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Thank your friendly snowmakers and groomers!Powered by: SilverTech, Inc.For other uses, see Cannon (disambiguation).Not to be confused with Canon.They were first used in China, and were the archetypal form of artillery.The first cannon in Europe probably appeared in Islamic and Christian Spain.The end of the Middle Ages saw the construction of larger and more powerful cannon, and their spread in warfare throughout the world.Asia saw the construction of some of the world's largest cannon, such as the Indian Jaivana cannon.This eventually lead to the use of modern field artillery.While the medieval Dardanelles Gun had required 200 men to operate it, 18th century English cannon required only a dozen men, including two gunners, while during the Napoleonic Wars five gunners were used.DC's For those about to rock, we salute you.Retired or abandoned cannons are often preserved for display in places appropriate to their use, such as battlefields, military bases, and harbours, whence the ships that bore them set sail.Cannon recovered from the sea are often extensively damaged from exposure to salt water, and electrolytic reduction treatment is required to forestall the process of corrosion.The Latinised word cannon was used for a gun since 1326 in Italy, and 1418 in England.Bombardum, or "bombard", was earliest used for "cannon", but from 1430 it came to refer only to the largest weapons."Cannon" serves both as the singular and plural of the noun, although the plural "cannons" can also be used.The term can apply to a modern day rifled machine gun with a calibre of 20 mm or more (see autocannon).When on board a warship a cannon is called a gun, while a cannonball is a roundshot.For more details on the history of gunpowder, see History of gunpowder.Ctesibius of Alexandria invented a primitive form of a cannon, operated by compressed air, before 200 BC.Earliest known representation of a gun (a fire lance) and a grenade (upper right), Dunhuang, 10th century.The oldest surviving gun, dated to 1288, has a muzzle bore diameter of 2.The first illustration of a cannon is dated to 1326.In his 1341 poem The Iron Cannon Affair, one of the first accounts of the use of gunpowder artillery in China, Zhang Xian wrote that a cannonball fired from an eruptor could "pierce the heart or belly when it strikes a man or horse, and can even transfix several persons at once".Huolongjing may be among the first of their kind.The Chinese mounted more than 3,000 bronze and iron casted cannons on the Great Wall of China in defence against the Mongols.The weapon was taken up by the Mongol conquerors later, and was also used in Korea.Chinese soldiers under the Mongols appear to have used hand cannons in battles in Manchuria in 1288, a date deduced from archaeological finds on the sites of these battles.In the 1593 Siege of Poypang, 40,000 Ming armies deployed a variety of cannons to bombard 40,000 Japanese army and defeated them in one day.Koren coalition and Japanese widely used artillery (muskets and cannons) in land and sea battles.Middle East
Main article: Muslim military technology
Portable hand cannons (midfa in Arabic) were first used by the Egyptians to repel the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, and again in 1304.The gunpowder compositions used for the cannons at the battles were later described in several manuscripts in the early 14th century.These gunpowder compositions were likely superior to those known in China or Europe at that time.Earliest picture of a European cannon, "De Nobilitatibus Sapientii Et Prudentiis Regum" Walter de Milemete, 1326."We can, with saltpeter and other substances, compose artificially a fire that can be launched over long distances...By only using a very small quantity of this material much light can be created accompanied by a horrible fracas.In order to produce this artificial lightning and thunder it is necessary to take saltpeter, sulfur, and Luru Vopo Vir Can Utriet".Bacon described firecrackers, "used in certain parts of the world".The first use of gunpowder in Europe was the Moorish cannon first used by the Andalusians in Spain at the siege of Seville in 1248, and the siege of Niebla in 1262.Cannon saw its first real use on the European battlefield during the Hundred Years War, being only used in small numbers by a few states during the 1340s.The Florentine Giovanni Villani recounts their destructiveness on the field, indicating that by the end of the battle, "the whole plain was covered by men struck down by arrows and cannon balls."Similar cannon appeared also at the Siege of Calais in the same year, although it would not be until the 1380s that the "ribaudekin" clearly became mounted on wheels.The Turks acquired their own cannon by the siege of 1422, using "falcons", which were short but wide cannon.Walls of Constantinople, "hurling the pieces everywhere and killing those who happened to be nearby."Gunpowder had also made the formerly devastating Greek fire obsolete, and with the final fall of what had once been the strongest walls in Europe on May 29, "it was the end of an era in more ways than one".Tsar Cannon, the largest howitzer ever made, by Andrey Chokhov.The end of the Middle Ages saw the construction of larger and more powerful cannon, and their spread in warfare throughout the world.The Tsar Cannon, founded by Russian founding master Andrey Chokhov in 1586, was the largest howitzer ever made.The cannon, which still survives today, was intended to fire grapeshot and to defend the Kremlin, but was never used.In fact, with such