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Cannon

May 05, 2023

Not to be confused with Canon. For other uses, see Cannon (disambiguation).

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 depiction of cannons appeared in Song dynasty China as early as the 12th century; however, solid archaeological and documentary evidence of cannons do not appear until the 13th century.[1] In 1288 Yuan dynasty troops are recorded to have used hand cannon in combat, and the earliest extant cannon bearing a date of production comes from the same period.[2][3][4] By the early 14th century, possible mentions of cannon had appeared in the Middle East[5] and the depiction of one in Europe by 1326. Recorded usage of cannon began appearing almost immediately after.[6][7] They subsequently spread to India, their usage on the subcontinent being first attested to in 1366.[8] By the end of the 14th century, cannons were widespread throughout Eurasia.[9][10][11][12][13][13] Cannons were used primarily as anti-infantry weapons until around 1374, when large cannons were recorded to have breached walls for the first time in Europe.[14] Cannons featured prominently as siege weapons, and ever larger pieces appeared. In 1464 a 16,000 kg (35,000 lb) cannon known as the Great Turkish Bombard was created in the Ottoman Empire.[15] Cannons as field artillery became more important after 1453, with the introduction of limber, which greatly improved cannon maneuverability and mobility.[16][17] European cannons reached their longer, lighter, more accurate, and more efficient "classic form" around 1480. This classic European cannon design stayed relatively consistent in form with minor changes until the 1750s.[18]

Etymology and terminology

The word cannon is derived from the Old Italian word cannone, meaning "large tube", which came from Latin canna, in turn originating from the Greek κάννα (kanna), "reed",[19] and then generalised to mean any hollow tube-like object; cognate with Akkadian qanu(m)[20] and Hebrew qāneh, "tube, reed".[21][22][23] The word has been used to refer to a gun since 1326 in Italy, and 1418 in England. Both of the plural forms cannons and cannon are correct.[21][24]

History

Main article: History of cannon
Further information on the historical use of gunpowder in general: History of gunpowder and Timeline of the Gunpowder Age
 
Bronze cannon with inscription dated the 3rd year of the Zhiyuan era (1332) of the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368); it was discovered at the Yunju Temple of Fangshan District, Beijing in 1935.

East Asia

Main article: Gunpowder artillery in the Song dynasty
Further information on development of gunpowder warfare in China: Science and technology of the Song dynasty
 
A bronze "thousand ball thunder cannon" from the Huolongjing.

The cannon may have appeared as early as the 12th century in China,[1] and was probably a parallel development or evolution of the fire-lance, a short ranged anti-personnel weapon combining a gunpowder-filled tube and a polearm of some sort.[25] Co-viative projectiles such as iron scraps or porcelain shards were placed in fire lance barrels at some point,[26] and eventually, the paper and bamboo materials of fire lance barrels were replaced by metal.[27]

The earliest known depiction of a cannon is a sculpture from the Dazu Rock Carvings in Sichuan dated to 1128,[1] however, the earliest archaeological samples and textual accounts do not appear until the 13th century. The primary extant specimens of cannon from the 13th century are the Wuwei Bronze Cannon dated to 1227, the Heilongjiang hand cannon dated to 1288, and the Xanadu Gun dated to 1298. However, only the Xanadu gun contains an inscription bearing a date of production, so it is considered the earliest confirmed extant cannon. The Xanadu Gun is 34.7 cm in length and weighs 6.2 kg. The other cannons are dated using contextual evidence.[28] The Heilongjiang hand cannon is also often considered by some to be the oldest firearm since it was unearthed near the area where the History of Yuan reports a battle took place involving hand cannons. According to the History of Yuan, in 1288, a Jurchen commander by the name of Li Ting led troops armed with hand cannons into battle against the rebel prince Nayan.[29]

Chen Bingying argues there were no guns before 1259, while Dang Shoushan believes the Wuwei gun and other Western Xia era samples point to the appearance of guns by 1220, and Stephen Haw goes even further by stating that guns were developed as early as 1200.[30] Sinologist Joseph Needham and renaissance siege expert Thomas Arnold provide a more conservative estimate of around 1280 for the appearance of the "true" cannon.[31][32] Whether or not any of these are correct, it seems likely that the gun was born sometime during the 13th century.[33]

References to cannons proliferated throughout China in the following centuries. Cannon featured in literary pieces. In 1341 Xian Zhang wrote a poem called The Iron Cannon Affair describing a cannonball fired from an eruptor which could "pierce the heart or belly when striking a man or horse, and even transfix several persons at once."[34] By the 1350s the cannon was used extensively in Chinese warfare. In 1358 the Ming army failed to take a city due to its garrisons' usage of cannon, however, they themselves would use cannon, in the thousands, later on during the siege of Suzhou in 1366.[35][10][11]

The Mongol invasion of Java in 1293 brought gunpowder technology to the Nusantara archipelago in the form of cannon (Chinese: Pao).[36] During the Ming dynasty cannons were used in riverine warfare at the Battle of Lake Poyang.[37] One shipwreck in Shandong had a cannon dated to 1377 and an anchor dated to 1372.[38] From the 13th to 15th centuries cannon-armed Chinese ships also travelled throughout Southeast Asia.[39] Cannon appeared in Đại Việt by 1390 at the latest.[12]

The first of the western cannon to be introduced were breech-loaders in the early 16th century, which the Chinese began producing themselves by 1523 and improved on by including composite metal construction in their making.[40]

Japan did not acquire cannon until 1510 when a monk brought one back from China, and did not produce any in appreciable numbers.[41] During the 1593 Siege of Pyongyang, 40,000 Ming troops deployed a variety of cannons against Japanese troops. Despite their defensive advantage and the use of arquebus by Japanese soldiers, the Japanese were at a severe disadvantage due to their lack of cannon. Throughout the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598), the Ming–Joseon coalition used artillery widely in land and naval battles, including on the turtle ships of Yi Sun-sin.[42][43]

According to Ivan Petlin, the first Russian envoy to Beijing, in September 1619, the city was armed with large cannon with cannonballs weighing more than 30 kg (66 lb). His general observation was that the Chinese were militarily capable and had firearms:

There are many merchants and military persons in the Chinese Empire. They have firearms, and the Chinese are very skillful in military affairs. They go into battle against the Yellow Mongols who fight with bows and arrows.[44]

— Ivan Petlin

Western Europe

Main article: Gunpowder artillery in the Middle Ages
 
Earliest picture of a European cannon, "De Nobilitatibus Sapientii Et Prudentiis Regum", Walter de Milemete, 1326
 
Western European handgun, 1380
 
The first Western image of a battle with cannon: the Siege of Orléans in 1429
 
Cannon from the 15th century at Šibenik city walls

Outside of China, the earliest texts to mention gunpowder are Roger Bacon's Opus Majus (1267) and Opus Tertium in what has been interpreted as references to firecrackers. In the early 20th century, a British artillery officer proposed that another work tentatively attributed to Bacon, Epistola de Secretis Operibus Artis et Naturae, et de Nullitate Magiae, dated to 1247, contained an encrypted formula for gunpowder hidden in the text. These claims have been disputed by science historians.[45] In any case, the formula itself is not useful for firearms or even firecrackers, burning slowly and producing mostly smoke.[46][47]

There is a record of a gun in Europe dating to 1322 being discovered in the nineteenth century but the artifact has since been lost.[48] The earliest known European depiction of a gun appeared in 1326 in a manuscript by Walter de Milemete, although not necessarily drawn by him, known as De Nobilitatibus, sapientii et prudentiis regum (Concerning the Majesty, Wisdom, and Prudence of Kings), which displays a gun with a large arrow emerging from it and its user lowering a long stick to ignite the gun through the touch hole.[6][7] In the same year, another similar illustration showed a darker gun being set off by a group of knights, which also featured in another work of de Milemete's, De secretis secretorum Aristotelis.[49] On 11 February of that same year, the Signoria of Florence appointed two officers to obtain canones de mettallo and ammunition for the town's defense.[50] In the following year a document from the Turin area recorded a certain amount was paid "for the making of a certain instrument or device made by Friar Marcello for the projection of pellets of lead".[7] A reference from 1331 describes an attack mounted by two Germanic knights on Cividale del Friuli, using man-portable gunpowder weapons of some sort.[6][7] The 1320s seem to have been the takeoff point for guns in Europe according to most modern military historians. Scholars suggest that the lack of gunpowder weapons in a well-traveled Venetian's catalogue for a new crusade in 1321 implies that guns were unknown in Europe up until this point, further solidifying the 1320 mark, however more evidence in this area may be forthcoming in the future.[7]

The oldest extant cannon in Europe is a small bronze example unearthed in Loshult, Scania in southern Sweden.[51] It dates from the early-mid 14th century,[52] and is currently in the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm.

Early cannons in Europe often shot arrows and were known by an assortment of names such as pot-de-fer, tonnoire, ribaldis, and büszenpyle. The ribaldis, which shot large arrows and simplistic grapeshot, were first mentioned in the English Privy Wardrobe accounts during preparations for the Battle of Crécy, between 1345 and 1346.[53] The Florentine Giovanni Villani recounts their destructiveness, indicating that by the end of the battle, "the whole plain was covered by men struck down by arrows and cannon balls".[53] Similar cannon were also used at the Siege of Calais (1346–47), although it was not until the 1380s that the ribaudekin clearly became mounted on wheels.[53]

Early use

The Battle of Crecy which pitted the English against the French in 1346 featured the early use of cannon which helped the longbowmen repulse a large force of Genoese crossbowmen deployed by the French. The English originally intended to use the cannon against cavalry sent to attack their archers, thinking that the loud noises produced by their cannon would panic the advancing horses along with killing the knights atop them.[54][page needed]

Early cannons could also be used for more than simply killing men and scaring horses. English cannon were used defensively in 1346 during the Siege of Breteuil to launch fire onto an advancing siege tower. In this way cannons could be used to burn down siege equipment before it reached the fortifications. The use of cannons to shoot fire could also be used offensively as another battle involved the setting of a castle ablaze with similar methods. The particular incendiary used in these projectiles was most likely a gunpowder mixture. This is one area where early Chinese and European cannons share a similarity as both were possibly used to shoot fire.[54]

Another aspect of early European cannons is that they were rather small, dwarfed by the bombards which would come later. In fact, it is possible that the cannons used at Crécy were capable of being moved rather quickly as there is an anonymous chronicle that notes the guns being used to attack the French camp, indicating that they would have been mobile enough to press the attack. These smaller cannons would eventually give way to larger, wall-breaching guns by the end of the 1300s.[54]

Islamic world

 
The Dardanelles Gun, a 1464 Ottoman bombard
 
Malik E Maidan, a 16th-century cannon, was effectively used by the Deccan sultanates, and was the largest cannon operated during the Battle of Talikota.

There is no clear consensus on when the cannon first appeared in the Islamic world, with dates ranging from 1260 to the mid-14th century. The cannon may have appeared in the Islamic world in the late 13th century, with Ibn Khaldun in the 14th century stating that cannons were used in the Maghreb region of North Africa in 1274, and other Arabic military treatises in the 14th century referring to the use of cannon by Mamluk forces in 1260 and 1303, and by Muslim forces at the 1324 Siege of Huesca in Spain. However, some scholars do not accept these early dates. While the date of its first appearance is not entirely clear, the general consensus among most historians is that there is no doubt the Mamluk forces were using cannon by 1342.[5] Other accounts may have also mentioned the use of cannon in the early 14th century. An Arabic text dating to 1320–1350 describes a type of gunpowder weapon called a midfa which uses gunpowder to shoot projectiles out of a tube at the end of a stock.[55] Some scholars consider this a hand cannon while others dispute this claim.[56][57] The Nasrid army besieging Elche in 1331 made use of "iron pellets shot with fire".[58]

According to historian Ahmad Y. al-Hassan, during the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, the Mamluks used cannon against the Mongols. He claims that this was "the first cannon in history" and used a gunpowder formula almost identical to the ideal composition for explosive gunpowder. He also argues that this was not known in China or Europe until much later.[59][60] Al-Hassan further claims that the earliest textual evidence of cannon is from the Middle East, based on earlier originals which report hand-held cannons being used by the Mamluks at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260.[59] Such an early date is not accepted by some historians,[5] including David Ayalon, Iqtidar Alam Khan, Joseph Needham and Tonio Andrade. Khan argues that it was the Mongols who introduced gunpowder to the Islamic world,[61] and believes cannon only reached Mamluk Egypt in the 1370s.[62] Needham argued that the term midfa, dated to textual sources from 1342 to 1352, did not refer to true hand-guns or bombards, and that contemporary accounts of a metal-barrel cannon in the Islamic world did not occur until 1365.[63] Similarly, Andrade dates the textual appearance of cannons in middle eastern sources to the 1360s.[13] Gabor Ágoston and David Ayalon note that the Mamluks had certainly used siege cannons by 1342[5] or the 1360s, respectively, but earlier uses of cannons in the Islamic World are vague with a possible appearance in the Emirate of Granada by the 1320s and 1330s, though evidence is inconclusive.[64][13]

Ibn Khaldun reported the use of cannon as siege machines by the Marinid sultan Abu Yaqub Yusuf at the siege of Sijilmasa in 1274.[59][65] The passage by Ibn Khaldun on the Marinid Siege of Sijilmassa in 1274 occurs as follows: "[The Sultan] installed siege engines ... and gunpowder engines ..., which project small balls of iron. These balls are ejected from a chamber ... placed in front of a kindling fire of gunpowder; this happens by a strange property which attributes all actions to the power of the Creator."[48] The source is not contemporary and was written a century later around 1382. Its interpretation has been rejected as anachronistic by some historians, who urge caution regarding claims of Islamic firearms use in the 1204–1324 period as late medieval Arabic texts used the same word for gunpowder, naft, as they did for an earlier incendiary, naphtha.[66][64] Ágoston and Peter Purton note that in the 1204–1324 period, late medieval Arabic texts used the same word for gunpowder, naft, that they used for an earlier incendiary, naphtha.[67] Needham believes Ibn Khaldun was speaking of fire lances rather than hand cannon.[68]

The Ottoman Empire made good use of cannon as siege artillery. Sixty-eight super-sized bombards were used by Mehmed the Conqueror to capture Constantinople in 1453. Jim Bradbury argues that Urban, a Hungarian cannon engineer, introduced this cannon from Central Europe to the Ottoman realm;[69] according to Paul Hammer, however, it could have been introduced from other Islamic countries which had earlier used cannons.[65] These cannon could fire heavy stone balls a mile, and the sound of their blast could reportedly be heard from a distance of 10 miles (16 km).[69] Shkodëran historian Marin Barleti discusses Turkish bombards at length in his book De obsidione Scodrensi (1504), describing the 1478–79 siege of Shkodra in which eleven bombards and two mortars were employed. The Ottomans also used cannon to control passage of ships through the Bosphorus strait.[70] Ottoman cannons also proved effective at stopping crusaders at Varna in 1444 and Kosovo in 1448 despite the presence of European cannon in the former case.[70]

The similar Dardanelles Guns (for the location) were created by Munir Ali in 1464 and were still in use during the Anglo-Turkish War (1807–1809).[15] These were cast in bronze into two parts: the chase (the barrel) and the breech, which combined weighed 18.4 tonnes.[71] The two parts were screwed together using levers to facilitate moving it.

