Re: bombards

There were a couple of different kinds of large siege cannon in the middle
ages. One type, an earlier model, was a drop-forged type of cannon with a
short muzzle, about twice the length of the stone that was being launched.
The walls of this cannon were almost as think as the stone too. Later
models used much thinner walls, more simlar to civil war cannons, but were
made in sections. In a couple chronicles in the 1480's there are references
to scorpians and the like and the author describes how the scorpian cannons
had 3 sections while other smaller cannons had different names. Some were
even breech loading but not the same breech loading we have today. Their
breeches were completely removable. You grabbed the handle, lifted the
breech out, loaded it and put it back. If you have 2 breeches for the same
gun, you could load one and fire the other. The weapons themselves were all
still formed by using a mould and poured in. The shape for the sections was
cylindrical with teach end having a "lip" that extended outside. I don't
recall ever seeing these lips bolted together but I know that these
cylinders were all placed on a wooden bit that ran the length underneath
the bombards. The was encircled with the cylinders by a one-and-a-half inch
strip of iron that bound the wood to the cylinders. I've never really paid
too much attention to these weapons as I've never had a need to but if you
want to find some good research, check out Geoffrey Boothroyd's "GUNS
THROUGH THE AGES"

On Sunday, December 05, 1999 9:09 AM, rupert smith
[SMTP:radsmith.geo@?????.com] wrote:
> does anyone know, or can anyone speculate, how an SJ bombard would be
> made?
>
>
> --
> rad.
>
> danger, deep water.