a large cannon, it may have been intended as a showpiece of military might and engineering from the beginning.Conventional siege artillery, such as siege towers and trebuchets, became vulnerable and obsolete with the development of large cannon and changes in fortification.As wheeled gun carriages became more common by the end of the 15th century, field artillery began to emerge.As was the case at Flodden in 1513, the English field guns outpaced the Scottish siege artillery firing twice or even thrice as many rounds.Most notable in this period, however, is the effect of cannon on conventional fortifications.Although castles were not immediatedly made obsolete by cannon, their importance declined.Instead of majestic towers and merlons, the walls of new fortresses were thicker and angulated, while towers became lower and stouter.Forts featuring cannon batteries were built during the Renaissance, such as the trace italienne of Italy and the Tudors' Device Forts in England.These soon replaced castles in Europe, and eventually castles in the Americas were superseded by bastions and forts.By the end of the century, principles long adopted in Europe specified the characteristics of cannon of the British ship design and the types and sizes of acceptable defects.It was much shorter and a third to a quarter of the weight of an equivalent long gun: for example, a 32 pounder carronade weighed less than a ton, but a 32 pounder long gun weighed over 3 tons.The guns were thus easier to handle and also required less than half the gunpowder of long guns mounted on naval garrison carriages, allowing fewer men to crew them.As a result, the classification of Royal Navy vessels in this period can mislead, since they would often be carrying more pieces of ordnance than were listed.The Turkish cannons of the siege of Constantinople, after being on permanent display for four centuries, were used to battle a British fleet in 1807.The artillery hit a British ship with two 700 pound cannonballs, killing 60 sailors.American Civil War with an effective range of over 1.The carronade, although initially very successful and widely adopted, disappeared from the Royal Navy from the 1850s after the development of steel, jacketed cannon by William George Armstrong and Joseph Whitworth.Nevertheless, carronades were used in the American Civil War in the 1860s.The practice of rifling, involving casting spiralling lines inside the barrel, was first applied to artillery in the 1860s, giving new cannon gyroscopic stability and improving their accuracy.The superior cannon technology of Westerners in later years would bring them tremendous advantages in warfare.For example, in the Opium War in China during the 19th century, the British battleships bombarded the coastal areas and fortifications safe from the reach of the Chinese cannon.Zanzibar War of 1896, was brought to a swift conclusion by shelling from British battleships.Royal Artillery Howitzers at the Somme.It can operate as a direct fire, low trajectory, high velocity weapon, firing directly at its target like a modern main battle tank.It can also operate as a lower velocity, high trajectory, indirect fire weapon or howitzer.Nevertheless, tanks can fire high trajectory missions and artillery cannons can fire direct fire missions if the battlefield situation calls for it.The minimum calibre of a cannon, 20 mm, has been a de facto standard since World War II, when heavy machine guns of 12.RAF fighters with 20 mm Hispano cannon and Luftwaffe with 20 mm and 30 mm cannon).The Bofors 40 mm gun and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon are two examples largely used during World War II, and still in use today.Most nations use these modern cannons on their lighter vehicles; typical of the type is the 25 mm 'Bushmaster' chain gun mounted on the LAV and Bradley armoured vehicles.Significant innovations have been made regarding the cannon's place in modern warfare."Superguns" have been developed since the early 20th century, and the 20 cm (200 mm) calibre "Paris Gun" of World War I had the greatest range of a gun, achieving 122 km.Super High Altitude Research Project artillery can fire shells 75.Cannon have also found peaceful application outside warfare, such as water cannon, snow cannon, hail cannon and cannon netting.The parts of a cannon described, John Roberts, The Compleat Cannoniere, London 1652.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, while the left gunner would fetch the powder from the magazine and keep ready to fire the cannon at the officer's command.Three soldiers stood on each side of the cannon, to ram and sponge the cannon, and hold the ladle.Prior to loading, the cannon would be well cleaned with a wet sponge to extinguish any smoldering material from the last shot (because fresh powder was about to be poured in, and any lingering ignition sources would set it off prematurely).The powder was added, followed by a wad of paper or hay, and the ball was thrown in.After ramming the cannon would be aimed with the elevation set using a quadrant and a plummet.The officer of artillery had to ensure the cannon was diligently served.The large amounts of gunpowder often affected visibility significantly.Battle of Borodino, which marked 1812 as a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars and inspired the 1812 Overture.The Britannica mentions "some occasions where 200 shots have been fired from these pieces in the space of nine hours, and 138 in the space of five."During the Napoleonic Wars, a British gun team consisted of 5 numbered gunners.The charge loaded, the No.In music