Fathullah Shirazi, a Persian inhabitant of India who worked for Akbar in the Mughal Empire, developed a volley gun in the 16th century.[72]

While there is evidence of cannons in Iran as early as 1405 they were not widespread.[73] This changed following the increased use of firearms by Shah Ismail I, and the Iranian army used 500 cannons by the 1620s, probably captured from the Ottomans or acquired by allies in Europe.[74] By 1443, Iranians were also making some of their own cannon, as Mir Khawand wrote of a 1200 kg metal piece being made by an Iranian rikhtegar which was most likely a cannon.[75] Due to the difficulties of transporting cannon in mountainous terrain, their use was less common compared to their use in Europe.[74]

Eastern Europe

Documentary evidence of cannons in Russia does not appear until 1382 and they were used only in sieges, often by the defenders.[76] It was not until 1475 when Ivan III established the first Russian cannon foundry in Moscow that they began to produce cannons natively.[77] The earliest surviving cannon from Russia dates to 1485.[78]

Later on large cannons were known as bombards, ranging from three to five feet in length and were used by Dubrovnik and Kotor in defence during the later 14th century. The first bombards were made of iron, but bronze became more prevalent as it was recognized as more stable and capable of propelling stones weighing as much as 45 kilograms (99 lb). Around the same period, the Byzantine Empire began to accumulate its own cannon to face the Ottoman Empire, starting with medium-sized cannon 3 feet (0.91 m) long and of 10 in calibre.[79] The earliest reliable recorded use of artillery in the region was against the Ottoman siege of Constantinople in 1396, forcing the Ottomans to withdraw.[79] The Ottomans acquired their own cannon and laid siege to the Byzantine capital again in 1422. By 1453, the Ottomans used 68 Hungarian-made cannon for the 55-day bombardment of the walls of Constantinople, "hurling the pieces everywhere and killing those who happened to be nearby".[79] The largest of their cannons was the Great Turkish Bombard, which required an operating crew of 200 men[80] and 70 oxen, and 10,000 men to transport it.[79] Gunpowder made the formerly devastating Greek fire obsolete, and with the final fall of Constantinople—which was protected by what were once the strongest walls in Europe—on 29 May 1453, "it was the end of an era in more ways than one".[81]

Southeast Asia

 
Collection of Philippine lantaka in a European museum

The Javanese Majapahit Empire was arguably able to encompass much of modern-day Indonesia due to its unique mastery of bronze-smithing and use of a central arsenal fed by a large number of cottage industries within the immediate region. Cannons were introduced to Majapahit when Kublai Khan's Chinese army under the leadership of Ike Mese sought to invade Java in 1293. History of Yuan mentioned that the Mongol used a weapon called p'ao against Daha forces.[82]: 1–2 [36][83]: 244–245 [84]: 220  This weapon is interpreted differently by researchers, it may be a trebuchet that throws thunderclap bombs, firearms, cannons, or rockets. It is possible that the gunpowder weapons carried by the Mongol–Chinese troops amounted to more than one type.[85]: 97 

Thomas Stamford Raffles wrote in The History of Java that in 1247 saka (1325 AD), cannons were widely used in Java especially by the Majapahit. It is recorded that the small kingdoms in Java that sought the protection of Majapahit had to hand over their cannons to the Majapahit.[86]: 106 [87]: 61  Majapahit under Mahapatih (prime minister) Gajah Mada (in office 1331–1364) utilized gunpowder technology obtained from Yuan dynasty for use in naval fleet.[88]: 57 

 
A cannon found from the Brantas river. Made of bronze, with a triangular embossed touch hole. The wooden parts were recently made for display.

Mongol-Chinese gunpowder technology of Yuan dynasty resulted in eastern-style cetbang which is similar to Chinese cannon. Swivel guns however, only developed in the archipelago because of the close maritime relations of the Nusantara archipelago with the territory of West India after 1460 AD, which brought new types of gunpowder weapons to the archipelago, likely through Arab intermediaries. This weapon seems to be cannon and gun of Ottoman tradition, for example the prangi, which is a breech-loading swivel gun. A new type of cetbang, called the western-style cetbang, was derived from the Turkish prangi. Just like prangi, this cetbang is a breech-loading swivel gun made of bronze or iron, firing single rounds or scattershots (a large number of small bullets).[85]: 94–95 

Cannons derived from western-style cetbang can be found in Nusantara, among others were lantaka and lela. Most lantakas were made of bronze and the earliest ones were breech-loaded. There is a trend toward muzzle-loading weapons during colonial times.[89] A pole gun (bedil tombak) was recorded as being used by Java in 1413.[90][91]: 245 

Portuguese and Spanish invaders were unpleasantly surprised and even outgunned on occasion.[92] Circa 1540, the Javanese, always alert to new weapons, found the newly arrived Portuguese weaponry superior to that of the locally made variants. Majapahit-era cetbang cannon were further improved and used in the Demak Sultanate period during the Demak invasion of Portuguese Malacca. During this period, the iron, for manufacturing Javanese cannon was imported from Khorasan in northern Persia. The material was known by Javanese as wesi kurasani (Khorasan iron). When the Portuguese came to the archipelago, they referred to it as berço, which was also used to refer to any breech-loading swivel gun, while the Spaniards called it verso.[93]: 151 

Duarte Barbosa c. 1514 said that the inhabitants of Java were great masters in casting artillery and very good artillerymen. They made many one-pounder cannon (cetbang or rentaka), long muskets, spingarde (arquebus), schioppi (hand cannon), Greek fire, guns (cannon), and other fireworks. Every place was considered excellent in casting artillery, and in the knowledge of using it.[94]: 198 [95]: 224  In 1513, the Javanese fleet led by Pati Unus sailed to attack Portuguese Malacca "with much artillery made in Java, for the Javanese are skilled in founding and casting, and in all works in iron, over and above what they have in India".[96]: 162 [97]: 23  By early 16th century, the Javanese already locally-producing large guns, some of them still survived until the present day and dubbed as "sacred cannon" or "holy cannon". These cannons varied between 180- and 260-pounders, weighing anywhere between 3 and 8 tons, length of them between 3 and 6 m (9.8 and 19.7 ft).[98]

Cannons were used by the Ayutthaya Kingdom in 1352 during its invasion of the Khmer Empire.[99] Within a decade large quantities of gunpowder could be found in the Khmer Empire.[99] By the end of the century firearms were also used by the Trần dynasty.[12]

Saltpeter harvesting was recorded by Dutch and German travelers as being common in even the smallest villages and was collected from the decomposition process of large dung hills specifically piled for the purpose. The Dutch punishment for possession of non-permitted gunpowder appears to have been amputation.[100]: 180–181  Ownership and manufacture of gunpowder was later prohibited by the colonial Dutch occupiers.[101] According to colonel McKenzie quoted in Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles' The History of Java (1817), the purest sulfur was supplied from a crater from a mountain near the straits of Bali.[100]: 180–181 

Africa

In Africa, the Adal Sultanate and the Abyssinian Empire both deployed cannons during the Adal-Abyssinian War. Imported from Arabia, and the wider Islamic world, the Adalites led by Ahmed ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi were the first African power to introduce cannon warfare to the African continent.[102] Later on as the Portuguese Empire entered the war it would supply and train the Abyssinians with cannons, while the Ottoman Empire sent soldiers and cannon to back Adal. The conflict proved, through their use on both sides, the value of firearms such as the matchlock musket, cannon, and the arquebus over traditional weapons.[103]

Offensive and defensive use

While previous smaller guns could burn down structures with fire, larger cannons were so effective that engineers were forced to develop stronger castle walls to prevent their keeps from falling.[54] Nonetheless, cannons were used other purposes than battering down walls as fortifications began using cannons as defensive instruments such as an example in India where the fort of Raicher had gun ports built into its walls to accommodate the use of defensive cannons.[104] In The Art of War, Niccolò Machiavelli opined that field artillery forced an army to take up a defensive posture and this opposed a more ideal offensive stance.[105] Machiavelli's concerns can be seen in the criticisms of Portuguese mortars being used in India during the sixteenth century as lack of mobility was one of the key problems with the design.[106] In Russia the early cannons were again placed in forts as a defensive tool.[107] Cannon were also difficult to move around in certain types of terrain with mountains providing a great obstacle for them, for these reasons offensives conducted with cannons would be difficult to pull off in places such as Iran.[74]

Early modern period

 
Various 16th-century artillery pieces, including culverin, falconet and mortar

By the 16th century, cannons were made in a great variety of lengths and bore diameters, but the general rule was that the longer the barrel, the longer the range. Some cannons made during this time had barrels exceeding 10 ft (3.0 m) in length, and could weigh up to 20,000 pounds (9,100 kg). Consequently, large amounts of gunpowder were needed to allow them to fire stone balls several hundred yards.[108] By mid-century, European monarchs began to classify cannons to reduce the confusion. Henry II of France opted for six sizes of cannon,[109] but others settled for more; the Spanish used twelve sizes, and the English sixteen. They are, from largest to smallest: the cannon royal, cannon, cannon serpentine, bastard cannon, demicannon, pedrero, culverin, basilisk, demiculverin, bastard culverin, saker, minion, falcon, falconet, serpentine, and rabinet.[110][111] Better powder had been developed by this time as well. Instead of the finely ground powder used by the first bombards, powder was replaced by a "corned" variety of coarse grains. This coarse powder had pockets of air between grains, allowing fire to travel through and ignite the entire charge quickly and uniformly.[112]

The end of the Middle Ages saw the construction of larger, more powerful cannon, as well as their spread throughout the world. As they were not effective at breaching the newer fortifications resulting from the development of cannon, siege engines—such as siege towers and trebuchets—became less widely used. However, wooden "battery-towers" took on a similar role as siege towers in the gunpowder age—such as that used at Siege of Kazan in 1552, which could hold ten large-calibre cannon, in addition to 50 lighter pieces.[113] Another notable effect of cannon on warfare during this period was the change in conventional fortifications. Niccolò Machiavelli wrote, "There is no wall, whatever its thickness that artillery will not destroy in only a few days."[114] Although castles were not immediately made obsolete by cannon, their use and importance on the battlefield rapidly declined.[115] Instead of majestic towers and merlons, the walls of new fortresses were thick, angled, and sloped, while towers became low and stout; increasing use was also made of earth and brick in breastworks and redoubts. These new defences became known as bastion forts, after their characteristic shape which attempted to force any advance towards it directly into the firing line of the guns.[115] A few of these featured cannon batteries, such as the House of Tudor's Device Forts in England.[115] Bastion forts soon replaced castles in Europe and, eventually, those in the Americas as well.[116]

By the end of the 15th century, several technological advancements made cannons more mobile. Wheeled gun carriages and trunnions became common, and the invention of the limber further facilitated transportation.[117] As a result, field artillery became more viable, and began to see more widespread use, often alongside the larger cannons intended for sieges.[117][118] Better gunpowder, cast-iron projectiles (replacing stone), and the standardisation of calibres meant that even relatively light cannons could be deadly.[117] In The Art of War, Niccolò Machiavelli observed that "It is true that the arquebuses and the small artillery do much more harm than the heavy artillery."[114] This was the case at the Battle of Flodden, in 1513: the English field guns outfired the Scottish siege artillery, firing two or three times as many rounds.[119] Despite the increased maneuverability, however, cannon were still the slowest component of the army: a heavy English cannon required 23 horses to transport, while a culverin needed nine. Even with this many animals pulling, they still moved at a walking pace. Due to their relatively slow speed, and lack of organisation, and undeveloped tactics, the combination of pike and shot still dominated the battlefields of Europe.[120]

Innovations continued, notably the German invention of the mortar, a thick-walled, short-barrelled gun that blasted shot upward at a steep angle. Mortars were useful for sieges, as they could hit targets behind walls or other defences.[121] This cannon found more use with the Dutch, who learnt to shoot bombs filled with powder from them. Setting the bomb fuse was a problem. "Single firing" was first used to ignite the fuse, where the bomb was placed with the fuse down against the cannon's propellant. This often resulted in the fuse being blown into the bomb, causing it to blow up as it left the mortar. Because of this, "double firing" was tried where the gunner lit the fuse and then the touch hole. This, however, required considerable skill and timing, and was especially dangerous if the gun misfired, leaving a lighted bomb in the barrel. Not until 1650 was it accidentally discovered that double-lighting was superfluous as the heat of firing would light the fuse.[122]

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden emphasised the use of light cannon and mobility in his army, and created new formations and tactics that revolutionised artillery. He discontinued using all 12 pounder—or heavier—cannon as field artillery, preferring, instead, to use cannons that could be handled by only a few men. One obsolete type of gun, the "leatheren", was replaced by 4 pounder and 9 pounder demi-culverins. These could be operated by three men, and pulled by only two horses. Gustavus Adolphus's army was also the first to use a cartridge that contained both powder and shot which sped up reloading, increasing the rate of fire.[123] Finally, against infantry he pioneered the use of canister shot—essentially a tin can filled with musket balls.[124] Until then there was no more than one cannon for every thousand infantrymen on the battlefield but Gustavus Adolphus increased the number of cannons sixfold. Each regiment was assigned two pieces, though he often arranged them into batteries instead of distributing them piecemeal. He used these batteries to break his opponent's infantry line, while his cavalry would outflank their heavy guns.[125]

At the Battle of Breitenfeld, in 1631, Adolphus proved the effectiveness of the changes made to his army, by defeating Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly. Although severely outnumbered, the Swedes were able to fire between three and five times as many volleys of artillery, and their infantry's linear formations helped ensure they did not lose any ground. Battered by cannon fire, and low on morale, Tilly's men broke ranks and fled.[126]

In England, cannons were being used to besiege various fortified buildings during the English Civil War. Nathaniel Nye is recorded as testing a Birmingham cannon in 1643 and experimenting with a saker in 1645.[127] From 1645 he was the master gunner to the Parliamentarian garrison at Evesham and in 1646 he successfully directed the artillery at the Siege of Worcester, detailing his experiences and in his 1647 book The Art of Gunnery.[127] Believing that war was as much a science as an art,[128] his explanations focused on triangulation, arithmetic, theoretical mathematics,[129] and cartography[127] as well as practical considerations such as the ideal specification for gunpowder or slow matches.[130] His book acknowledged mathematicians such as Robert Recorde and Marcus Jordanus as well as earlier military writers on artillery such as Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia and Thomas (or Francis[131]) Malthus (author of A Treatise on Artificial Fire-Works[132]).[127]

Around this time also came the idea of aiming the cannon to hit a target. Gunners controlled the range of their cannons by measuring the angle of elevation, using a "gunner's quadrant". Cannons did not have sights; therefore, even with measuring tools, aiming was still largely guesswork.[133]

In the latter half of the 17th century, the French engineer Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban introduced a more systematic and scientific approach to attacking gunpowder fortresses, in a time when many field commanders "were notorious dunces in siegecraft".[134] Careful sapping forward, supported by enfilading ricochets, was a key feature of this system, and it even allowed Vauban to calculate the length of time a siege would take.[134] He was also a prolific builder of bastion forts, and did much to popularize the idea of "depth in defence" in the face of cannon.[135] These principles were followed into the mid-19th century, when changes in armaments necessitated greater depth defence than Vauban had provided for. It was only in the years prior to World War I that new works began to break radically away from his designs.[136]

18th and 19th centuries

See also: Naval artillery in the Age of Sail, Field artillery in the American Civil War, and Siege artillery in the American Civil War
 
36-pounder long gun at the ready

The lower tier of 17th-century English ships of the line were usually equipped with demi-cannons, guns that fired a 32-pound (15 kg) solid shot, and could weigh up to 3,400 pounds (1,500 kg).[138] Demi-cannons were capable of firing these heavy metal balls with such force that they could penetrate more than a metre of solid oak, from a distance of 90 m (300 ft), and could dismast even the largest ships at close range.[139] Full cannon fired a 42-pound (19 kg) shot, but were discontinued by the 18th century, as they were too unwieldy. By the end of the 18th century, principles long adopted in Europe specified the characteristics of the Royal Navy's cannon, as well as the acceptable defects, and their severity. The United States Navy tested guns by measuring them, firing them two or three times—termed "proof by powder"—and using pressurized water to detect leaks.[140]

The carronade was adopted by the Royal Navy in 1779; the lower muzzle velocity of the round shot when fired from this cannon was intended to create more wooden splinters when hitting the structure of an enemy vessel, as they were believed to be more deadly than the ball by itself.[141] The carronade was much shorter, and weighed between a third to a quarter of the equivalent long gun; for example, a 32-pounder carronade weighed less than a ton, compared with a 32-pounder long gun, which weighed over 3 tons. The guns were, therefore, easier to handle, and also required less than half as much gunpowder, allowing fewer men to crew them.[142] Carronades were manufactured in the usual naval gun calibres,[143] but were not counted in a ship of the line's rated number of guns. As a result, the classification of Royal Navy vessels in this period can be misleading, as they often carried more cannons than were listed.

