17th Century Cannon
This cannon, which was made in the 17th century, is cast in bronze. It also is made of wood and paint.But going back to it being made of bronze. It was made like this so that stone, iron, or lead cannonballs fit closely without being pushed together. The cannon was either vertically or horizontally rotated about its long axis while the boring tool was put into one end by gearing. Each and every cannon needed 2 gunners, 6 soldiers, and 4 officers of the artillery. The reason they need these people will be explained in the next few sentences. The right gunner loaded the cannon with powder, while the left gunner went to fetch more powder to keep on hand to be prepared for when the officer gave the order for the next fire. 3 soldiers stood on each side of the cannon, to ram and sponge the cannon, and hold the ladle. The second soldier on the left was required to provide 50 rounds. The way to operate this cannon may seem complicated but back then the people were taught and trained on how to work the procedures. 1. Beore loading the cannon, it was sponged to remove all sparks, filth and dirt. 2. The powder is then added, the a wad opf paper, then hay. 3. The cannonball is inserted. 4. After ramming the cannon was aimed at 45 degrees, with the officers permission though. Thats all the directions needed to fire a cannon. The materials needed are botefeux, a priming iron, a mire, a sponge, a wad screw, a lantern, a ladle, a primier, a rammer, and a quoin of mire. As far as i know this cannon does not have a name.
18th Century Cannon- Carronade
This cannon is named the Carronade. It was invented by General Robert Melville, bbut bult by the Carron Iron Company in Scotland. It was first used by the Royal Navy. This particular cannon was used on quarterdecks and fortcastles. It was designed as a short range naval weapon that has a low muzzle velocity. It has a nickname of the Smasher, because its lower muzzle velocitys round shot was intended to create many more of the deadly wodden splinters when hitting an enemy vessel. The short barrel and short range increaed teh risk of starting a fire. This type of cannon was usually mounted on a lug underneath a barrel. It also had a very unusual high center of gravity.There were irregularities with the size of the cannonballs which caused a large gap between the barrel and the balll meaning there was a loss of projectile power. With a 42 pounder Carronade you would only need four to five men, but depending on weight the number of men varies. This cannon is fired the same way as many others. I will not go through all the steps for they are the same as the 17th century cannon except theire is opnly one guy on each side and there is one officer of the artillery. Although it had many errors this cannon was initially very successful.
19th Century Cannon
The yellow on this cannon means that it is used for training only. Also the barrel of the gun has no thickening, unlike French guns from this era. This cannon was the smallest calibre of field guns used by Russia in the 1870's. Both versions of this cannon are horse drawn therefore helping with the issue of weight. In world war I these guns were not used though because the Russians had better artillery. Meanig if it was not used then then it was not used later on in wordl war II. This type of cannon was npot seen anymore after its use in the Finnish Civil War of 1918. Did not require more than 5 men although it could not have less than 3. To shoot this cannon all you do is load the cannonball and gunpowder in the gun barrel and fire. No further instructions were required. The elevation was 20 degrees, this meaning that it was the type of cannon that was shot for long distances because the closer to the ground the further it rolls. These cannons DO use gunpowder. I do not know the name or creator of this cannon.
Firing the Cannon
Today everyone went outside and fired their cannons. Before i tell you the results i must explain quite a few things so you will understand our reasoning behind our cannon. First, i will explain our reasons for our design. We chose our design because we believed that it would best benefit our teams firing range. We thought about a few more different ways to design our cannon but in the end we decided on this. (Look around blog to find pictures and videos.) We chose an angle of 30 degrees to shoot our cannon at. The reason we chose this is because we thought that it would shoot the ball further and faster. We expected our cannon to launch the ball atleast 8 feet, but in the end it didnt launch at all. Our team was a little sad that it didnt launch but in the end no one's cannon launched. The reason none of them did was because Gay Lussac's Law states that pressure and temperature must be directly proportional, when we launched the cannon the temperature was very low, therefore making temperature and pressure unproportional. I must say that if I could do anything differently with my group I would try to not have such an attitude with people in my group. I would also try to help our group sort out our problems. Our velocity was zero (0). The formula we used was R= V
o^2(Sin2)(30)/32.2 ft/sec^2. First I multiplied each side by 32.2, next I multiplied what I could, then I divided by .87, and last I took the square root and got zero (0). Overall, this assignment/activity was absolutely fun!! We got to learn alot about cannons, and actually build one. I would say that I would do this again anytime.
No comments:
Post a Comment