The cannon can be used as a kind of percussion instrument in certain pieces of music.The best known example is the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky, which should properly be played using an artillery section together with the orchestra.It is supposed to simulate the Battle of Borodino.The version using cannon fire was first laid down on a recording by the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in the 1950s.Cannon fire is used annually on the Fourth of July by the Boston Pops during their annual concert on the shores of the Charles River and by the National Symphony Orchestra during their annual concert on the steps of the US Capitol Building.DC also use cannon in their song For Those About to Rock, We Salute You.The album of the same name also features a cannon on its cover.They had even used real cannons for their live shows.Due to their impracticalities, cannon are used for only grand, theatrical pieces, often with a military theme.In the case of the 1812, the cannon may be replaced with bass drums or timpani.Less frequently strongly accented snare drum diminuendos can be heard.Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife."Weapons: An International Encyclopedia from 5000 B.Machiavelli, The Art of War, p.Britannica, which is in the public domain.Louisbourg and New Orleans (Fortress 27); Osprey Publishing, March 20 2005.ISBN 9781841767147
Chase, Kenneth (2003), Firearms: A Global History to 1700, Cambridge University Press.Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive that Changed the World, Basic Books.Civilisation in China, vol.V:7: The Gunpowder Epic, Cambridge University Press.Pocket edition (September 29, 1997).All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.It was simply a strong cylinder permanently closed at one end, and temporarily closed by a cannonball towards the other end, between which a charge of explosive was placed.The cannon was an early internal combustion engine, as the fusion bomb is today, with few constructive uses.This paper is devoted to the origins of gunpowder and cannon, and to firearms lore.Unfortunately, I am not able to provide graphic illustrations here, but many are available in the references.The invention of the cannon is a very imperfectly known story, although the main themes and approximate dates are clear.The dates, places and protagonists of the inventions of gunpowder and the cannon cannot be determined, because the invention was not a simple act.Gunpowder had to be invented first, but even here gunpowder is not one substance, but many, of differing properties.Gunpowder depends on the availability of pure nitrates or saltpetre, which does not occur naturally, and will not be found by accident.Therefore, the origin of cannon begins with a question of chemical engineering.The best chemical theories of the time, around AD 1000, were in all respects those of antiquity and utterly futile in the solution of this problem.One must clearly define an invention before the details of its invention can be determined.What Newton did was explain them, but the modern literary scholar has no more concept of what such an explanation could possibly be, and that there is more to the world than surface qualities, than a Scholastic (which Leonardo was not).Newton, indeed, purchased his prism at an optician's, where they were presented for sale precisely for the production of these colours.The fundamental inventions of gunpowder and cannon had been made by 1300, but the sources are rare, difficult to interpret, hard to date, and often contradictory.The best guess is that gunpowder followed quickly after saltpetre was discovered (that is, a process for its purification was developed) by Chinese alchemists around AD 900 and introduced to Europe via trade routes and travellers around AD 1225, and that cannon were invented in southern Europe just before AD 1300.Small arms appeared in this period, revolutionizing armies and warfare.Technical terms are often obscure, however, and writers can be biased and their histories fanciful.The history of developments after 1600 is much clearer and better documented, with reliable drawings and accurate dates.For example, there are excellent drawings of the siege of Stirling Castle by Edward I in 1304, that look like witnesses of how things appeared, but they certainly are not.There is not a scrap of graphic evidence of how the siege actually appeared, only a few scraps of parchment with writing, and the scene is an artist's reconstruction.It is important, but very difficult, to establish historical authenticity in the sources of technical history.The word canon was used in Latin for a gun (1326 in Italy, 1418 in England), but this is just a Latinized cannone, assimilated to an existing Latin word.Curiously, the word for the military authorities supplying cannons and gunpowder, ordnance, comes from ordinance, which is the real meaning of canon.Bombardum was used for cannon and cannonball as early as 1430, and bombator is known from 1456 for a gunner, or or bombardiator from 1547.Gunna and gonna are known from as early as 1370 for a gunner or gun, especially in England, and is variously assumed to derive from Gunnhilde (a woman's name commonly given to a cannon), mangonel (the ballista) or engine.Since an early form of the English word "gun" is "gonne," the source is probably mangonel, a military engine for throwing stones.The word "gun" has now superseded "cannon" in common use.In military use, it is not applied to personal weapons ("This is my rifle, this is my gun ..."In Danish, the