Jean Maritz (1680–1743), also Johan Maritz, was a Swiss inventor, born in Burgdorf,

Canton of Bern The canton of Bern, or Berne (; ; ; ), is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. Its capital city, Bern, is also the ''de facto'' capital of Switzerland. The bear is the heraldic symbol of the c ...

, who moved to France, becoming "Commissaire des Fontes" at

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

(Commissioner of the King's Foundry),''A Dictionary of Military History and the Art of War'' by André Corvisier p.33

/ref> and invented the vertical drilling machine, as well as the horizontal drilling machine for cannons in the 18th century. His inventions revolutionized cannon-making and became a key component of the de Vallière, de Vallière system and contributed to the development of the later

Gribeauval system The Gribeauval system (, ) was an artillery system introduced by Lieutenant General Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval during the 18th century. This system revolutionized French cannons, with a new production system that allowed lighter, more u ...

. Jean Maritz first invented a vertical drilling machine for cannons while in France in 1713. The vertical drilling method however, in which a cannon was slowly lowered over a turning drill, was very delicate, very time consuming and rather imprecise.''Louis Xv's Navy, 1748-1762'' by James S. Pritchard p.151-152
/ref> He further developed a method for the horizontal drilling of

cannons 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 t ...

around 1734.''50 Military Leaders Who Changed the World'' by William Weir p.132
/ref> These methods involved the drilling of a bore from a solid casting. These inventions were vast improvements over previous methods, which involved founding the cannon around a clay core, which was removed after founding, leading to imprecision and shifting of the core, and therefore poor performance. The inventions of Jean Maritz gave perfectly straight bores which could perfectly fit the ball diameter, and therefore vastly increase efficiency. In the horizontal method developed by Maritz, the solid-cast cannon itself was revolved horizontally, while the drill remained static, in a method similar to that of a

lathe A lathe () is a machine tool that rotates a workpiece about an axis of rotation to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, deformation, facing, threading and turning, with tools that are applied to the w ...

. The son of Jean Maritz, Jean Maritz II (1712-1790), who had worked with his father on the development of boring, became Inspector General of Gun Foundries in 1755. He is credited with the innovation of the horizontal boring machine which can be seen in these images https://www.photo.rmn.fr/archive/06-526761-2C6NU0PLJPKE.html https://www.photo.rmn.fr/archive/06-526762-2C6NU0PLJZSL.html The Maritz method would be central in the development of the Gribeauval cannon.''Napoleon's Guns, 1792-1815'' by René Chartrand, Ray Hutchins p.6
/ref>

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Maritz, Jean 1680 births 1743 deaths People from Burgdorf, Switzerland Artillery of France

See also

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