament consisted of 38 guns, 26 of which were 18-pounder long guns. It was commanded by the Chevalier de Vigny (uncle of Alfred de Vigny) and had on board 360 men. ''Hébé'' had left Saint-Malo on 3 September and was heading to Brest escorting a small convoy. At 7:00 am, having arrived within gunshot of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grapeshot
Grapeshot is a type of artillery round invented by a British Officer during the Napoleonic Wars. It was used mainly as an anti infantry round, but had other uses in naval combat. In artillery, a grapeshot is a type of ammunition that consists of a collection of smaller-caliber round shots, which in most cases are about the size of a golf ball, packed tightly in a canvas bag and separated from the gunpowder charge by a metal wadding, rather than being a single solid projectile. Grapeshot also comes packaged in clusters of three by iron rings, and in three tiers, with the shot being held in by cast iron rings. When assembled, the shot resembled a cluster of grapes, hence the name. Grapeshot was used both on land and at sea. On firing, the canvas wrapping disintegrates and the contained balls scatter out from the muzzle, giving a ballistic effect similar to a giant shotgun. Grapeshot was devastatingly effective against massed infantry at short range and was also used at medium rang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Melvill
General Robert Melvill (or Melville) LLD (12 October 1723 – 29 August 1809) was a Scottish soldier, antiquary, botanist and inventor. Melvill invented (1759) the Carronade, a cast-iron cannon popular for 100 years, in co-operation with the Carron Iron Works (from which it takes its name). He founded the St. Vincent Botanic Garden in the West Indies. Life Melville was born in Monimail in Scotland, the son of Rev Andrew Melville, a clergyman, and Helen Whytt, sister of Dr. Robert Whytt. As a member of the noble Melville family, he was related to the Earls of Leven and Earls of Melville. He was educated at the grammar school in Leven, and attended Glasgow University (at the same time as Adam Smith) but left to study medicine at Edinburgh University. He left his studies a second time and joined the 25th Foot (originally raised by David Melville, 3rd Earl of Leven in 1689, and later known as the King's Own Scottish Borderers) as an Ensign in 1744 in Flanders, and fough ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wadding
Wadding is a disc of material used in guns to seal gas behind a projectile (a bullet or ball), or to separate the propellant from loosely packed shots. Wadding can be crucial to a gun's efficiency, since any gas that leaks past a projectile as it is being fired is wasted. A harder or more carefully designed item which serves this purpose is often called a sabot. Wadding for muzzleloaders is typically a small piece of cloth, or paper wrapping from the cartridge. Shotguns In shotgun shells, the wadding is actually a semi-flexible cup-shaped sabot designed to hold numerous much smaller-diameter sub-projectiles (i.e. shots), and is launched out together as one payload-carrying projectile. This minimizes chaotic collisions of the shots with the bore wall and with each other, allowing the internal ballistics to be more consistent. After leaving the muzzle, the wadding loosens and opens up in flight, allowing the much denser shots to be inertially released and scattered. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Worm (artillery)
A worm is a device used to remove unspent powder bag remnants from a cannon or other piece of muzzle-loading field artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege .... It usually took the form of a double corkscrew-shaped piece of iron on the end of a long pole that could be twisted down the barrel to pick up any debris left over from the previous firing of the weapon. It was usually turned twice before being pulled out. References Cannon {{artillery-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trunnion
A trunnion (from Old French "''trognon''", trunk) is a cylindrical protrusion used as a mounting or pivoting point. First associated with cannons, they are an important military development. Alternatively, a trunnion is a shaft that positions and supports a tilting plate. This is a misnomer, as in reality it is a cradle for the true trunnion. In mechanical engineering (see the trunnion bearing section below), it is one part of a rotating joint where a shaft (the trunnion) is inserted into (and turns inside) a full or partial cylinder. Medieval history In a cannon, the trunnions are two projections cast just forward of the center of mass of the cannon and fixed to a two-wheeled movable gun carriage. As they allowed the muzzle to be raised and lowered easily, the integral casting of trunnions is seen by military historians as one of the most important advances in early field artillery. With the creation of larger and more powerful siege guns in the early 15th century, a n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smoothbore
A smoothbore weapon is one that has a barrel without rifling. Smoothbores range from handheld firearms to powerful tank guns and large artillery mortars. History Early firearms had smoothly bored barrels that fired projectiles without significant spin. To minimize inaccuracy-inducing tumbling during flight, their projectiles required an aerodynamically uniform shape, such as a sphere. However, surface imperfections on the projectile and/or the barrel will cause even a sphere to rotate randomly during flight, and the Magnus effect will curve it off the intended trajectory when spinning on any axis not parallel to the direction of travel. Rifling the bore surface with spiral grooves or polygonal valleys imparts a stabilizing gyroscopic spin to a projectile that prevents tumbling in flight. Not only does this more than counter Magnus-induced drift, but it allows a longer, more streamlined round with greater sectional density to be fired from the same caliber barrel, improvi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of the United States, fighting began on April 19, 1775, followed by the Lee Resolution on July 2, 1776, and the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The American Patriots were supported by the Kingdom of France and, to a lesser extent, the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Empire, in a conflict taking place in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. Established by royal charter in the 17th and 18th centuries, the American colonies were largely autonomous in domestic affairs and commercially prosperous, trading with Britain and its Caribbean colonies, as well as other European powers via their Caribbean entrepôts. After British victory over the French in the Seven Years' War in 1763, tensions between the motherlan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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