word for gunpowder was "krud," from "kraut," and in Greek it was botanh, also referring to a herb.In this article, rockets will be discussed very briefly, although they are closely related to cannon.The story of cannon begins with gunpowder.The propellent gunpowder was the essential requisite for using a cannon, and it is not something that is easily made, nor found by accident.On Star Trek, Captain Kirk mixed coal, sulphur and saltpetre and shot an alien with an improvised gun, with a diamond as a bullet.It is not that simple, by a long ways, as in that example of childish imagination.The first step is to obtain pure potassium nitrate, called sal petrae, salt of the stone, saltpetre.Nitrates were not recognised in antiquity, where words like nitron always referred to carbonates or bicarbonates, and nitrates never occur in pure form in nature.Chinese alchemists seem to have discovered nitrates during the Sung dynasty, perhaps around AD 900, as a white, crystalline powder that cooled water when dissolved in it, and deflagrated vigorously when thrown on a fire.It was this last property that was new and exciting.Nitrates came to Europe as Chinese snow through trade routes as an alchemical curiosity.The first Arabic reference to saltpetre dates from 1225.Scholastics Roger Bacon (Franciscan) and Albertus Magnus (Dominican) probably knew about deflagrating mixtures as well as explosive mixtures (see below for the mixtures) containing nitrates, which were already used to make bangs, though not as propellents.These observations pretty soon led to cannon, however.In this article, gunpowder refers specifically to a propellent used in cannon, not to just any mixture involving saltpetre.Nitrates were named after their confusion with nitron, sodium carbonate; they were "false nitron."Nitron effervesces in vinegar (acetic acid), while nitre, saltpetre, does not.This is an easy way to tell them apart practically, but the names were often confused.Practically all nitrates are soluble, so it is very unusual to find a nitrate mineral.Chile Saltpetre, NaNO3, is found in large quantities in Chile and Peru, but this was not known until much later.Until the development of the Haber process for fixing atmospheric nitrogen at the beginning of the 20th century, nitrates were always in very limited supply.In places where nitrates are present in the soil, dissolved nitrates may appear as efflorescences on rocks in caves and similar places where the nitrate waters have evaporated.This would have greatly facilitiated its recognition as something special when it happened to fall into cooking fires.This origin is much simpler than would have been the case if one white powder was to be separated from another white powder before the peculiarity of the first white powder could be discovered.These deposits were rare and unrecognized in the West, so nitrates were unsuspected there.Mineral springs in Calabria contain nitrates, and nitrates are found in Touraine in France, but the largest source was from the urine of animals, in which the urea is converted by weathering into nitrates.To manufacture usable nitrates, the technique of purification by fractional crystallization and treatment with wood ashes is essential.In the United States, saltpetre was worked in the "nitre caves" of Kentucky at the beginning of the 19th century.Incendiary and poisonous preparations had long been exploited in siege warfare, in all parts of the world, before the appearance of nitrates in the West.These depended on natural petroleum, sulphur, pitch, and other combustibles, and were delivered from catapults or as smokes or jets.Some compounds that inflamed spontaneously were known, such as mixtures of lime and pitch that inflamed on contact with water, but they were not militarily useful.They did not call it Greek fire, because they did not call themselves Greeks, but Romans.The fact that Greek Fire was not quenched by water does not mean that it contained saltpetre; this is typical of oil fires.Partington suggests, with great probability, that the secret ingredient was petroleum naphtha distilled from crude oil.It seems very similar to the modern napalm.This made the fire independent of atmospheric oxygen, and caused it to burn intensely.In England, it was often called "wild fire."The composition of the original Sea Fire was lost and became a topic of speculation.Also known as Fire Men, these figures were painted green and strategically wreathed in ivy.They fell from view around 1700, surviving only on inn signs.Distillation, necessary to make petroleum naphtha, had been developed in Alexandria sometime in the 1st to 3rd centuries, notably by one Maria the Jewess.Mixtures in which pure nitrates are not predominant deflagrate only, and do not explode.The Chinese, and others, surely possessed such mixtures as soon as saltpetre became available.The fire lance was probably the next step.This was a bamboo tube several feet long, drilled through the joints and wrapped with strong twine to keep it from bursting, and attached to a long heft with which to hold and aim it.It was lighted from a fuze projecting from the muzzle, whereupon it would discharge its fire, gases, and projectiles to the front.They were simply pieces of green bamboo that would crack loudly when thrown into a fire, and thereby scare away evil spirits.The invention proceeded no further in China, beyond incendiaries, fire lances, and firecrackers.European gunpowder and cannon were reintroduced to China under the Ming dynasty by the Portuguese and others.The place and time of the invention of the cannon is