 
Illustration by William Simpson shows action in a British artillery battery during the Crimean War with cannon firing and being loaded and men bringing in supplies.

Cannons were crucial in Napoleon's rise to power, and continued to play an important role in his army in later years.[144] During the French Revolution, the unpopularity of the Directory led to riots and rebellions. When over 25,000 royalists led by General Danican assaulted Paris, Paul Barras was appointed to defend the capital; outnumbered five to one and disorganised, the Republicans were desperate.[145] When Napoleon arrived, he reorganised the defences but realised that without cannons the city could not be held. He ordered Joachim Murat to bring the guns from the Sablons artillery park; the Major and his cavalry fought their way to the recently captured cannons, and brought them back to Napoleon. When Danican's poorly trained men attacked, on 13 Vendémiaire 1795 (5 October in the calendar used in France at the time), Napoleon ordered his cannon to fire grapeshot into the mob,[146] an act that became known as the "whiff of grapeshot".[147] The slaughter effectively ended the threat to the new government, while, at the same time, making Bonaparte a famous—and popular—public figure.[146][148] Among the first generals to recognise that artillery was not being used to its full potential, Napoleon often massed his cannon into batteries and introduced several changes into the French artillery, improving it significantly and making it among the finest in Europe.[149][150] Such tactics were successfully used by the French, for example, at the Battle of Friedland, when 66 guns fired a total of 3,000 roundshot and 500 rounds of grapeshot,[149][151] inflicting severe casualties to the Russian forces, whose losses numbered over 20,000 killed and wounded, in total.[152] At the Battle of Waterloo—Napoleon's final battle—the French army had many more artillery pieces than either the British or Prussians. As the battlefield was muddy, recoil caused cannons to bury themselves into the ground after firing, resulting in slow rates of fire, as more effort was required to move them back into an adequate firing position;[153] also, roundshot did not ricochet with as much force from the wet earth.[154] Despite the drawbacks, sustained artillery fire proved deadly during the engagement, especially during the French cavalry attack.[155] The British infantry, having formed infantry squares, took heavy losses from the French guns, while their own cannons fired at the cuirassiers and lancers, when they fell back to regroup. Eventually, the French ceased their assault, after taking heavy losses from the British cannon and musket fire.[156]

In the 1810s and 1820s, greater emphasis was placed on the accuracy of long-range gunfire, and less on the weight of a broadside. Around 1822, George Marshall wrote Marshall's Practical Marine Gunnery. The book was used by cannon operators in the United States Navy throughout the 19th century. It listed all the types of cannons and instructions.[157]

The carronade, although initially very successful and widely adopted, disappeared from the Royal Navy in the 1850s after the development of wrought-iron-jacketed steel cannon by William Armstrong and Joseph Whitworth. Nevertheless, carronades were used in the American Civil War.[141][158]

Western cannons during the 19th century became larger, more destructive, more accurate, and could fire at longer range. One example is the American 3-inch (76 mm) wrought-iron, muzzle-loading rifle, or Griffen gun (usually called the 3-inch Ordnance Rifle), used during the American Civil War, which had an effective range of over 1.1 mi (1.8 km). Another is the smoothbore 12-pounder Napoleon, which originated in France in 1853 and was widely used by both sides in the American Civil War. This cannon was renowned for its sturdiness, reliability, firepower, flexibility, relatively lightweight, and range of 1,700 m (5,600 ft).[159]

 
Armstrong gun deployed by Japan during the Boshin war (1868–69).
 
The 1870s de Bange 90 mm cannon on the yard of Eastern Finland military office in Mikkeli, South Savonia, Finland

The practice of rifling—casting spiralling lines inside the cannon's barrel—was applied to artillery more frequently by 1855, as it gave cannon projectiles gyroscopic stability, which improved their accuracy. One of the earliest rifled cannons was the breech-loading Armstrong Gun—also invented by William Armstrong—which boasted significantly improved range, accuracy, and power than earlier weapons. The projectile fired from the Armstrong gun could reportedly pierce through a ship's side and explode inside the enemy vessel, causing increased damage and casualties.[160] The British military adopted the Armstrong gun, and was impressed; the Duke of Cambridge even declared that it "could do everything but speak".[161] Despite being significantly more advanced than its predecessors, the Armstrong gun was rejected soon after its integration, in favour of the muzzle-loading pieces that had been in use before.[162] While both types of gun were effective against wooden ships, neither had the capability to pierce the armour of ironclads; due to reports of slight problems with the breeches of the Armstrong gun, and their higher cost, the older muzzle-loaders were selected to remain in service instead.[163] Realising that iron was more difficult to pierce with breech-loaded cannons, Armstrong designed rifled muzzle-loading guns,[164] which proved successful; The Times reported: "even the fondest believers in the invulnerability of our present ironclads were obliged to confess that against such artillery, at such ranges, their plates and sides were almost as penetrable as wooden ships."[165]

The superior cannon of the Western world brought them tremendous advantages in warfare. For example, in the First Opium War in China, during the 19th century, British battleships bombarded the coastal areas and fortifications from afar, safe from the reach of the Chinese cannons. Similarly, the shortest war in recorded history, the Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896, was brought to a swift conclusion by shelling from British cruisers.[166] The cynical attitude towards recruited infantry in the face of ever more powerful field artillery is the source of the term cannon fodder, first used by François-René de Chateaubriand, in 1814;[167] however, the concept of regarding soldiers as nothing more than "food for powder" was mentioned by William Shakespeare as early as 1598, in Henry IV, Part 1.[168]

20th and 21st centuries

 
Comparison of 1888 and 1913 German cannon

Cannons in the 20th and 21st centuries are usually divided into sub-categories and given separate names. Some of the most widely used types of modern cannon are howitzers, mortars, guns, and autocannon, although a few very large-calibre cannon, custom-designed, have also been constructed. Nuclear artillery was experimented with, but was abandoned as impractical.[169] Modern artillery is used in a variety of roles, depending on its type. According to NATO, the general role of artillery is to provide fire support, which is defined as "the application of fire, coordinated with the manoeuvre of forces to destroy, neutralize, or suppress the enemy".[170]

When referring to cannons, the term gun is often used incorrectly. In military usage, a gun is a cannon with a high muzzle velocity and a flat trajectory, useful for hitting the sides of targets such as walls,[171] as opposed to howitzers or mortars, which have lower muzzle velocities, and fire indirectly, lobbing shells up and over obstacles to hit the target from above.[172][173]

Main article: Artillery

By the early 20th century, infantry weapons had become more powerful, forcing most artillery away from the front lines. Despite the change to indirect fire, cannons proved highly effective during World War I, directly or indirectly causing over 75% of casualties.[174] The onset of trench warfare after the first few months of World War I greatly increased the demand for howitzers, as they were more suited at hitting targets in trenches. Furthermore, their shells carried more explosives than those of guns, and caused considerably less barrel wear. The German army had the advantage here as they began the war with many more howitzers than the French.[175] World War I also saw the use of the Paris Gun, the longest-ranged gun ever fired. This 200 mm (8 in) calibre gun was used by the Germans against Paris and could hit targets more than 122 km (76 mi) away.[176]

The Second World War sparked new developments in cannon technology. Among them were sabot rounds, hollow-charge projectiles, and proximity fuses, all of which increased the effectiveness of cannon against specific target.[177] The proximity fuse emerged on the battlefields of Europe in late December 1944.[178] Used to great effect in anti-aircraft projectiles, proximity fuses were fielded in both the European and Pacific Theatres of Operations; they were particularly useful against V-1 flying bombs and kamikaze planes. Although widely used in naval warfare, and in anti-air guns, both the British and Americans feared unexploded proximity fuses would be reverse engineered, leading to them limiting their use in continental battles. During the Battle of the Bulge, however, the fuses became known as the American artillery's "Christmas present" for the German army because of their effectiveness against German personnel in the open, when they frequently dispersed attacks.[179] Anti-tank guns were also tremendously improved during the war: in 1939, the British used primarily 2 pounder and 6 pounder guns. By the end of the war, 17 pounders had proven much more effective against German tanks, and 32 pounders had entered development.[180][181] Meanwhile, German tanks were continuously upgraded with better main guns, in addition to other improvements. For example, the Panzer III was originally designed with a 37 mm gun, but was mass-produced with a 50 mm cannon.[182] To counter the threat of the Russian T-34s, another, more powerful 50 mm gun was introduced,[182] only to give way to a larger 75 mm cannon, which was in a fixed mount as the StuG III, the most-produced German World War II armoured fighting vehicle of any type.[183] Despite the improved guns, production of the Panzer III was ended in 1943, as the tank still could not match the T-34, and was replaced by the Panzer IV and Panther tanks.[184] In 1944, the 8.8 cm KwK 43 and many variations, entered service with the Wehrmacht, and was used as both a tank main gun, and as the PaK 43 anti-tank gun.[185][186] One of the most powerful guns to see service in World War II, it was capable of destroying any Allied tank at very long ranges.[187][188]

 
USS Iowa firing her 16 in (41 cm) guns

Despite being designed to fire at trajectories with a steep angle of descent, howitzers can be fired directly, as was done by the 11th Marine Regiment at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, during the Korean War. Two field batteries fired directly upon a battalion of Chinese infantry; the Marines were forced to brace themselves against their howitzers, as they had no time to dig them in. The Chinese infantry took heavy casualties, and were forced to retreat.[189]

The tendency to create larger calibre cannons during the World Wars has reversed since. The United States Army, for example, sought a lighter, more versatile howitzer, to replace their ageing pieces. As it could be towed, the M198 was selected to be the successor to the World War II–era cannons used at the time, and entered service in 1979.[190] Still in use today, the M198 is, in turn, being slowly replaced by the M777 Ultralightweight howitzer, which weighs nearly half as much and can be more easily moved. Although land-based artillery such as the M198 are powerful, long-ranged, and accurate, naval guns have not been neglected, despite being much smaller than in the past, and, in some cases, having been replaced by cruise missiles.[191] However, the Zumwalt-class destroyer's planned armament included the Advanced Gun System (AGS), a pair of 155 mm guns, which fire the Long Range Land-Attack Projectile. The warhead, which weighted 24 pounds (11 kg), had a circular error of probability of 50 m (160 ft), and was mounted on a rocket, to increase the effective range to 100 nmi (190 km), further than that of the Paris Gun. The AGS's barrels would be water cooled, and fire 10 rounds per minute, per gun. The combined firepower from both turrets would give a Zumwalt-class destroyer the firepower equivalent to 18 conventional M198 howitzers.[192][193] The reason for the re-integration of cannons as a main armament in United States Navy ships was because satellite-guided munitions fired from a gun would be less expensive than a cruise missile but have a similar guidance capability.[191]

Autocannon

Main article: Autocannon
 
A large bore Maxim on USS Vixen c. 1898

Autocannons have an automatic firing mode, similar to that of a machine gun. They have mechanisms to automatically load their ammunition, and therefore have a higher rate of fire than artillery, often approaching, or, in the case of rotary autocannons, even surpassing the firing rate of a machine gun.[194] While there is no minimum bore for autocannons, they are generally larger than machine guns, typically 20 mm or greater since World War II and are usually capable of using explosive ammunition even if it is not always used. Machine guns in contrast are usually too small to use explosive ammunition;[195] such ammunition is additionally banned in international conflict for the parties to the Saint Petersburg Declaration of 1868.

Most nations use rapid-fire cannon on light vehicles, replacing a more powerful, but heavier, tank gun. A typical autocannon is the 25 mm "Bushmaster" chain gun, mounted on the LAV-25 and M2 Bradley armoured vehicles. Autocannons may be capable of a very high rate of fire, but ammunition is heavy and bulky, limiting the amount carried. For this reason, both the 25 mm Bushmaster and the 30 mm RARDEN are deliberately designed with relatively low rates of fire. The typical rate of fire for a modern autocannon ranges from 90 to 1,800 rounds per minute. Systems with multiple barrels, such as a rotary autocannon, can have rates of fire of more than several thousand rounds per minute. The fastest of these is the GSh-6-23, which has a rate of fire of over 10,000 rounds per minute.[194]

Autocannons are often found in aircraft, where they replaced machine guns and as shipboard anti-aircraft weapons, as they provide greater destructive power than machine guns.[196]

Aircraft use

Main article: Aircraft artillery

The first documented installation of a cannon on an aircraft was on the Voisin Canon in 1911, displayed at the Paris Exposition that year. By World War I, all of the major powers were experimenting with aircraft-mounted cannons; however their low rate of fire and great size and weight precluded any of them from being anything other than experimental. The most successful (or least unsuccessful) was the SPAD 12 Ca.1 with a single 37mm Puteaux mounted to fire between the cylinder banks and through the propeller boss of the aircraft's Hispano-Suiza 8C. The pilot (by necessity an ace) had to manually reload each round.[197]

The first autocannon were developed during World War I as anti-aircraft guns, and one of these, the Coventry Ordnance Works "COW 37 mm gun", was installed in an aircraft. However, the war ended before it could be given a field trial, and it never became standard equipment in a production aircraft. Later trials had it fixed at a steep angle upwards in both the Vickers Type 161 and the Westland C.O.W. Gun Fighter, an idea that would return later.

During this period autocannons became available and several fighters of the German Luftwaffe and the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service were fitted with 20 mm cannons. They continued to be installed as an adjunct to machine guns rather than as a replacement, as the rate of fire was still too low and the complete installation too heavy. There was a some debate in the RAF as to whether the greater number of possible rounds being fired from a machine gun, or a smaller number of explosive rounds from a cannon was preferable. Improvements during the war in regards to rate of fire allowed the cannon to displace the machine gun almost entirely.[196] The cannon was more effective against armour so they were increasingly used during the course of World War II, and newer fighters such as the Hawker Tempest usually carried two or four versus the six .50 Browning machine guns for US aircraft or eight to twelve M1919 Browning machine guns on earlier British aircraft. The Hispano-Suiza HS.404, Oerlikon 20 mm cannon, MG FF, and their numerous variants became among the most widely used autocannon in the war. Cannons, as with machine guns, were generally fixed to fire forwards (mounted in the wings, in the nose or fuselage, or in a pannier under either); or were mounted in gun turrets on heavier aircraft. Both the Germans and Japanese mounted cannons to fire upwards and forwards for use against heavy bombers, with the Germans calling guns so-installed Schräge Musik. This term derives from a German colloquialism for jazz music (the German word schräg means "off-key").

Preceding the Vietnam War the high speeds aircraft were attaining led to a move to remove the cannon due to the mistaken belief that they would be useless in a dogfight, but combat experience during the Vietnam War showed conclusively that despite advances in missiles, there was still a need for them. Nearly all modern fighter aircraft are armed with an autocannon and they are also commonly found on ground-attack aircraft. One of the most powerful examples is the 30mm GAU-8/A Avenger Gatling-type rotary cannon, mounted exclusively on the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II.[196][198] The Lockheed AC-130 gunship (a converted transport) can carry a 105 mm howitzer as well as a variety of autocannons ranging up to 40 mm.[199] Both are used in the close air support role.

Materials, parts, and terms

 
Side elevation of a typical 18th-century cannon

Cannons in general have the form of a truncated cone with an internal cylindrical bore for holding an explosive charge and a projectile. The thickest, strongest, and closed part of the cone is located near the explosive charge. As any explosive charge will dissipate in all directions equally, the thickest portion of the cannon is useful for containing and directing this force. The backward motion of the cannon as its projectile leaves the bore is termed its recoil, and the effectiveness of the cannon can be measured in terms of how much this response can be diminished, though obviously diminishing recoil through increasing the overall mass of the cannon means decreased mobility.

