Artillery

[Zulu]

I finally found where this thread ended up.
I know I have taken some leeway in my wooden exhibits. I do appreciate the comments though.
Here is another of my guns.
This is a 1/3rd scale 100 pounder Parrott Rifle on a front pintle Barbette carriage.
Because of the four pictures per post rule, I will follow this up with another post.
Zulu

[Zulu]

More pictures.

[David Einhorn]

I apologize again, what I meant is that it is not *safe* to construct cannon barrels out of wood. According to the Artillerist's Manual that I referred to, period cannon barrels were rated for how many shots they could be expected to fire before failing, not if they would fail. The manual describes the history and development of artillery cannons up to the mid-1800s, both in design and manufacturing methods. A very interesting read in the effort of folks to improve the durability, safety and accuracy of cannon barrels. I would strongly hope that no one plans on trying to construct and/or fire a wood barrel, or fire any other home-made cannon barrel. Please, safety first.

[Zulu]

Mr. Einhorn,
I commend you on your traveling forge. It is real nice!
I for one can appreciate how much labor goes into something like that.
I have built two full scale limbers and five limber chests. There is no doubt that it is a labor of love.
I use drawings from "Antique Ordnance Publishers". I did not make the wheels on my limbers. I purchased them, but did all the rest of the wood and metal work myself.

Here are pictures of the limber chest I just finished. I opted to stain it instead of using the proper paint just because I wanted to.
It turned out real nice. As it was my fifth chest build, I was able to complete it in 87 hours. That is my best time yet.
Zulu

[Rob Weaver]

That's OK - I wasn't advocating that anyone shoot a wood gun, either. I just find it interesting that in the history of things that go boom, there are some interesting improvisations and techniques that you wouldn't naturally think about in the evolution of the weapon system.

[Spinster]

Now that's more on target Mr Einhorn.

Of course firing a wooden cannon is not 'safe'.

But it certainly did happen-desperate men in desperate times do a lot of things that aren't safe. Or advisable. And yet, sometimes they work, if only momentarily. And sometimes they don't.

But these efforts did occur, and obviously more than once.

As for depicting such (and I seem to have witnessed that twice in my years of wandering around the countryside in funny clothes) at least one depiction dropped a sleeve down a hollowed out log and concealed the touch hole end from public view, fired it a couple of times, then pitched wood fragments down range while concealed by smoke from volley fire , while dropping the still intact log and sleeve out of view.


As for Zulu's work--my down the street neighbor has an original cannon on his lawn. I bet I could win the landscaping prize next year if I had one of Zulu's in mine.

[David Einhorn]

The Artillerist's Manual is absolutely fascinating. The manual says that even the cast symbols on colonial cannon barrels caused weak spots due to the sudden change in thickness of the barrel. They found that *any* too-abrupt change in barrel thickness resulted in an uneven expansion and contraction in the barrel that significantly decreased the lifespan of the cannon tube. The also stopped casting a bell at the end of the barrels for the same reason, the cannons would burst near or at where the bell would met the rest of the cannon barrel.

[Zulu]

Here are a couple of more pictures of the Barbette carriage showing the recoil positions of the gun. Everything is funtional including the threaded wood leveling screw. It just does not fire.
Zulu

[11thVACoG]

some beautiful woodwork! The chest is truly a piece of art.

[Zulu]

some beautiful woodwork! The chest is truly a piece of art.

11thVACog,
Thanks for the comment.
When I built the limber chest I did a photo documentary of the build. It has over 120 pictures.
I posted the build on a woodworking forum I belong to
If anyone is interested in that sort of thing, it can be seen here. Be sure to go to page 2.
Michael Elledge

http://www.woodworking.org/InfoExcha...er=asc&start=0