unknown, but its evolution from the fire lance among the Turks, Arabs and Europeans can hardly be doubted.In 1304, Edward I made no use of cannon at Stirling, although he ordered saltpetre for Greek Fire, but by 1341 the castle was defended by the Scots with guns.Gascony fell after a month's bombardment by cannon in 1324.The Venetians are said to have used cannon for a siege in 1380, as did Alfonso XI about the same time against the Moors in Spain.The Osmanli Turks used large cannon at the final siege of Constantinople in 1453, by which date the innovation was widely known in the West.The last battle of the Hundred Year's War, at Castillon in Gascony in 1453, where John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, died, was decided by 300 cannon commanded by Jean Bureau.This was the first battle in which cannon were the deciding factor.The cannon used by Mehmed II at Constantinople in May, 1453, named the Basilic, was made by Urban, a Hungarian cannon engineer, with the help of Ottoman architects.It was 27ft long, and 2.It could be fired only three times a day, and was out of commission after 6 weeks, a victim of its heat and recoil.The defenders also had cannons, and it is said their recoil when fired from the wall was detrimental.The Basilic seems to have made a breach in a newer,inferior part of the Theodosian wall, but the Turks finally entered through a gate that was negligently left unlocked, since it was obscured by rubble.In Europe, a monk of Freiburg im Breisgau (in Baden), Constantine Anelzin, was credited with the discovery, but he is none other than Brother Berthold Schwartz, the legendary German inventor of guns and gunpowder.Der schwarze Berthold, "Black Bart," may have derived his epithet from his clothes (though, as a Fransciscan, they would have been grey), from his race (rather rare in Freiburg, though), from his occupation with the "black arts," or maybe from the colour of his hair.The legend of Black Bart was advanced by German students of military science in the 19th century to trace gunpowder and cannon back to German orgins.In fact, cannon were probably invented either in Italy or in Saxony, or in both places, around 1300, and Berthold reflects the Saxon claim.Partington, A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder (Cambridge: Heffer, 1960 and Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1999).It seems probable that cannon, and the proper gunpowder to use as a propellent, were invented in Europe.The first representation of a cannon in an illustration dates from 1326.Transmission in the reverse direction is, of course, well accepted.Roman legion captured by the Parthians was sold to a Chinese emperor, and many of the men remained even after they were ransomed, so valued had they become as engineers.Indeed, the first cannon in China were introduced by Jesuits in 1520, and the Japanese say fireworks were introduced to their country by the Dutch around 1600, at the port of Sakai, near Osaka.Gunpowder could not have been introduced to Europe by the Chinese, because gunpowder did not then exist.The constituents of gunpowder, the modern black powder, are potassium nitrate (saltpetre), sulphur, and carbon in the form of wood charcoal, in the approximate ratio by weight of 4:1:1 for a strong cannon powder to 10:1:2 for a pistol powder.The saltpetre is purified, mainly of common salt, lime and dirt, by recrystallization, the sulphur by distillation, while the charcoal must come from the best, uniform wood for the best powder.These ingredients are coarsely ground, and put in an iron pot, then moistened with water, alcohol, vinegar, or urine.Which liquid matters very little, since the objective is to extinguish any sparks.Unless the ingredients are tediously mixed this way, they will only burn or fizzle when ignited, not detonate.The saltpetre can be any nitrate salt, but KNO3 is the best because it is least hygroscopic.The nitrous earth is leached, treated with wood ashes to precipitate the calcium and magnesium and replace them by potassium, and the saltpetre separated from sodium by recrystallization from cool solutions, in which common salt remains soluble.Gunpowder was as valuable as the cannon themselves, and its supply became a national concern, with the King owning stable floors and such.K2S + N2 + 3CO2, but in actuality the reaction is much more complicated.Willow is reputed to be the best, and was used by the Chinese.Ordinary graphite (and most certainly coal or diamonds) would not work.Early gunpowders had strange and useless additions for alchemical reasons, or to make the smoke poisonous.Using a more vigorous oxidizing agent, such as potassium chlorate, KClO3, makes the powder impossibly sensitive and dangerous, as Berthollet discovered in 1786.The flour or meal is then moistened appropriately to make a paste, and pushed through a sieve to reduce it to small grains, of which the size and shape are very important.Swiss powder was reputed the best in Europe in the 18th century, and it had round, uniform grains.The dried grains were then packed in barrels, and carefully kept dry.Gunpowder had become an important commodity by the 18th century, and was widely traded.Fireworks later gave rise to the rocket, which projected a ball or bomb without the use of a cannon.Fine powder, meal or flour gunpowder, merely burns rapidly without detonating, so it was suitable for early, weak cannon.The snap of a firecracker is due to the fracturing of the enclosing paper, not the detonation of the powder.Grains, however, will detonate by means of a shock wave and release the gases