Field artillery cannon in Europe and the Americas were initially made most often of bronze, though later forms were constructed of cast iron and eventually steel.[200]: 61  Bronze has several characteristics that made it preferable as a construction material: although it is relatively expensive, does not always alloy well, and can result in a final product that is "spongy about the bore",[200]: 61  bronze is more flexible than iron and therefore less prone to bursting when exposed to high pressure; cast-iron cannon are less expensive and more durable generally than bronze and withstand being fired more times without deteriorating. However, cast-iron cannon have a tendency to burst without having shown any previous weakness or wear, and this makes them more dangerous to operate.

The older and more-stable forms of cannon were muzzle-loading as opposed to breech-loading—to be used they had to have their ordnance packed down the bore through the muzzle rather than inserted through the breech.

The following terms refer to the components or aspects of a classical western cannon (c. 1850) as illustrated here.[200]: 66  In what follows, the words near, close, and behind will refer to those parts towards the thick, closed end of the piece, and far, front, in front of, and before to the thinner, open end.

Negative spaces

  • Bore: The hollow cylinder bored down the centre of the cannon, including the base of the bore or bottom of the bore, the nearest end of the bore into which the ordnance (wadding, shot, etc.) gets packed. The diameter of the bore represents the cannon's calibre.
  • Chamber: The cylindrical, conical, or spherical recess at the nearest end of the bottom of the bore into which the gunpowder is packed.
  • Vent: A thin tube on the near end of the cannon connecting the explosive charge inside with an ignition source outside and often filled with a length of fuse; always located near the breech. Sometimes called the fuse hole or the touch hole. On the top of the vent on the outside of the cannon is a flat circular space called the vent field where the charge is lit. If the cannon is bronze, it will often have a vent piece made of copper screwed into the length of the vent.

Solid spaces

The main body of a cannon consists of three basic extensions: the foremost and the longest is called the chase, the middle portion is the reinforce, and the closest and briefest portion is the cascabel or cascable.

  • The chase: Simply the entire conical part of the cannon in front of the reinforce. It is the longest portion of the cannon, and includes the following elements:
    • The neck: the narrowest part of the chase, always located near the foremost end of the piece.
    • The muzzle: the portion of the chase forward of the neck. It includes the following:
      • The swell of the muzzle refers to the slight swell in the diameter of the piece at the very end of the chase. It is often chamfered on the inside to make loading the cannon easier. In some guns, this element is replaced with a wide ring and is called a muzzle band.
      • The face is the flat vertical plane at the foremost edge of the muzzle (and of the entire piece).
      • The muzzle mouldings are the tiered rings which connect the face with the rest of the muzzle, the first of which is called the lip and the second the fillet
      • The muzzle astragal and fillets are a series of three narrow rings running around the outside of the chase just behind the neck. Sometimes also collectively called the chase ring.
    • The chase astragal and fillets: these are a second series of such rings located at the near end of the chase.
    • The chase girdle: this is the brief length of the chase between the chase astragal and fillets and the reinforce.
  • The reinforce: This portion of the piece is frequently divided into a first reinforce and a second reinforce, but in any case is marked as separate from the chase by the presence of a narrow circular reinforce ring or band at its foremost end. The span of the reinforce also includes the following:
    • The trunnions are located at the foremost end of the reinforce just behind the reinforce ring. They consist of two cylinders perpendicular to the bore and below it which are used to mount the cannon on its carriage.
    • The rimbases are short broad rings located at the union of the trunnions and the cannon which provide support to the carriage attachment.
    • The reinforce band is only present if the cannon has two reinforces, and it divides the first reinforce from the second.
    • The breech refers to the mass of solid metal behind the bottom of the bore extending to the base of the breech and including the base ring; it also generally refers to the end of the cannon opposite the muzzle, i.e., the location where the explosion of the gunpowder begins as opposed to the opening through which the pressurized gas escapes.
    • The base ring forms a ring at the widest part of the entire cannon at the nearest end of the reinforce just before the cascabel.
  • The cascabel: This is that portion of the cannon behind the reinforce(s) and behind the base ring. It includes the following:
    • The knob which is the small spherical terminus of the piece;
    • The neck, a short, narrow piece of metal holding out the knob; and
    • The fillet, the tiered disk connecting the neck of the cascabel to the base of the breech.
    • The base of the breech is the metal disk that forms the most forward part of the cascabel and rests against the breech itself, right next to the base ring.

To pack a muzzle-loading cannon, first gunpowder is poured down the bore. This is followed by a layer of wadding (often nothing more than paper), and then the cannonball itself. A certain amount of windage allows the ball to fit down the bore, though the greater the windage the less efficient the propulsion of the ball when the gunpowder is ignited. To fire the cannon, the fuse located in the vent is lit, quickly burning down to the gunpowder, which then explodes violently, propelling wadding and ball down the bore and out of the muzzle. A small portion of exploding gas also escapes through the vent, but this does not dramatically affect the total force exerted on the ball.

Any large, smoothbore, muzzle-loading gun—used before the advent of breech-loading, rifled guns—may be referred to as a cannon, though once standardised names were assigned to different-sized cannon, the term specifically referred to a gun designed to fire a 42-pound (19 kg) shot, as distinct from a demi-cannon – 32 pounds (15 kg), culverin – 18 pounds (8.2 kg), or demi-culverin – 9 pounds (4.1 kg). Gun specifically refers to a type of cannon that fires projectiles at high speeds, and usually at relatively low angles;[171] they have been used in warships,[201] and as field artillery.[202] The term cannon is also used for autocannon, a modern repeating weapon firing explosive projectiles. Cannon have been used extensively in fighter aircraft since World War II.[196]

Operation

Main article: Cannon operation
 
The parts of a cannon described in John Roberts' The Compleat Cannoniere, London, 1652
Firing of a field gun of the early 17th century with a linstock

In the 1770s, cannon operation worked as follows: each cannon would be manned by two gunners, six soldiers, and four officers of artillery. The right gunner was to prime the piece and load it with powder, and the left gunner would fetch the powder from the magazine and be ready to fire the cannon at the officer's command. On each side of the cannon, three soldiers stood, to ram and sponge the cannon, and hold the ladle. The second soldier on the left was tasked with providing 50 bullets.[203]

Before loading, the cannon would be cleaned with a wet sponge to extinguish any smouldering material from the last shot. Fresh powder could be set off prematurely by lingering ignition sources. The powder was added, followed by wadding of paper or hay, and the ball was placed in and rammed down. After ramming, the cannon would be aimed with the elevation set using a quadrant and a plummet. At 45 degrees, the ball had the utmost range: about ten times the gun's level range. Any angle above a horizontal line was called random-shot. Wet sponges were used to cool the pieces every ten or twelve rounds.[203]

 
Firing of a 6-pound cannon

During the Napoleonic Wars, a British gun team consisted of five gunners to aim it, clean the bore with a damp sponge to quench any remaining embers before a fresh charge was introduced, and another to load the gun with a bag of powder and then the projectile. The fourth gunner pressed his thumb on the vent hole, to prevent a draught that might fan a flame. The charge loaded, the fourth would prick the bagged charge through the vent hole, and fill the vent with powder. On command, the fifth gunner would fire the piece with a slow match.[204] Friction primers replaced slow match ignition by the mid-19th century.[205]

When a cannon had to be abandoned such as in a retreat or surrender, the touch hole of the cannon would be plugged flush with an iron spike, disabling the cannon (at least until metal boring tools could be used to remove the plug). This was called "spiking the cannon".

A gun was said to be honeycombed when the surface of the bore had cavities, or holes in it,[206] caused either by corrosion or casting defects.

Legal considerations

In the United States, muzzleloading cannons are not subject to any regulations at the federal level. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, muzzleloading cannons made before 1899 (and replicas) that are unable to fire fixed ammunition are considered antiques. They are not subject to the Gun Control Act (GCA) of 1968 or National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934.[207] Muzzleloading cannons may be subject to state of local rules in some jurisdictions, however.

Deceptive use

Main articles: Quaker gun and Military deception

Historically, logs or poles have been used as decoys to mislead the enemy as to the strength of an emplacement. The "Quaker Gun trick" was used by Colonel William Washington's Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War; in 1780, approximately 100 Loyalists surrendered to them, rather than face bombardment.[208] During the American Civil War, Quaker guns were also used by the Confederates, to compensate for their shortage of artillery. The decoy cannon were painted black at the "muzzle", and positioned behind fortifications to delay Union attacks on those positions. On occasion, real gun carriages were used to complete the deception.[209]

In popular culture

Cannon sounds have sometimes been used in classical pieces with a military theme. One of the best known examples of such a piece is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.[210] The overture is to be performed using an artillery section together with the orchestra, resulting in noise levels high enough that musicians are required to wear ear protection.[211] The cannon fire simulates Russian artillery bombardments of the Battle of Borodino, a critical battle in Napoleon's invasion of Russia, whose defeat the piece celebrates.[211] When the overture was first performed, the cannon were fired by an electric current triggered by the conductor.[212] However, the overture was not recorded with real cannon fire until Mercury Records and conductor Antal Doráti's 1958 recording of the Minnesota Orchestra.[213] Cannon fire is also frequently used annually in presentations of the 1812 on the American Independence Day, a tradition started by Arthur Fiedler of the Boston Pops in 1974.[211][214]

The hard rock band AC/DC also used cannon in their song "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)",[215] and in live shows replica Napoleonic cannon and pyrotechnics were used to perform the piece.[215] A recording of that song has accompanied the firing of an authentic reproduction of a M1857 12-pounder Napoleon during Columbus Blue Jackets goal celebrations at Nationwide Arena since opening night of the 2007–08 season. The cannon is located behind the last row of section 111 and the focal point of the team's alternate logo on its third jerseys.[216][217][218]

Cannons have been fired in touchdown celebrations by several American football teams including the San Diego Chargers.[219] The Pittsburgh Steelers used one only during the 1962 campaign but discontinued it after Buddy Dial was startled as a result of inadvertently running face-first into the cannon's smoky discharge in a 42–27 loss to the Dallas Cowboys at Forbes Field on October 21.[220]

Restoration

Cannon recovered from the sea are often extensively damaged from exposure to salt water; because of this, electrolytic reduction treatment is required to forestall the process of corrosion.[221] The cannon is then washed in deionized water to remove the electrolyte, and is treated in tannic acid, which prevents further rust and gives the metal a bluish-black colour.[222][223] After this process, cannon on display may be protected from oxygen and moisture by a wax sealant. A coat of polyurethane may also be painted over the wax sealant, to prevent the wax-coated cannon from attracting dust in outdoor displays.[223] In 2011, archaeologists say six cannon recovered from a river in Panama that could have belonged to legendary pirate Henry Morgan are being studied and could eventually be displayed after going through a restoration process.[224]

Notes

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  2. ^ Andrade 2016, p. 330.
  3. ^ Chase 2003, p. 32.
  4. ^ Needham 1986, p. 293.
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  17. ^ Kelly 2004, p. 66.
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External links

 
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Cannon (category)
 
Look up cannon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
  • Artillery Tactics and Combat during the Napoleonic Wars
  • U.S. Patent 5,236 – Patent for a Casting ordnance
  • U.S. Patent 6,612 – Cannon patent
  • U.S. Patent 13,851 – Muzzle loading ordnance patent
  • Historic Cannons of San Francisco