much more rapidly, making a stronger gunpowder suitable for later cannon.Early powder was also closer to a 1:1:1 ratio, which also made it burn more slowly.These mixtures would explode if twisted up in a paper to make a squib, which was an exotic toy in their days.One of the du Ponts (American gunpowder manufacturers who fled France after Napoleon's defeat, adding the 'du' ennobling themselves later in America) blew up himself and a gunpowder mill in Wilmington, Delaware in the early 1800's.When gunpowder explodes, it increases in volume about 4000 times at normal pressure, so the effect is to produce a highly compressed gas behind the cannonball in a very short time.The combustion of gunpowder does not depend on atmospheric oxygen, because the oxidiser, saltpetre, is part of it.After the 1860's, black powder was replaced by nitrocellulose, or guncotton, made by treating plant fibre with concentrated nitric and sulphuric acids.Early guncotton works exploded in both England and France.There was a long, and largely futile, search for safer blasting compounds, called permitted explosives, for coal mining that would not ignite methane.After 1800, the New Chemistry discovered many new explosive compounds.Nitroglycerine, and other high explosives, are good for demolition and shattering, but cannot be used in cannon.They are now used in small portions to initate the explosion in other explosives which are relatively insensitive to shock, and therefore safe to handle.We have mentioned that the bamboo fire lance was the ancestor of cannon.The first metal cannon were made from iron bars welded together side by side in the form of a cylinder strengthened by iron hoops, (suggesting the term barrel), and the first cannonballs were often of stone, weighing up to 450 lb or more.Many smaller cannon shot arrows, or quarrels.Some cannon were made in two parts, barrel and chamber, separately loaded and wedged or screwed together for firing.Early cannon could only fire a few times per day.James II of Scotland was killed by a burst cannon at the siege of Roxburgh in 1460.This may be a good reason why the Chinese were satisfied with only noise and flame.In some historical accounts, early cannon called bombards were confused with catapults of that name, also used as siege engines, so that some impossibly large early cannon are recorded.From the cannon of various sizes, the field cannon on wheels, the musket, and the pistol were developed, each with its own style of mobility and scope of use.The best cannon were cast in bronze, and were bored so that the stone, iron or lead cannonballs fit closely, without packing.Earlier cannon had to use straw or cloth, or a wooden plug, to achieve a good fit.Forged iron cannonballs with lead covering were used.Only the smaller cannon used lead balls; in at least one case, they were square!Gun metal was 9 parts copper to one part tin, a different alloy than that used for bells.Cast iron was a much cheaper material than bronze, and when it became available, it was used not only for cannonballs, where it completely superseded stone by the end of the 16th century, but also for the cannon themselves.The French did not trust them, but the English made good ones.Generally, the toughness of bronze or brass meant that a cannon cast of these materials would rupture or split if it failed.One should also note that the cannonballs could be either stone or metal.After casting, the cannon was bored to make the barrel accurately cylindrical.The cannon was held either vertically or horzontally and rotated about its long axis, while the boring tool was fed into one end by gearing.After this, the touch hole was drilled out with a drilling machine, perhaps one using a bowstring to rotate the drill.Cannon were also used at Agincourt in 1415.The earliest use of cannon is not definitely known, but occurred sometime between 1300 and 1350.The use of cannon spread rapidly between 1350 and 1400, by the latter date reaching Sweden and Russia, after which cannon were known throughout Europe and were approaching a standard form.The classic cannon had a characteristic shape, tapered from base to mouth.There were rings around the barrel as a decorative feature that recalled the hooped barrels of much earlier times.From the base of the cannon towards the muzzle, these were called the base, ram force, trunnion, cornish, and mouth rings.The base of the cannon was provided with a small ball called the cascabel (a Spanish word) for help in pointing the cannon.The trunnions are the cylindrical extensions used to mount the gun in its carriage, and to permit it to be elevated and depressed.The elevation could be set and held with wedges between the cannon and its carriage, or by a screw.There were often rings and ears for managing the cannon with ropes.To fire a cannon, this was the drill.The ball was then put in the bore, and rammed firmly against the wad.When the chamber pressure rose to the critical level, the charge then detonated, and the cannon discharged the ball at practically the speed of sound.Cannonballs had to be spherical.Otherwise, they would tumble uncontrollably due to air resistance, and tend to arrange the long axis of the projectile perpendicular to the direction of projection, giving maximum drag.Cylindrical projectiles are possible only if they rotate around their long axis, or are guided by fins.In the 17th century, it was taught that the ball left the cannon travelling in a straight line, in what was called violent motion (due to the explosion).This was complete rhubarb, but as it was difficult to see the actual path of a cannonball, this scientific description was plausible.Galileo showed that the trajectory in the absence of air resistance was a parabola in 1638.The Englishman Anderson pointed out some effects of air resistance in 1674, and also accepted the parabolic trajectory, but maintained that there was still a straight segment near the cannon.After Newton finally explained mathematically how to analyze the motion rationally with allowance for air resistance proportional to the velocity, Benjamin Robins finally took air resistance properly into account, finding it increased rather as the square of the velocity, and actually measuring air resistance and muzzle velocities accurately.Gunners used several kinds of mathematical instruments in their trade.Internal and external calipers were necessary to determine the size of the bore and the diameter of the cannonballs.Cannonballs were classified by weight.However, this designation depended on the material assumed for the cannonball.In Germany, stone balls were assumed, for example, but iron was the eventual standard.The use of the diameter of the bore instead, the calibre, was much later.The gunner's quadrant (invented by Tartaglia) was put in the mouth of the cannon to determine the elevation of the barrel by means of a plumb bob.English cannon, like others, were given names that indicated their sizes.Its overall length was slightly more than 11 ft.Larger cannon were rejected as too dangerous and unreliable.Later in the century, the Carron Iron Works on the Firth of Forth, then having more blast furnaces (4) than any other iron works in Great Britain, began supplying shorter cannon that fired the same weight of shot as the long cannon.These were called carronades, and were popular with the British Admiralty, since they enabled a ship to have a heavier broadside because they were lighter and could be used on upper decks.Their range was not as great as that of the long guns, however, so they often put the ships carrying them at a disadvantage.The reason for this was probably to prevent stress concentrations that tended to burst cannon in this point when a small touch hole was used, but this is only a guess.The end of the bore was usually rounded out to a spherical shape to hold the charge.Early bombards were usually mortars.The barrel was much shorter in terms of its diameter than that of the usual cannon, perhaps 8 calibres.The short barrel might occupy only about half the length of the piece, the other half a chamber of smaller diameter to hold the charge of powder.The balls would, for example, sail over walls to come down inside a fort and roll around, as recommended by de Vauban.The propelling charge is placed at the end of this tube, into which a fixed spigot, a solid rod, is inserted for support.This is just an inversion of the usual mortar, well adapted to firing multiple projectiles.The antisubmarine hedgehog of World War II was a good example of a spigot mortar.Howitzers were also considered as more mobile than cannon.The word comes from the Bohemian for catapult, houfnice, through German.Many of the names of artillery pieces come from earlier mechanical artillery, and some were fanciful.Individual pieces sometimes were given women's names, such as Mons Meg at Edinburgh Castle, made of iron bars and supposed to come from Mons (which is doubtful).They were not usually fired from cannon until later.The largest bombs were about 13 in diameter, 2 in thick, and weighed about 2 cwt, holding a little over 10 lb of powder.They shattered on exploding, sending bits everywhere.Grenades were merely small bombs thrown by hand instead of by a cannon.In England, bombs became known as shells by 1800, the word coming from the German Schale.The largest shells were thrown by mortars.Henry Shrapnel, RA, who invented a shell containing a charge only large enough to shatter the casing, and which was filled with small projectiles, that would travel on at the original speed of the shell.This kind of shell was first used in 1804.Shrapnel rounds were effective at long ranges.Henry VIII is reputed to have had mortars and bombs made by foreigners in 1544, and by 1634 they were in common use by the Dutch and Spanish.Of course, bombs could be as effectively thrown by catapults as by cannon.Incendiary bombs had been known since antiquity.Bombs bursting in air' may have been a common sight, when a fuze was lit too soon or burnt too fast.At the time, such air bursts were considered wasted rounds.They wanted the bomb to roll around a bit on the ground before exploding.Fuzes can be classified as percussion, igniting when the projectile hits its target, or concussion, igniting when the projectile is fired.Aerial bombardment comes under this rubric, but is not usually so included.As originally used, they were supposed to be laid in clearly marked areas, and charts of the exact location of each mine were to be kept by those who laid them.Modern armies being vile and cowardly, this is, of course, no longer done.Booby traps are very popular infernal machines.One thing that every cannon does is recoil.If you try to prevent it, the cannon usually smashes your restraint, the more violently the more you try to interfere with its motion.Anyone firing a pistol for the first time is shocked by the kick of the recoil.If you hold the trigger back on an automatic weapon, it simply climbs to fire at the heavens before you know it.If anyone shoots at you, always duck; chances are their shot will go high.The bolt of an automatic pistol recoils inside the weapon, and is brought to a halt by springs, so the recoil is eased