May 05, 2023
cannon, confused, with, canon, other, uses, disambiguation, cannon, large, caliber, classified, type, artillery, which, usually, launches, projectile, using, explosive, chemical, propellant, gunpowder, black, powder, primary, propellant, before, invention, smo. Not to be confused with Canon For other uses see Cannon disambiguation 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 depiction of cannons appeared in Song dynasty China as early as the 12th century however solid archaeological and documentary evidence of cannons do not appear until the 13th century 1 In 1288 Yuan dynasty troops are recorded to have used hand cannon in combat and the earliest extant cannon bearing a date of production comes from the same period 2 3 4 By the early 14th century possible mentions of cannon had appeared in the Middle East 5 and the depiction of one in Europe by 1326 Recorded usage of cannon began appearing almost immediately after 6 7 They subsequently spread to India their usage on the subcontinent being first attested to in 1366 8 By the end of the 14th century cannons were widespread throughout Eurasia 9 10 11 12 13 13 Cannons were used primarily as anti infantry weapons until around 1374 when large cannons were recorded to have breached walls for the first time in Europe 14 Cannons featured prominently as siege weapons and ever larger pieces appeared In 1464 a 16 000 kg 35 000 lb cannon known as the Great Turkish Bombard was created in the Ottoman Empire 15 Cannons as field artillery became more important after 1453 with the introduction of limber which greatly improved cannon maneuverability and mobility 16 17 European cannons reached their longer lighter more accurate and more efficient classic form around 1480 This classic European cannon design stayed relatively consistent in form with minor changes until the 1750s 18 Contents 1 Etymology and terminology 2 History 2 1 East Asia 2 2 Western Europe 2 2 1 Early use 2 3 Islamic world 2 4 Eastern Europe 2 5 Southeast Asia 2 6 Africa 2 7 Offensive and defensive use 2 8 Early modern period 2 9 18th and 19th centuries 2 10 20th and 21st centuries 2 10 1 Autocannon 2 10 2 Aircraft use 3 Materials parts and terms 3 1 Negative spaces 3 2 Solid spaces 4 Operation 4 1 Legal considerations 5 Deceptive use 6 In popular culture 7 Restoration 8 Notes 9 References 10 External linksEtymology and terminologyThe word cannon is derived from the Old Italian word cannone meaning large tube which came from Latin canna in turn originating from the Greek kanna kanna reed 19 and then generalised to mean any hollow tube like object cognate with Akkadian qanu m 20 and Hebrew qaneh tube reed 21 22 23 The word has been used to refer to a gun since 1326 in Italy and 1418 in England Both of the plural forms cannons and cannon are correct 21 24 HistoryMain article History of cannon Further information on the historical use of gunpowder in general History of gunpowder and Timeline of the Gunpowder Age Bronze cannon with inscription dated the 3rd year of the Zhiyuan era 1332 of the Yuan Dynasty 1271 1368 it was discovered at the Yunju Temple of Fangshan District Beijing in 1935 East Asia Main article Gunpowder artillery in the Song dynasty Further information on development of gunpowder warfare in China Science and technology of the Song dynasty A bronze thousand ball thunder cannon from the Huolongjing The cannon may have appeared as early as the 12th century in China 1 and was probably a parallel development or evolution of the fire lance a short ranged anti personnel weapon combining a gunpowder filled tube and a polearm of some sort 25 Co viative projectiles such as iron scraps or porcelain shards were placed in fire lance barrels at some point 26 and eventually the paper and bamboo materials of fire lance barrels were replaced by metal 27 The earliest known depiction of a cannon is a sculpture from the Dazu Rock Carvings in Sichuan dated to 1128 1 however the earliest archaeological samples and textual accounts do not appear until the 13th century The primary extant specimens of cannon from the 13th century are the Wuwei Bronze Cannon dated to 1227 the Heilongjiang hand cannon dated to 1288 and the Xanadu Gun dated to 1298 However only the Xanadu gun contains an inscription bearing a date of production so it is considered the earliest confirmed extant cannon The Xanadu Gun is 34 7 cm in length and weighs 6 2 kg The other cannons are dated using contextual evidence 28 The Heilongjiang hand cannon is also often considered by some to be the oldest firearm since it was unearthed near the area where the History of Yuan reports a battle took place involving hand cannons According to the History of Yuan in 1288 a Jurchen commander by the name of Li Ting led troops armed with hand cannons into battle against the rebel prince Nayan 29 Chen Bingying argues there were no guns before 1259 while Dang Shoushan believes the Wuwei gun and other Western Xia era samples point to the appearance of guns by 1220 and Stephen Haw goes even further by stating that guns were developed as early as 1200 30 Sinologist Joseph Needham and renaissance siege expert Thomas Arnold provide a more conservative estimate of around 1280 for the appearance of the true cannon 31 32 Whether or not any of these are correct it seems likely that the gun was born sometime during the 13th century 33 References to cannons proliferated throughout China in the following centuries Cannon featured in literary pieces In 1341 Xian Zhang wrote a poem called The Iron Cannon Affair describing a cannonball fired from an eruptor which could pierce the heart or belly when striking a man or horse and even transfix several persons at once 34 By the 1350s the cannon was used extensively in Chinese warfare In 1358 the Ming army failed to take a city due to its garrisons usage of cannon however they themselves would use cannon in the thousands later on during the siege of Suzhou in 1366 35 10 11 The Mongol invasion of Java in 1293 brought gunpowder technology to the Nusantara archipelago in the form of cannon Chinese Pao 36 During the Ming dynasty cannons were used in riverine warfare at the Battle of Lake Poyang 37 One shipwreck in Shandong had a cannon dated to 1377 and an anchor dated to 1372 38 From the 13th to 15th centuries cannon armed Chinese ships also travelled throughout Southeast Asia 39 Cannon appeared in Đại Việt by 1390 at the latest 12 The first of the western cannon to be introduced were breech loaders in the early 16th century which the Chinese began producing themselves by 1523 and improved on by including composite metal construction in their making 40 Japan did not acquire cannon until 1510 when a monk brought one back from China and did not produce any in appreciable numbers 41 During the 1593 Siege of Pyongyang 40 000 Ming troops deployed a variety of cannons against Japanese troops Despite their defensive advantage and the use of arquebus by Japanese soldiers the Japanese were at a severe disadvantage due to their lack of cannon Throughout the Japanese invasions of Korea 1592 1598 the Ming Joseon coalition used artillery widely in land and naval battles including on the turtle ships of Yi Sun sin 42 43 According to Ivan Petlin the first Russian envoy to Beijing in September 1619 the city was armed with large cannon with cannonballs weighing more than 30 kg 66 lb His general observation was that the Chinese were militarily capable and had firearms There are many merchants and military persons in the Chinese Empire They have firearms and the Chinese are very skillful in military affairs They go into battle against the Yellow Mongols who fight with bows and arrows 44 Ivan Petlin Western Europe Main article Gunpowder artillery in the Middle Ages Earliest picture of a European cannon De Nobilitatibus Sapientii Et Prudentiis Regum Walter de Milemete 1326 Western European handgun 1380 The first Western image of a battle with cannon the Siege of Orleans in 1429 Cannon from the 15th century at Sibenik city walls Outside of China the earliest texts to mention gunpowder are Roger Bacon s Opus Majus 1267 and Opus Tertium in what has been interpreted as references to firecrackers In the early 20th century a British artillery officer proposed that another work tentatively attributed to Bacon Epistola de Secretis Operibus Artis et Naturae et de Nullitate Magiae dated to 1247 contained an encrypted formula for gunpowder hidden in the text These claims have been disputed by science historians 45 In any case the formula itself is not useful for firearms or even firecrackers burning slowly and producing mostly smoke 46 47 There is a record of a gun in Europe dating to 1322 being discovered in the nineteenth century but the artifact has since been lost 48 The earliest known European depiction of a gun appeared in 1326 in a manuscript by Walter de Milemete although not necessarily drawn by him known as De Nobilitatibus sapientii et prudentiis regum Concerning the Majesty Wisdom and Prudence of Kings which displays a gun with a large arrow emerging from it and its user lowering a long stick to ignite the gun through the touch hole 6 7 In the same year another similar illustration showed a darker gun being set off by a group of knights which also featured in another work of de Milemete s De secretis secretorum Aristotelis 49 On 11 February of that same year the Signoria of Florence appointed two officers to obtain canones de mettallo and ammunition for the town s defense 50 In the following year a document from the Turin area recorded a certain amount was paid for the making of a certain instrument or device made by Friar Marcello for the projection of pellets of lead 7 A reference from 1331 describes an attack mounted by two Germanic knights on Cividale del Friuli using man portable gunpowder weapons of some sort 6 7 The 1320s seem to have been the takeoff point for guns in Europe according to most modern military historians Scholars suggest that the lack of gunpowder weapons in a well traveled Venetian s catalogue for a new crusade in 1321 implies that guns were unknown in Europe up until this point further solidifying the 1320 mark however more evidence in this area may be forthcoming in the future 7 The oldest extant cannon in Europe is a small bronze example unearthed in Loshult Scania in southern Sweden 51 It dates from the early mid 14th century 52 and is currently in the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm Early cannons in Europe often shot arrows and were known by an assortment of names such as pot de fer tonnoire ribaldis and buszenpyle The ribaldis which shot large arrows and simplistic grapeshot were first mentioned in the English Privy Wardrobe accounts during preparations for the Battle of Crecy between 1345 and 1346 53 The Florentine Giovanni Villani recounts their destructiveness indicating that by the end of the battle the whole plain was covered by men struck down by arrows and cannon balls 53 Similar cannon were also used at the Siege of Calais 1346 47 although it was not until the 1380s that the ribaudekin clearly became mounted on wheels 53 Early use The Battle of Crecy which pitted the English against the French in 1346 featured the early use of cannon which helped the longbowmen repulse a large force of Genoese crossbowmen deployed by the French The English originally intended to use the cannon against cavalry sent to attack their archers thinking that the loud noises produced by their cannon would panic the advancing horses along with killing the knights atop them 54 page needed Early cannons could also be used for more than simply killing men and scaring horses English cannon were used defensively in 1346 during the Siege of Breteuil to launch fire onto an advancing siege tower In this way cannons could be used to burn down siege equipment before it reached the fortifications The use of cannons to shoot fire could also be used offensively as another battle involved the setting of a castle ablaze with similar methods The particular incendiary used in these projectiles was most likely a gunpowder mixture This is one area where early Chinese and European cannons share a similarity as both were possibly used to shoot fire 54 Another aspect of early European cannons is that they were rather small dwarfed by the bombards which would come later In fact it is possible that the cannons used at Crecy were capable of being moved rather quickly as there is an anonymous chronicle that notes the guns being used to attack the French camp indicating that they would have been mobile enough to press the attack These smaller cannons would eventually give way to larger wall breaching guns by the end of the 1300s 54 Islamic world The Dardanelles Gun a 1464 Ottoman bombard Malik E Maidan a 16th century cannon was effectively used by the Deccan sultanates and was the largest cannon operated during the Battle of Talikota There is no clear consensus on when the cannon first appeared in the Islamic world with dates ranging from 1260 to the mid 14th century The cannon may have appeared in the Islamic world in the late 13th century with Ibn Khaldun in the 14th century stating that cannons were used in the Maghreb region of North Africa in 1274 and other Arabic military treatises in the 14th century referring to the use of cannon by Mamluk forces in 1260 and 1303 and by Muslim forces at the 1324 Siege of Huesca in Spain However some scholars do not accept these early dates While the date of its first appearance is not entirely clear the general consensus among most historians is that there is no doubt the Mamluk forces were using cannon by 1342 5 Other accounts may have also mentioned the use of cannon in the early 14th century An Arabic text dating to 1320 1350 describes a type of gunpowder weapon called a midfa which uses gunpowder to shoot projectiles out of a tube at the end of a stock 55 Some scholars consider this a hand cannon while others dispute this claim 56 57 The Nasrid army besieging Elche in 1331 made use of iron pellets shot with fire 58 According to historian Ahmad Y al Hassan during the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260 the Mamluks used cannon against the Mongols He claims that this was the first cannon in history and used a gunpowder formula almost identical to the ideal composition for explosive gunpowder He also argues that this was not known in China or Europe until much later 59 60 Al Hassan further claims that the earliest textual evidence of cannon is from the Middle East based on earlier originals which report hand held cannons being used by the Mamluks at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260 59 Such an early date is not accepted by some historians 5 including David Ayalon Iqtidar Alam Khan Joseph Needham and Tonio Andrade Khan argues that it was the Mongols who introduced gunpowder to the Islamic world 61 and believes cannon only reached Mamluk Egypt in the 1370s 62 Needham argued that the term midfa dated to textual sources from 1342 to 1352 did not refer to true hand guns or bombards and that contemporary accounts of a metal barrel cannon in the Islamic world did not occur until 1365 63 Similarly Andrade dates the textual appearance of cannons in middle eastern sources to the 1360s 13 Gabor Agoston and David Ayalon note that the Mamluks had certainly used siege cannons by 1342 5 or the 1360s respectively but earlier uses of cannons in the Islamic World are vague with a possible appearance in the Emirate of Granada by the 1320s and 1330s though evidence is inconclusive 64 13 Ibn Khaldun reported the use of cannon as siege machines by the Marinid sultan Abu Yaqub Yusuf at the siege of Sijilmasa in 1274 59 65 The passage by Ibn Khaldun on the Marinid Siege of Sijilmassa in 1274 occurs as follows The Sultan installed siege engines and gunpowder engines which project small balls of iron These balls are ejected from a chamber placed in front of a kindling fire of gunpowder this happens by a strange property which attributes all actions to the power of the Creator 48 The source is not contemporary and was written a century later around 1382 Its interpretation has been rejected as anachronistic by some historians who urge caution regarding claims of Islamic firearms use in the 1204 1324 period as late medieval Arabic texts used the same word for gunpowder naft as they did for an earlier incendiary naphtha 66 64 Agoston and Peter Purton note that in the 1204 1324 period late medieval Arabic texts used the same word for gunpowder naft that they used for an earlier incendiary naphtha 67 Needham believes Ibn Khaldun was speaking of fire lances rather than hand cannon 68 The Ottoman Empire made good use of cannon as siege artillery Sixty eight super sized bombards were used by Mehmed the Conqueror to capture Constantinople in 1453 Jim Bradbury argues that Urban a Hungarian cannon engineer introduced this cannon from Central Europe to the Ottoman realm 69 according to Paul Hammer however it could have been introduced from other Islamic countries which had earlier used cannons 65 These cannon could fire heavy stone balls a mile and the sound of their blast could reportedly be heard from a distance of 10 miles 16 km 69 Shkoderan historian Marin Barleti discusses Turkish bombards at length in his book De obsidione Scodrensi 1504 describing the 1478 79 siege of Shkodra in which eleven bombards and two mortars were employed The Ottomans also used cannon to control passage of ships through the Bosphorus strait 70 Ottoman cannons also proved effective at stopping crusaders at Varna in 1444 and Kosovo in 1448 despite the presence of European cannon in the former case 70 The similar Dardanelles Guns for the location were created by Munir Ali in 1464 and were still in use during the Anglo Turkish War 1807 1809 15 These were cast in bronze into two parts the chase the barrel and the breech which combined weighed 18 4 tonnes 71 The two parts were screwed together using levers to facilitate moving it Fathullah Shirazi a Persian inhabitant of India who worked for Akbar in the Mughal Empire developed a volley gun in the 16th century 72 While there is evidence of cannons in Iran as early as 1405 they were not widespread 73 This changed following the increased use of firearms by Shah Ismail I and the Iranian army used 500 cannons by the 1620s probably captured from the Ottomans or acquired by allies in Europe 74 By 1443 Iranians were also making some of their own cannon as Mir Khawand wrote of a 1200 kg metal piece being made by an Iranian rikhtegar which was most likely a cannon 75 Due to the difficulties of transporting cannon in mountainous terrain their use was less common compared to their use in Europe 74 Eastern Europe Documentary evidence of cannons in Russia does not appear until 1382 and they were used only in sieges often by the defenders 76 It was not until 1475 when Ivan III established the first Russian cannon foundry in Moscow that they began to produce cannons natively 77 The earliest surviving cannon from Russia dates to 1485 78 Later on large cannons were known as bombards ranging from three to five feet in length and were used by Dubrovnik and Kotor in defence during the later 14th century The first bombards were made of iron but bronze became more prevalent as it was recognized as more stable and capable of propelling stones weighing as much as 45 kilograms 99 lb Around the same period the Byzantine Empire began to accumulate its own cannon to face the Ottoman Empire starting with medium sized cannon 3 feet 0 91 m long and of 10 in calibre 79 The earliest reliable recorded use of artillery in the region was against the Ottoman siege of Constantinople in 1396 forcing the Ottomans to withdraw 79 The Ottomans acquired their own cannon and laid siege to the Byzantine capital again in 1422 By 1453 the Ottomans used 68 Hungarian made cannon for the 55 day bombardment of the walls of Constantinople hurling the pieces everywhere and killing those who happened to be nearby 79 The largest of their cannons was the Great Turkish Bombard which required an operating crew of 200 men 80 and 70 oxen and 10 000 men to transport it 79 Gunpowder made the formerly devastating Greek fire obsolete and with the final fall of Constantinople which was protected by what were once the strongest walls in Europe on 29 May 1453 it was the end of an era in more ways than one 81 Southeast Asia Collection of Philippine lantaka in a European museum The Javanese Majapahit Empire was arguably able to encompass much of modern day Indonesia due to its unique mastery of bronze smithing and use of a central arsenal fed by a large number of cottage industries within the immediate region Cannons were introduced to Majapahit when Kublai Khan s Chinese army under the leadership of Ike Mese sought to invade Java in 1293 History of Yuan mentioned that the Mongol used a weapon called p ao against Daha forces 82 1 2 36 83 244 245 84 220 This weapon is interpreted differently by researchers it may be a trebuchet that throws thunderclap bombs firearms cannons or rockets It is possible that the gunpowder weapons carried by the Mongol Chinese troops amounted to more than one type 85 97 Thomas Stamford Raffles wrote in The History of Java that in 1247 saka 1325 AD cannons were widely used in Java especially by the Majapahit It is recorded that the small kingdoms in Java that sought the protection of Majapahit had to hand over their cannons to the Majapahit 86 106 87 61 Majapahit under Mahapatih prime minister Gajah Mada in office 1331 1364 utilized gunpowder technology obtained from Yuan dynasty for use in naval fleet 88 57 A cannon found from the Brantas river Made of bronze with a triangular embossed touch hole The wooden parts were recently made for display Mongol Chinese gunpowder technology of Yuan dynasty resulted in eastern style cetbang which is similar to Chinese cannon Swivel guns however only developed in the archipelago because of the close maritime relations of the Nusantara archipelago with the territory of West India after 1460 AD which brought new types of gunpowder weapons to the archipelago likely through Arab intermediaries This weapon seems to be cannon and gun of Ottoman tradition for example the prangi which is a breech loading swivel gun A new type of cetbang called the western style cetbang was derived from the Turkish prangi Just like prangi this cetbang is a breech loading swivel gun made of bronze or iron firing single rounds or scattershots a large number of small bullets 85 94 95 Cannons derived from western style cetbang can be found in Nusantara among others were lantaka and lela Most lantakas were made of bronze and the earliest ones were breech loaded There is a trend toward muzzle loading weapons during colonial times 89 A pole gun bedil tombak was recorded as being used by Java in 1413 90 91 245 Portuguese and Spanish invaders were unpleasantly surprised and even outgunned on occasion 92 Circa 1540 the Javanese always alert to new weapons found the newly arrived Portuguese weaponry superior to that of the locally made variants Majapahit era cetbang cannon were further improved and used in the Demak Sultanate period during the Demak invasion of Portuguese Malacca During this period the iron for manufacturing Javanese cannon was imported from Khorasan in northern Persia The material was known by Javanese as wesi kurasani Khorasan iron When the Portuguese came to the archipelago they referred to it as berco which was also used to refer to any breech loading swivel gun while the Spaniards called it verso 93 151 Duarte Barbosa c 1514 said that the inhabitants of Java were great masters in casting artillery and very good artillerymen They made many one pounder cannon cetbang or rentaka long muskets spingarde arquebus schioppi hand cannon Greek fire guns cannon and other fireworks Every place was considered excellent in casting artillery and in the knowledge of using it 94 198 95 224 In 1513 the Javanese fleet led by Pati Unus sailed to attack Portuguese Malacca with much artillery made in Java for the Javanese are skilled in founding and casting and in all works in iron over and above what they have in India 96 162 97 23 By early 16th century the Javanese already locally producing large guns some of them still survived until the present day and dubbed as sacred cannon or holy cannon These cannons varied between 180 and 260 pounders weighing anywhere between 3 and 8 tons length of them between 3 and 6 m 9 8 and 19 7 ft 98 Cannons were used by the Ayutthaya Kingdom in 1352 during its invasion of the Khmer Empire 99 Within a decade large quantities of gunpowder could be found in the Khmer Empire 99 By the end of the century firearms were also used by the Trần dynasty 12 Saltpeter harvesting was recorded by Dutch and German travelers as being common in even the smallest villages and was collected from the decomposition process of large dung hills specifically piled for the purpose The Dutch punishment for possession of non permitted gunpowder appears to have been amputation 100 180 181 Ownership and manufacture of gunpowder was later prohibited by the colonial Dutch occupiers 101 According to colonel McKenzie quoted in Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles The History of Java 1817 the purest sulfur was supplied from a crater from a mountain near the straits of Bali 100 180 181 Africa In Africa the Adal Sultanate and the Abyssinian Empire both deployed cannons during the Adal Abyssinian War Imported from Arabia and the wider Islamic world the Adalites led by Ahmed ibn Ibrahim al Ghazi were the first African power to introduce cannon warfare to the African continent 102 Later on as the Portuguese Empire entered the war it would supply and train the Abyssinians with cannons while the Ottoman Empire sent soldiers and cannon to back Adal The conflict proved through their use on both sides the value of firearms such as the matchlock musket cannon and the arquebus over traditional weapons 103 Offensive and defensive use While previous smaller guns could burn down structures with fire larger cannons were so effective that engineers were forced to develop stronger castle walls to prevent their keeps from falling 54 Nonetheless cannons were used other purposes than battering down walls as fortifications began using cannons as defensive instruments such as an example in India where the fort of Raicher had gun ports built into its walls to accommodate the use of defensive cannons 104 In The Art of War Niccolo Machiavelli opined that field artillery forced an army to take up a defensive posture and this opposed a more ideal offensive stance 105 Machiavelli s concerns can be seen in the criticisms of Portuguese mortars being used in India during the sixteenth century as lack of mobility was one of the key problems with the design 106 In Russia the early cannons were again placed in forts as a defensive tool 107 Cannon were also difficult to move around in certain types of terrain with mountains providing a great obstacle for them for these reasons offensives conducted with cannons would be difficult to pull off in places such as Iran 74 Early modern period Various 16th century artillery pieces including culverin falconet and mortar By the 16th century cannons were made in a great variety of lengths and bore diameters but the general rule was that the longer the barrel the longer the range Some cannons made during this time had barrels exceeding 10 ft 3 0 m in length and could weigh up to 20 000 pounds 9 100 kg Consequently large amounts of gunpowder were needed to allow them to fire stone balls several hundred yards 108 By mid century European monarchs began to classify cannons to reduce the confusion Henry II of France opted for six sizes of cannon 109 but others settled for more the Spanish used twelve sizes and the English sixteen They are from largest to smallest the cannon royal cannon cannon serpentine bastard cannon demicannon pedrero culverin basilisk demiculverin bastard culverin saker minion falcon falconet serpentine and rabinet 110 111 Better powder had been developed by this time as well Instead of the finely ground powder used by the first bombards powder was replaced by a corned variety of coarse grains This coarse powder had pockets of air between grains allowing fire to travel through and ignite the entire charge quickly and uniformly 112 The end of the Middle Ages saw the construction of larger more powerful cannon as well as their spread throughout the world As they were not effective at breaching the newer fortifications resulting from the development of cannon siege engines such as siege towers and trebuchets became less widely used However wooden battery towers took on a similar role as siege towers in the gunpowder age such as that used at Siege of Kazan in 1552 which could hold ten large calibre cannon in addition to 50 lighter pieces 113 Another notable effect of cannon on warfare during this period was the change in conventional fortifications Niccolo Machiavelli wrote There is no wall whatever its thickness that artillery will not destroy in only a few days 114 Although castles were not immediately made obsolete by cannon their use and importance on the battlefield rapidly declined 115 Instead of majestic towers and merlons the walls of new fortresses were thick angled and sloped while towers became low and stout increasing use was also made of earth and brick in breastworks and redoubts These new defences became known as bastion forts after their characteristic shape which attempted to force any advance towards it directly into the firing line of the guns 115 A few of these featured cannon batteries such as the House of Tudor s Device Forts in England 115 Bastion forts soon replaced castles in Europe and eventually those in the Americas as well 116 By the end of the 15th century several technological advancements made cannons more mobile Wheeled gun carriages and trunnions became common and the invention of the limber further facilitated transportation 117 As a result field artillery became more viable and began to see more widespread use often alongside the larger cannons intended for sieges 117 118 Better gunpowder cast iron projectiles replacing stone and the standardisation of calibres meant that even relatively light cannons could be deadly 117 In The Art of War Niccolo Machiavelli observed that It is true that the arquebuses and the small artillery do much more harm than the heavy artillery 114 This was the case at the Battle of Flodden in 1513 the English field guns outfired the Scottish siege artillery firing two or three times as many rounds 119 Despite the increased maneuverability however cannon were still the slowest component of the army a heavy English cannon required 23 horses to transport while a culverin needed nine Even with this many animals pulling they still moved at a walking pace Due to their relatively slow speed and lack of organisation and undeveloped tactics the combination of pike and shot still dominated the battlefields of Europe 120 Innovations continued notably the German invention of the mortar a thick walled short barrelled gun that blasted shot upward at a steep angle Mortars were useful for sieges as they could hit targets behind walls or other defences 121 This cannon found more use with the Dutch who learnt to shoot bombs filled with powder from them Setting the bomb fuse was a problem Single firing was first used to ignite the fuse where the bomb was placed with the fuse down against the cannon s propellant This often resulted in the fuse being blown into the bomb causing it to blow up as it left the mortar Because of this double firing was tried where the gunner lit the fuse and then the touch hole This however required considerable skill and timing and was especially dangerous if the gun misfired leaving a lighted bomb in the barrel Not until 1650 was it accidentally discovered that double lighting was superfluous as the heat of firing would light the fuse 122 Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden emphasised the use of light cannon and mobility in his army and created new formations and tactics that revolutionised artillery He discontinued using all 12 pounder or heavier cannon as field artillery preferring instead to use cannons that could be handled by only a few men One obsolete type of gun the leatheren was replaced by 4 pounder and 9 pounder demi culverins These could be operated by three men and pulled by only two horses Gustavus Adolphus s army was also the first to use a cartridge that contained both powder and shot which sped up reloading increasing the rate of fire 123 Finally against infantry he pioneered the use of canister shot essentially a tin can filled with musket balls 124 Until then there was no more than one cannon for every thousand infantrymen on the battlefield but Gustavus Adolphus increased the number of cannons sixfold Each regiment was assigned two pieces though he often arranged them into batteries instead of distributing them piecemeal He used these batteries to break his opponent s infantry line while his cavalry would outflank their heavy guns 125 At the Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631 Adolphus proved the effectiveness of the changes made to his army by defeating Johann Tserclaes Count of Tilly Although severely outnumbered the Swedes were able to fire between three and five times as many volleys of artillery and their infantry s linear formations helped ensure they did not lose any ground Battered by cannon fire and low on morale Tilly s men broke ranks and fled 126 In England cannons were being used to besiege various fortified buildings during the English Civil War Nathaniel Nye is recorded as testing a Birmingham cannon in 1643 and experimenting with a saker in 1645 127 From 1645 he was the master gunner to the Parliamentarian garrison at Evesham and in 1646 he successfully directed the artillery at the Siege of Worcester detailing his experiences and in his 1647 book The Art of Gunnery 127 Believing that war was as much a science as an art 128 his explanations focused on triangulation arithmetic theoretical mathematics 129 and cartography 127 as well as practical considerations such as the ideal specification for gunpowder or slow matches 130 His book acknowledged mathematicians such as Robert Recorde and Marcus Jordanus as well as earlier military writers on artillery such as Niccolo Fontana Tartaglia and Thomas or Francis 131 Malthus author of A Treatise on Artificial Fire Works 132 127 Around this time also came the idea of aiming the cannon to hit a target Gunners controlled the range of their cannons by measuring the angle of elevation using a gunner s quadrant Cannons did not have sights therefore even with measuring tools aiming was still largely guesswork 133 In the latter half of the 17th century the French engineer Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban introduced a more systematic and scientific approach to attacking gunpowder fortresses in a time when many field commanders were notorious dunces in siegecraft 134 Careful sapping forward supported by enfilading ricochets was a key feature of this system and it even allowed Vauban to calculate the length of time a siege would take 134 He was also a prolific builder of bastion forts and did much to popularize the idea of depth in defence in the face of cannon 135 These principles were followed into the mid 19th century when changes in armaments necessitated greater depth defence than Vauban had provided for It was only in the years prior to World War I that new works began to break radically away from his designs 136 The Tsar Cannon the largest howitzer ever made cast by Andrey Chokhov 137 Remains of a post medieval cannon battery mounted on a medieval town wall although without carriages Contemporary illustration on how a cannon could be used with the aid of quadrants for improved precision The use of gabions with cannon was an important part in the attack and defence of fortifications Fort Bourtange a bastion fort was built with angles and sloped walls specifically to defend against cannon 18th and 19th centuries See also Naval artillery in the Age of Sail Field artillery in the American Civil War and Siege artillery in the American Civil War 36 pounder long gun at the ready The lower tier of 17th century English ships of the line were usually equipped with demi cannons guns that fired a 32 pound 15 kg solid shot and could weigh up to 3 400 pounds 1 500 kg 138 Demi cannons were capable of firing these heavy metal balls with such force that they could penetrate more than a metre of solid oak from a distance of 90 m 300 ft and could dismast even the largest ships at close range 139 Full cannon fired a 42 pound 19 kg shot but were discontinued by the 18th century as they were too unwieldy By the end of the 18th century principles long adopted in Europe specified the characteristics of the Royal Navy s cannon as well as the acceptable defects and their severity The United States Navy tested guns by measuring them firing them two or three times termed proof by powder and using pressurized water to detect leaks 140 The carronade was adopted by the Royal Navy in 1779 the lower muzzle velocity of the round shot when fired from this cannon was intended to create more wooden splinters when hitting the structure of an enemy vessel as they were believed to be more deadly than the ball by itself 141 The carronade was much shorter and weighed between a third to a quarter of the equivalent long gun for example a 32 pounder carronade weighed less than a ton compared with a 32 pounder long gun which weighed over 3 tons The guns were therefore easier to handle and also required less than half as much gunpowder allowing fewer men to crew them 142 Carronades were manufactured in the usual naval gun calibres 143 but were not counted in a ship of the line s rated number of guns As a result the classification of Royal Navy vessels in this period can be misleading as they often carried more cannons than were listed Illustration by William Simpson shows action in a British artillery battery during the Crimean War with cannon firing and being loaded and men bringing in supplies Cannons were crucial in Napoleon s rise to power and continued to play an important role in his army in later years 144 During the French Revolution the unpopularity of the Directory led to riots and rebellions When over 25 000 royalists led by General Danican assaulted Paris Paul Barras was appointed to defend the capital outnumbered five to one and disorganised the Republicans were desperate 145 When Napoleon arrived he reorganised the defences but realised that without cannons the city could not be held He ordered Joachim Murat to bring the guns from the Sablons artillery park the Major and his cavalry fought their way to the recently captured cannons and brought them back to Napoleon When Danican s poorly trained men attacked on 13 Vendemiaire 1795 5 October in the calendar used in France at the time Napoleon ordered his cannon to fire grapeshot into the mob 146 an act that became known as the whiff of grapeshot 147 The slaughter effectively ended the threat to the new government while at the same time making Bonaparte a famous and popular public figure 146 148 Among the first generals to recognise that artillery was not being used to its full potential Napoleon often massed his cannon into batteries and introduced several changes into the French artillery improving it significantly and making it among the finest in Europe 149 150 Such tactics were successfully used by the French for example at the Battle of Friedland when 66 guns fired a total of 3 000 roundshot and 500 rounds of grapeshot 149 151 inflicting severe casualties to the Russian forces whose losses numbered over 20 000 killed and wounded in total 152 At the Battle of Waterloo Napoleon s final battle the French army had many more artillery pieces than either the British or Prussians As the battlefield was muddy recoil caused cannons to bury themselves into the ground after firing resulting in slow rates of fire as more effort was required to move them back into an adequate firing position 153 also roundshot did not ricochet with as much force from the wet earth 154 Despite the drawbacks sustained artillery fire proved deadly during the engagement especially during the French cavalry attack 155 The British infantry having formed infantry squares took heavy losses from the French guns while their own cannons fired at the cuirassiers and lancers when they fell back to regroup Eventually the French ceased their assault after taking heavy losses from the British cannon and musket fire 156 In the 1810s and 1820s greater emphasis was placed on the accuracy of long range gunfire and less on the weight of a broadside Around 1822 George Marshall wrote Marshall s Practical Marine Gunnery The book was used by cannon operators in the United States Navy throughout the 19th century It listed all the types of cannons and instructions 157 A 3 inch Parrott rifle from the Battle of Chancellorsville The carronade although initially very successful and widely adopted disappeared from the Royal Navy in the 1850s after the development of wrought iron jacketed steel cannon by William Armstrong and Joseph Whitworth Nevertheless carronades were used in the American Civil War 141 158 Western cannons during the 19th century became larger more destructive more accurate and could fire at longer range One example is the American 3 inch 76 mm wrought iron muzzle loading rifle or Griffen gun usually called the 3 inch Ordnance Rifle used during the American Civil War which had an effective range of over 1 1 mi 1 8 km Another is the smoothbore 12 pounder Napoleon which originated in France in 1853 and was widely used by both sides in the American Civil War This cannon was renowned for its sturdiness reliability firepower flexibility relatively lightweight and range of 1 700 m 5 600 ft 159 Armstrong gun deployed by Japan during the Boshin war 1868 69 The 1870s de Bange 90 mm cannon on the yard of Eastern Finland military office in Mikkeli South Savonia Finland The practice of rifling casting spiralling lines inside the cannon s barrel was applied to artillery more frequently by 1855 as it gave cannon projectiles gyroscopic stability which improved their accuracy One of the earliest rifled cannons was the breech loading Armstrong Gun also invented by William Armstrong which boasted significantly improved range accuracy and power than earlier weapons The projectile fired from the Armstrong gun could reportedly pierce through a ship s side and explode inside the enemy vessel causing increased damage and casualties 160 The British military adopted the Armstrong gun and was impressed the Duke of Cambridge even declared that it could do everything but speak 161 Despite being significantly more advanced than its predecessors the Armstrong gun was rejected soon after its integration in favour of the muzzle loading pieces that had been in use before 162 While both types of gun were effective against wooden ships neither had the capability to pierce the armour of ironclads due to reports of slight problems with the breeches of the Armstrong gun and their higher cost the older muzzle loaders were selected to remain in service instead 163 Realising that iron was more difficult to pierce with breech loaded cannons Armstrong designed rifled muzzle loading guns 164 which proved successful The Times reported even the fondest believers in the invulnerability of our present ironclads were obliged to confess that against such artillery at such ranges their plates and sides were almost as penetrable as wooden ships 165 The superior cannon of the Western world brought them tremendous advantages in warfare For example in the First Opium War in China during the 19th century British battleships bombarded the coastal areas and fortifications from afar safe from the reach of the Chinese cannons Similarly the shortest war in recorded history the Anglo Zanzibar War of 1896 was brought to a swift conclusion by shelling from British cruisers 166 The cynical attitude towards recruited infantry in the face of ever more powerful field artillery is the source of the term cannon fodder first used by Francois Rene de Chateaubriand in 1814 167 however the concept of regarding soldiers as nothing more than food for powder was mentioned by William Shakespeare as early as 1598 in Henry IV Part 1 168 20th and 21st centuries Comparison of 1888 and 1913 German cannon Cannons in the 20th and 21st centuries are usually divided into sub categories and given separate names Some of the most widely used types of modern cannon are howitzers mortars guns and autocannon although a few very large calibre cannon custom designed have also been constructed Nuclear artillery was experimented with but was abandoned as impractical 169 Modern artillery is used in a variety of roles depending on its type According to NATO the general role of artillery is to provide fire support which is defined as the application of fire coordinated with the manoeuvre of forces to destroy neutralize or suppress the enemy 170 When referring to cannons the term gun is often used incorrectly In military usage a gun is a cannon with a high muzzle velocity and a flat trajectory useful for hitting the sides of targets such as walls 171 as opposed to howitzers or mortars which have lower muzzle velocities and fire indirectly lobbing shells up and over obstacles to hit the target from above 172 173 Royal Artillery howitzers at the Battle of the Somme Main article Artillery By the early 20th century infantry weapons had become more powerful forcing most artillery away from the front lines Despite the change to indirect fire cannons proved highly effective during World War I directly or indirectly causing over 75 of casualties 174 The onset of trench warfare after the first few months of World War I greatly increased the demand for howitzers as they were more suited at hitting targets in trenches Furthermore their shells carried more explosives than those of guns and caused considerably less barrel wear The German army had the advantage here as they began the war with many more howitzers than the French 175 World War I also saw the use of the Paris Gun the longest ranged gun ever fired This 200 mm 8 in calibre gun was used by the Germans against Paris and could hit targets more than 122 km 76 mi away 176 The Second World War sparked new developments in cannon technology Among them were sabot rounds hollow charge projectiles and proximity fuses all of which increased the effectiveness of cannon against specific target 177 The proximity fuse emerged on the battlefields of Europe in late December 1944 178 Used to great effect in anti aircraft projectiles proximity fuses were fielded in both the European and Pacific Theatres of Operations they were particularly useful against V 1 flying bombs and kamikaze planes Although widely used in naval warfare and in anti air guns both the British and Americans feared unexploded proximity fuses would be reverse engineered leading to them limiting their use in continental battles During the Battle of the Bulge however the fuses became known as the American artillery s Christmas present for the German army because of their effectiveness against German personnel in the open when they frequently dispersed attacks 179 Anti tank guns were also tremendously improved during the war in 1939 the British used primarily 2 pounder and 6 pounder guns By the end of the war 17 pounders had proven much more effective against German tanks and 32 pounders had entered development 180 181 Meanwhile German tanks were continuously upgraded with better main guns in addition to other improvements For example the Panzer III was originally designed with a 37 mm gun but was mass produced with a 50 mm cannon 182 To counter the threat of the Russian T 34s another more powerful 50 mm gun was introduced 182 only to give way to a larger 75 mm cannon which was in a fixed mount as the StuG III the most produced German World War II armoured fighting vehicle of any type 183 Despite the improved guns production of the Panzer III was ended in 1943 as the tank still could not match the T 34 and was replaced by the Panzer IV and Panther tanks 184 In 1944 the 8 8 cm KwK 43 and many variations entered service with the Wehrmacht and was used as both a tank main gun and as the PaK 43 anti tank gun 185 186 One of the most powerful guns to see service in World War II it was capable of destroying any Allied tank at very long ranges 187 188 USS Iowa firing her 16 in 41 cm guns Despite being designed to fire at trajectories with a steep angle of descent howitzers can be fired directly as was done by the 11th Marine Regiment at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War Two field batteries fired directly upon a battalion of Chinese infantry the Marines were forced to brace themselves against their howitzers as they had no time to dig them in The Chinese infantry took heavy casualties and were forced to retreat 189 The tendency to create larger calibre cannons during the World Wars has reversed since The United States Army for example sought a lighter more versatile howitzer to replace their ageing pieces As it could be towed the M198 was selected to be the successor to the World War II era cannons used at the time and entered service in 1979 190 Still in use today the M198 is in turn being slowly replaced by the M777 Ultralightweight howitzer which weighs nearly half as much and can be more easily moved Although land based artillery such as the M198 are powerful long ranged and accurate naval guns have not been neglected despite being much smaller than in the past and in some cases having been replaced by cruise missiles 191 However the Zumwalt class destroyer s planned armament included the Advanced Gun System AGS a pair of 155 mm guns which fire the Long Range Land Attack Projectile The warhead which weighted 24 pounds 11 kg had a circular error of probability of 50 m 160 ft and was mounted on a rocket to increase the effective range to 100 nmi 190 km further than that of the Paris Gun The AGS s barrels would be water cooled and fire 10 rounds per minute per gun The combined firepower from both turrets would give a Zumwalt class destroyer the firepower equivalent to 18 conventional M198 howitzers 192 193 The reason for the re integration of cannons as a main armament in United States Navy ships was because satellite guided munitions fired from a gun would be less expensive than a cruise missile but have a similar guidance capability 191 Autocannon Main article Autocannon A large bore Maxim on USS Vixen c 1898 Autocannons have an automatic firing mode similar to that of a machine gun They have mechanisms to automatically load their ammunition and therefore have a higher rate of fire than artillery often approaching or in the case of rotary autocannons even surpassing the firing rate of a machine gun 194 While there is no minimum bore for autocannons they are generally larger than machine guns typically 20 mm or greater since World War II and are usually capable of using explosive ammunition even if it is not always used Machine guns in contrast are usually too small to use explosive ammunition 195 such ammunition is additionally banned in international conflict for the parties to the Saint Petersburg Declaration of 1868 Most nations use rapid fire cannon on light vehicles replacing a more powerful but heavier tank gun A typical autocannon is the 25 mm Bushmaster chain gun mounted on the LAV 25 and M2 Bradley armoured vehicles Autocannons may be capable of a very high rate of fire but ammunition is heavy and bulky limiting the amount carried For this reason both the 25 mm Bushmaster and the 30 mm RARDEN are deliberately designed with relatively low rates of fire The typical rate of fire for a modern autocannon ranges from 90 to 1 800 rounds per minute Systems with multiple barrels such as a rotary autocannon can have rates of fire of more than several thousand rounds per minute The fastest of these is the GSh 6 23 which has a rate of fire of over 10 000 rounds per minute 194 Autocannons are often found in aircraft where they replaced machine guns and as shipboard anti aircraft weapons as they provide greater destructive power than machine guns 196 Aircraft use Main article Aircraft artillery The first documented installation of a cannon on an aircraft was on the Voisin Canon in 1911 displayed at the Paris Exposition that year By World War I all of the major powers were experimenting with aircraft mounted cannons however their low rate of fire and great size and weight precluded any of them from being anything other than experimental The most successful or least unsuccessful was the SPAD 12 Ca 1 with a single 37mm Puteaux mounted to fire between the cylinder banks and through the propeller boss of the aircraft s Hispano Suiza 8C The pilot by necessity an ace had to manually reload each round 197 The first autocannon were developed during World War I as anti aircraft guns and one of these the Coventry Ordnance Works COW 37 mm gun was installed in an aircraft However the war ended before it could be given a field trial and it never became standard equipment in a production aircraft Later trials had it fixed at a steep angle upwards in both the Vickers Type 161 and the Westland C O W Gun Fighter an idea that would return later During this period autocannons became available and several fighters of the German Luftwaffe and the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service were fitted with 20 mm cannons They continued to be installed as an adjunct to machine guns rather than as a replacement as the rate of fire was still too low and the complete installation too heavy There was a some debate in the RAF as to whether the greater number of possible rounds being fired from a machine gun or a smaller number of explosive rounds from a cannon was preferable Improvements during the war in regards to rate of fire allowed the cannon to displace the machine gun almost entirely 196 The cannon was more effective against armour so they were increasingly used during the course of World War II and newer fighters such as the Hawker Tempest usually carried two or four versus the six 50 Browning machine guns for US aircraft or eight to twelve M1919 Browning machine guns on earlier British aircraft The Hispano Suiza HS 404 Oerlikon 20 mm cannon MG FF and their numerous variants became among the most widely used autocannon in the war Cannons as with machine guns were generally fixed to fire forwards mounted in the wings in the nose or fuselage or in a pannier under either or were mounted in gun turrets on heavier aircraft Both the Germans and Japanese mounted cannons to fire upwards and forwards for use against heavy bombers with the Germans calling guns so installed Schrage Musik This term derives from a German colloquialism for jazz music the German word schrag means off key Preceding the Vietnam War the high speeds aircraft were attaining led to a move to remove the cannon due to the mistaken belief that they would be useless in a dogfight but combat experience during the Vietnam War showed conclusively that despite advances in missiles there was still a need for them Nearly all modern fighter aircraft are armed with an autocannon and they are also commonly found on ground attack aircraft One of the most powerful examples is the 30mm GAU 8 A Avenger Gatling type rotary cannon mounted exclusively on the Fairchild Republic A 10 Thunderbolt II 196 198 The Lockheed AC 130 gunship a converted transport can carry a 105 mm howitzer as well as a variety of autocannons ranging up to 40 mm 199 Both are used in the close air support role Westland C O W Gun Fighter with 37mm C O W gun mounted to fire upwards Supermarine Spitfire with 20 mm cannon protruding from the leading edge of the wing GSh 23 autocannon mounted on the underside of a Mikoyan Gurevich MiG 23 The GAU 8 A Avenger rotary cannon mounted in a Fairchild A 10 Thunderbolt IIMaterials parts and terms Side elevation of a typical 18th century cannon Cannons in general have the form of a truncated cone with an internal cylindrical bore for holding an explosive charge and a projectile The thickest strongest and closed part of the cone is located near the explosive charge As any explosive charge will dissipate in all directions equally the thickest portion of the cannon is useful for containing and directing this force The backward motion of the cannon as its projectile leaves the bore is termed its recoil and the effectiveness of the cannon can be measured in terms of how much this response can be diminished though obviously diminishing recoil through increasing the overall mass of the cannon means decreased mobility Field artillery cannon in Europe and the Americas were initially made most often of bronze though later forms were constructed of cast iron and eventually steel 200 61 Bronze has several characteristics that made it preferable as a construction material although it is relatively expensive does not always alloy well and can result in a final product that is spongy about the bore 200 61 bronze is more flexible than iron and therefore less prone to bursting when exposed to high pressure cast iron cannon are less expensive and more durable generally than bronze and withstand being fired more times without deteriorating However cast iron cannon have a tendency to burst without having shown any previous weakness or wear and this makes them more dangerous to operate The older and more stable forms of cannon were muzzle loading as opposed to breech loading to be used they had to have their ordnance packed down the bore through the muzzle rather than inserted through the breech The following terms refer to the components or aspects of a classical western cannon c 1850 as illustrated here 200 66 In what follows the words near close and behind will refer to those parts towards the thick closed end of the piece and far front in front of and before to the thinner open end Negative spaces Bore The hollow cylinder bored down the centre of the cannon including the base of the bore or bottom of the bore the nearest end of the bore into which the ordnance wadding shot etc gets packed The diameter of the bore represents the cannon s calibre Chamber The cylindrical conical or spherical recess at the nearest end of the bottom of the bore into which the gunpowder is packed Vent A thin tube on the near end of the cannon connecting the explosive charge inside with an ignition source outside and often filled with a length of fuse always located near the breech Sometimes called the fuse hole or the touch hole On the top of the vent on the outside of the cannon is a flat circular space called the vent field where the charge is lit If the cannon is bronze it will often have a vent piece made of copper screwed into the length of the vent Solid spaces The main body of a cannon consists of three basic extensions the foremost and the longest is called the chase the middle portion is the reinforce and the closest and briefest portion is the cascabel or cascable The chase Simply the entire conical part of the cannon in front of the reinforce It is the longest portion of the cannon and includes the following elements The neck the narrowest part of the chase always located near the foremost end of the piece The muzzle the portion of the chase forward of the neck It includes the following The swell of the muzzle refers to the slight swell in the diameter of the piece at the very end of the chase It is often chamfered on the inside to make loading the cannon easier In some guns this element is replaced with a wide ring and is called a muzzle band The face is the flat vertical plane at the foremost edge of the muzzle and of the entire piece The muzzle mouldings are the tiered rings which connect the face with the rest of the muzzle the first of which is called the lip and the second the fillet The muzzle astragal and fillets are a series of three narrow rings running around the outside of the chase just behind the neck Sometimes also collectively called the chase ring The chase astragal and fillets these are a second series of such rings located at the near end of the chase The chase girdle this is the brief length of the chase between the chase astragal and fillets and the reinforce The reinforce This portion of the piece is frequently divided into a first reinforce and a second reinforce but in any case is marked as separate from the chase by the presence of a narrow circular reinforce ring or band at its foremost end The span of the reinforce also includes the following The trunnions are located at the foremost end of the reinforce just behind the reinforce ring They consist of two cylinders perpendicular to the bore and below it which are used to mount the cannon on its carriage The rimbases are short broad rings located at the union of the trunnions and the cannon which provide support to the carriage attachment The reinforce band is only present if the cannon has two reinforces and it divides the first reinforce from the second The breech refers to the mass of solid metal behind the bottom of the bore extending to the base of the breech and including the base ring it also generally refers to the end of the cannon opposite the muzzle i e the location where the explosion of the gunpowder begins as opposed to the opening through which the pressurized gas escapes The base ring forms a ring at the widest part of the entire cannon at the nearest end of the reinforce just before the cascabel The cascabel This is that portion of the cannon behind the reinforce s and behind the base ring It includes the following The knob which is the small spherical terminus of the piece The neck a short narrow piece of metal holding out the knob and The fillet the tiered disk connecting the neck of the cascabel to the base of the breech The base of the breech is the metal disk that forms the most forward part of the cascabel and rests against the breech itself right next to the base ring To pack a muzzle loading cannon first gunpowder is poured down the bore This is followed by a layer of wadding often nothing more than paper and then the cannonball itself A certain amount of windage allows the ball to fit down the bore though the greater the windage the less efficient the propulsion of the ball when the gunpowder is ignited To fire the cannon the fuse located in the vent is lit quickly burning down to the gunpowder which then explodes violently propelling wadding and ball down the bore and out of the muzzle A small portion of exploding gas also escapes through the vent but this does not dramatically affect the total force exerted on the ball Any large smoothbore muzzle loading gun used before the advent of breech loading rifled guns may be referred to as a cannon though once standardised names were assigned to different sized cannon the term specifically referred to a gun designed to fire a 42 pound 19 kg shot as distinct from a demi cannon 32 pounds 15 kg culverin 18 pounds 8 2 kg or demi culverin 9 pounds 4 1 kg Gun specifically refers to a type of cannon that fires projectiles at high speeds and usually at relatively low angles 171 they have been used in warships 201 and as field artillery 202 The term cannon is also used for autocannon a modern repeating weapon firing explosive projectiles Cannon have been used extensively in fighter aircraft since World War II 196 OperationMain article Cannon operation The parts of a cannon described in John Roberts The Compleat Cannoniere London 1652 source source source source source source source source source source Firing of a field gun of the early 17th century with a linstock In the 1770s cannon operation worked as follows each cannon would be manned by two gunners six soldiers and four officers of artillery The right gunner was to prime the piece and load it with powder and the left gunner would fetch the powder from the magazine and be ready to fire the cannon at the officer s command On each side of the cannon three soldiers stood to ram and sponge the cannon and hold the ladle The second soldier on the left was tasked with providing 50 bullets 203 Before loading the cannon would be cleaned with a wet sponge to extinguish any smouldering material from the last shot Fresh powder could be set off prematurely by lingering ignition sources The powder was added followed by wadding of paper or hay and the ball was placed in and rammed down After ramming the cannon would be aimed with the elevation set using a quadrant and a plummet At 45 degrees the ball had the utmost range about ten times the gun s level range Any angle above a horizontal line was called random shot Wet sponges were used to cool the pieces every ten or twelve rounds 203 Firing of a 6 pound cannon During the Napoleonic Wars a British gun team consisted of five gunners to aim it clean the bore with a damp sponge to quench any remaining embers before a fresh charge was introduced and another to load the gun with a bag of powder and then the projectile The fourth gunner pressed his thumb on the vent hole to prevent a draught that might fan a flame The charge loaded the fourth would prick the bagged charge through the vent hole and fill the vent with powder On command the fifth gunner would fire the piece with a slow match 204 Friction primers replaced slow match ignition by the mid 19th century 205 When a cannon had to be abandoned such as in a retreat or surrender the touch hole of the cannon would be plugged flush with an iron spike disabling the cannon at least until metal boring tools could be used to remove the plug This was called spiking the cannon A gun was said to be honeycombed when the surface of the bore had cavities or holes in it 206 caused either by corrosion or casting defects Legal considerations In the United States muzzleloading cannons are not subject to any regulations at the federal level According to the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms muzzleloading cannons made before 1899 and replicas that are unable to fire fixed ammunition are considered antiques They are not subject to the Gun Control Act GCA of 1968 or National Firearms Act NFA of 1934 207 Muzzleloading cannons may be subject to state of local rules in some jurisdictions however Deceptive useMain articles Quaker gun and Military deception Historically logs or poles have been used as decoys to mislead the enemy as to the strength of an emplacement The Quaker Gun trick was used by Colonel William Washington s Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War in 1780 approximately 100 Loyalists surrendered to them rather than face bombardment 208 During the American Civil War Quaker guns were also used by the Confederates to compensate for their shortage of artillery The decoy cannon were painted black at the muzzle and positioned behind fortifications to delay Union attacks on those positions On occasion real gun carriages were used to complete the deception 209 In popular cultureCannon sounds have sometimes been used in classical pieces with a military theme One of the best known examples of such a piece is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky s 1812 Overture 210 The overture is to be performed using an artillery section together with the orchestra resulting in noise levels high enough that musicians are required to wear ear protection 211 The cannon fire simulates Russian artillery bombardments of the Battle of Borodino a critical battle in Napoleon s invasion of Russia whose defeat the piece celebrates 211 When the overture was first performed the cannon were fired by an electric current triggered by the conductor 212 However the overture was not recorded with real cannon fire until Mercury Records and conductor Antal Dorati s 1958 recording of the Minnesota Orchestra 213 Cannon fire is also frequently used annually in presentations of the 1812 on the American Independence Day a tradition started by Arthur Fiedler of the Boston Pops in 1974 211 214 The hard rock band AC DC also used cannon in their song For Those About to Rock We Salute You 215 and in live shows replica Napoleonic cannon and pyrotechnics were used to perform the piece 215 A recording of that song has accompanied the firing of an authentic reproduction of a M1857 12 pounder Napoleon during Columbus Blue Jackets goal celebrations at Nationwide Arena since opening night of the 2007 08 season The cannon is located behind the last row of section 111 and the focal point of the team s alternate logo on its third jerseys 216 217 218 Cannons have been fired in touchdown celebrations by several American football teams including the San Diego Chargers 219 The Pittsburgh Steelers used one only during the 1962 campaign but discontinued it after Buddy Dial was startled as a result of inadvertently running face first into the cannon s smoky discharge in a 42 27 loss to the Dallas Cowboys at Forbes Field on October 21 220 RestorationCannon recovered from the sea are often extensively damaged from exposure to salt water because of this electrolytic reduction treatment is required to forestall the process of corrosion 221 The cannon is then washed in deionized water to remove the electrolyte and is treated in tannic acid which prevents further rust and gives the metal a bluish black colour 222 223 After this process cannon on display may be protected from oxygen and moisture by a wax sealant A coat of polyurethane may also be painted over the wax sealant to prevent the wax coated cannon from attracting dust in outdoor displays 223 In 2011 archaeologists say six cannon recovered from a river in Panama that could have belonged to legendary pirate Henry Morgan are being studied and could eventually be displayed after going through a restoration process 224 Notes a b c Lu 1988 Andrade 2016 p 330 Chase 2003 p 32 Needham 1986 p 293 a b c d Hammer Paul E J 2017 Warfare in Early Modern Europe 1450 1660 Routledge p 505 ISBN 978 1351873765 Archived from the original on 25 December 2019 Retrieved 9 September 2019 a b c Kelly 2004 p 29 a b c d e Andrade 2016 p 76 Khan Iqtidar Alam 2004 Gunpowder and Firearms Warfare in Medieval India Oxford University Press pp 9 10 Khan 2004 pp 9 10 a b Korean Broadcasting System News department 30 April 2005 Science in Korea Countdown Begins for Launch of South Korea s Space Rocket Korean Broadcasting System Archived from the original on 12 October 2020 Retrieved 27 July 2006 a b Chase 2003 p 173 a b c Tran 2006 p 75 a b c d Andrade 2016 p 75 Chase 2003 p 59 a b Schmidtchen Volker 1977b Riesengeschutze des 15 Jahrhunderts Technische Hochstleistungen ihrer Zeit Technikgeschichte 44 3 213 237 226 228 Needham 1986 p 51 Kelly 2004 p 66 Andrade 2016 pp 103 04 Henry George Liddell Robert Scott An Intermediate Greek English Lexicon kanna www perseus tufts edu Retrieved 11 February 2023 Black Jeremy A George Andrew Postgate J N 2000 A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian Otto Harrassowitz Verlag ISBN 978 3 447 04264 2 Archived from the original on 16 February 2017 Retrieved 8 February 2017 a b Definition and etymology of cannon Webster s Dictionary Archived from the original on 8 October 2008 Retrieved 26 May 2008 cane Online Etymology Dictionary Archived from the original on 7 December 2008 Retrieved 26 May 2008 Definition and etymology of cane Webster s Dictionary Archived from the original on 24 April 2009 Retrieved 26 May 2008 Definition of cannon Cambridge Advanced Learner s Dictionary Archived from the original on 31 October 2014 Retrieved 30 October 2014 Needham 1986 pp 263 275 Crosby 2002 p 99 Chase 2003 pp 31 32 Andrade 2016 pp 52 53 Needham 1986 pp 293 94 Andrade 2016 p 329 Needham 1986 p 10 Arnold 2001 p 18 Andrade 2016 p 54 Norris John 2003 Early Gunpowder Artillery 1300 1600 Marlborough The Crowood Press p 11 ISBN 978 1 86126 615 6 Andrade 2016 p 66 a b Lombard Denys 1990 Le carrefour javanais Essai d histoire globale The Javanese Crossroads Towards a Global History Vol 2 Paris Editions de l Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales p 178 R G Grant 2005 Battle a visual journey through 5 000 years of combat illustrated ed DK Pub p 99 ISBN 978 0 7566 1360 0 Chase 2003 Little is known about their armament but Chinese ships did carry bronze cannon at this time as evidenced by the wreck of a small two masted patrol vessel discovered in Shandong together with its anchor inscribed 1372 and cannon inscribed 1377 Chase 2003 Considering that Chinese ships armed with gunpowder weapons including cannons visited the region regularly from the 1200s to the 1400s Xiaodong 2008 pp 41 61 Needham 1986 p 430 Archer Christon I 2002 World History of Warfare University of Nebraska Press p 211 ISBN 978 0 8032 4423 8 Retrieved 26 May 2008 Derrick Grose 2011 Admiral Yi Sun shin and Turtle Ships Virtual stamp Collection Grose Educational Media Archived from the original on 21 January 2012 Retrieved 22 September 2011 Dmytryshyn 1985 p 90 Joseph Needham Gwei Djen Lu Ling Wang 1987 Science and civilisation in China Vol 5 Cambridge University Press pp 48 50 ISBN 978 0 521 30358 3 Joseph Needham Gwei Djen Lu Ling Wang 1987 Science and civilisation in China Vol 5 Cambridge University Press Part 7 p 358 ISBN 978 0 521 30358 3 Bert S Hall Introduction 1999 p xxiv to the reprinting of James Riddick Partington 1960 A history of Greek fire and gunpowder JHU Press ISBN 978 0 8018 5954 0 a b Andrade 2016 p 334 Andrade 2016 pp 76 335 Crosby 2002 p 120 Roger Pauly 2004 Firearms the Life Story of a Technology Greenwood Press ISBN 0 313 32796 3 p 21 Kevin Dockery 2007 Stalkers and Shooters A History of Snipers Berkley ISBN 0 425 21542 3 a b c Nicolle David 2000 Crecy 1346 Triumph of the Longbow Osprey Publishing p 21 ISBN 978 1 85532 966 9 a b c d Andrade 2016 Needham 1986 p 43 Needham 1986 p 43 44 Needham 1986 p 582 Medieval Science Technology and Medicine An Encyclopedia Routledge 27 January 2014 ISBN 9781135459321 a b c al Hassan Ahmad Y Gunpowder Composition for Rockets and Cannon in Arabic Military Treatises in Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries Archived from the original on 26 February 2008 Retrieved 8 June 2008 al Hassan Ahmad Y Technology Transfer in the Chemical Industries Archived from the original on 27 April 2007 Retrieved 17 February 2007 Khan Iqtidar Alam 1996 Coming of Gunpowder to the Islamic World and North India Spotlight on the Role of the Mongols Journal of Asian History 30 41 45 Khan 2004 p 3 Needham 1986 p 44 a b Agoston 2005 p 15 a b Hammer Paul E J 2007 Warfare in Early Modern Europe 1450 1660 Ashgate ISBN 978 0 7546 2529 2 Purton 2010 pp 108 09 Agoston 2005 pp 15 16 References to early use of firearms in Islamdom 1204 1248 1274 1258 60 1303 and 1324 must be taken with caution since terminology used for gunpowder and firearms in late medieval Arabic sources is confused Furthermore most of these testimonies are given by later chroniclers of the fifteenth century whose use of terminology may have reflected their own time rather than that of the events they were writing about Needham 1986 p 47 a b Bradbury 1992 p 293 a b Agoston Gabor 2014 Firearms and Military Adaptation The Ottomans and the European Military Revolution 1450 1800 Journal of World History 25 1 85 124 doi 10 1353 jwh 2014 0005 ISSN 1527 8050 S2CID 143042353 Gat Azar 2006 War in Human Civilization New York City Oxford University Press p 461 ISBN 978 0 19 926213 7 Archived from the original on 20 October 2021 Retrieved 7 November 2020 Bag A K 2005 Fathullah Shirazi Cannon Multi barrel Gun and Yarghu Indian Journal of History of Science 431 436 Khan Iqtidar Alam 1999 Nature of Gunpowder Artillery in India during the Sixteenth Century A Reappraisal of the Impact of European Gunnery Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 9 1 27 34 doi 10 1017 S1356186300015911 JSTOR 25183626 S2CID 162909942 a b c Nourbakhsh Mohammad Reza Farhad 2008 Iran s Early Encounter with Three Medieval European Inventions 875 1153 AH 1470 1740 CE Iranian Studies 41 4 549 558 doi 10 1080 00210860802246242 JSTOR 25597489 S2CID 144208564 Khan Iqtidar Alam 1995 Firearms in Central Asia and Iran During the Fifteenth Century and the Origins and Nature of Firearms Brought by Babur Proceedings of the Indian History Congress 56 435 446 JSTOR 44158646 Nossov Konstantin 2007 Medieval Russian Fortresses AD 862 1480 Osprey Publishing p 52 ISBN 978 1 84603 093 2 Geoffrey Alan Hosking 2001 Russia and the Russians A History Harvard University Press p 91 ISBN 978 0674004733 first cannon foundry was set up in Moscow Chase 2003 p 78 a b c d Turnbull Stephan 2004 The Walls of Constantinople AD 413 1453 Osprey Publishing pp 39 41 ISBN 978 1 84176 759 8 Wallechinsky David Irving Wallace 1975 The People s Almanac Doubleday ISBN 978 0 385 04186 7 Turnbull p 43 Schlegel Gustaaf 1902 On the Invention and Use of Fire Arms and Gunpowder in China Prior to the Arrival of Europeans T oung Pao 3 1 11 Partington J R 1999 A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder JHU Press ISBN 978 0 8018 5954 0 Reid Anthony 1993 Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce 1450 1680 Volume Two Expansion and Crisis New Haven and London Yale University Press a b Averoes Muhammad 2020 Antara Cerita dan Sejarah Meriam Cetbang Majapahit Jurnal Sejarah 3 2 89 100 Raffles Thomas Stamford 1830 The History of Java London John Murray Albemarle Street Yusof Hasanuddin September 2019 Kedah Cannons Kept in Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan Nakhon Si Thammarat Jurnal Arkeologi Malaysia 32 59 75 Pramono Djoko 2005 Budaya Bahari Gramedia Pustaka Utama ISBN 9789792213768 Hamid Rahimah A 2015 Kearifan Tempatan Pandainya Melayu Dalam Karya Sastera Penerbit USM ISBN 978 9838619332 Mayers 1876 Chinese explorations of the Indian Ocean during the fifteenth century The China Review IV p 178 Manguin Pierre Yves 1976 L Artillerie legere nousantarienne A propos de six canons conserves dans des collections portugaises PDF Arts Asiatiques 32 233 268 doi 10 3406 arasi 1976 1103 S2CID 191565174 Archived PDF from the original on 17 October 2020 Retrieved 21 September 2020 Atsushi Ota 2006 Changes of regime and social dynamics in West Java society state and the outer world of Banten 1750 1830 Leiden Brill ISBN 978 90 04 15091 1 Wade Geoff 2012 Anthony Reid and the Study of the Southeast Asian Past Singapore Institute of Southeast Asian Studies ISBN 978 981 4311 96 0 Stanley Henry Edward John 1866 A Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar in the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century by Duarte Barbosa The Hakluyt Society a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint url status link Partington J R 1999 A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder JHU Press ISBN 978 0 8018 5954 0 Archived from the original on 16 April 2021 Retrieved 7 November 2020 Wade Geoff Tana Li eds 2012 Anthony Reid and the Study of the Southeast Asian Past Singapore Institute of Southeast Asian Studies ISBN 978 981 4311 96 0 Crawfurd John 1856 A Descriptive Dictionary of the Indian Islands and Adjacent Countries Bradbury and Evans Modern Asian 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Watson Peter 2006 Ideas A History of Thought and Invention from Fire to Freud Harper Perennial 2006 ISBN 978 0 06 093564 1 Wilkinson Philip 9 September 1997 Castles Dorling Kindersley ISBN 978 0 7894 2047 3 Wilkinson Latham Robert 1975 Napoleon s Artillery France Osprey Publishing ISBN 978 0 85045 247 1 Willbanks James H 2004 Machine guns an illustrated history of their impact ABC CLIO Inc Williams Anthony G 2000 Rapid Fire Shrewsbury Airlife Publishing Ltd ISBN 978 1 84037 435 3 Xiaodong Yin 2008 Western Cannon in China in the 16th 17th Centuries Icon 14 41 61 JSTOR 23787161 Young Mark C 2002 Guinness Book of World Records 2002 ed England Bantam Books ISBN 978 0 553 58378 6 Zetterling Niklas Anders Frankson 2000 Kursk 1943 A Statistical Analysis Routledge ISBN 978 0 7146 5052 4 archived from the original on 20 October 2021 retrieved 25 September 2017External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cannon category Look up cannon in Wiktionary the free dictionary Artillery Tactics and Combat during the Napoleonic Wars Handgonnes and Matchlocks History of firearms to 1500 U S Patent 5 236 Patent for a Casting ordnance U S Patent 6 612 Cannon patent U S Patent 13 851 Muzzle loading ordnance patent Historic Cannons of San Francisco Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Cannon amp oldid 1151066263, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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