somewhat.When you see the cannon on television merely belching smoke and shivering, you know they are not firing a ball.The cannon was originally lashed to a log or pole, or to a flat table, and supported in a rest near the muzzle.In this form, the cannon was not mobile, the recoil was difficult to absorb, and the piece could not be elevated conveniently.To permit elevation, trunnions could be pivoted in two sturdy beams on either side of the cannon, made a single unit by spacers.Elevation was then set by wedges or coigns, or else by a screw.However, the cannon could not then be easily pointed, and the recoil was still difficult to handle.The answer was found by using only two wheels, with the axle supporting a sturdy trail that accommodated the cannon with its trunnions.Now the cannon could be easily pointed, and the trail could be dug in to absorb the recoil.Two or four horses was the usual team, though there was an effort to make light cannon that could be moved with a single horse.Balls passing overhead or to the side make a definite and chilling rushing sound.Galileo used cannon to measure the speed of sound; certainly someone did, since it was so obvious.The sound from cannon a mile away is heard some five seconds after one sees the smoke.Nevertheless, early measurements were inaccurate.Cannon could provide other scientific information.Count Rumford was astonished by the amount of heat generated by boring a cannon, and measured it with a calorimeter.At the time, it was considered that the heat fluid, caloric, was squeezed out of the metal in boring, but Rumford's experiment seemed to show that it could be created in unlimited amounts, raising serious doubts as to its material nature.Cannon firings were used as time signals, as well as expressions of welcome for VIP's, or when the local team scores.Projectile motion is a standard exercise in elementary Physics.This neglects wind resistance, which is not a good assumption for most cannon trajectories, where the muzzle velocity may be close to sonic, and certainly not good enough for accurate firing tables.M)V, from the conservation of momentum.English mathematician and writer on ballistics, and was used for the evaluation of the strength of gunpowder and the measurement of air resistance.An account appears in his New Principles of Gunnery (1742).The pendulum weighed 56 lb 3 oz, and it was 52" from its centre of gravity to the support.At first, these were simply straight grooves, apparently to combat fouling of the barrel, and appeared as early as 1500.Cannonballs and bullets were always spherical until about 1875.Robins pointed out that the rotation imparted by rifling had a stabilising effect only when the axis of rotation was in the direction of motion.After it gave rise to the cannon, a need was felt for a portable weapon that could be carried and fired by an individual soldier.The first was a small cannon on the end of a wooden shaft, held between the arm and the body.The projectiles were usually lead balls, which were easily cast to size.Warfare was revolutionised, since cowards and villains now became useful soldiers, and the rudely trained common man could profitably be sent into the field, in place of the valuable horseman.At first, the use of small arms was deprecated as contrary to the usages of war and chivalry, but the objection did not long last when it was found that the meaner classes did most of the dying.Infantry, indeed, means 'those who do not speak.Firearms are most effective when used sneakily from ambush with surprise, and especially against the unarmed and unwary; they represent the triumph of the sneak, coward and poltroon.The wiser know that weapons should be carried concealed.These bullets could pierce armour.The lack of standardisation of the calibre of muskets made the supply of large units difficult, so light muskets were made of a standard calibre, and these weapons came to be called calivers, the characteristic weapon of a common infantryman in Elizabethan times.Their balls could not pierce armour.Even calivers were inconvenient for the cavalry, who needed a shorter weapon, and one that could be carried without occupying the hands, which were required for managing the horse.Indeed, until the 19th century cavalry fighting mounted used only pistols and sabers, crossed sabers being their badge.The carbine was developed from the short Moorish musket, with a barrel as short as 24" or even shorter.The name comes from the Arabic carab, "weapon."The matchlock was cheap and effective, but its continuous light gave away the position of its user at night.When the spring was released, the rotating wheel produced a stream of sparks that ignited the priming charge.This snaphaunce appeared in the 16th century, and lasted until the introduction of percussion locks in the 19th century (1830).The search for a safe and convenient way to use the newly discovered fulminates was a long one, and the secret turned out to be to encapsulate the substance between copper foils.The final development was the used of a 'needle' or firing pin instead of a hammer to strike the cap.Lead bullets were easy to cast as needed, which was essential when there was no standardization of calibre.Antimonical lead, or hard lead, could be used for bullets.The Kentucky Rifle used bullets 16 to 20 to the pound, or calibres of 0.The first cannon were seige engines, throwing heavy stones like the catapults and trebuchets they replaced.Fortifications could also mount fixed cannon for defense.Until the early 17th century, cannon in a battle were immobile.Where initially located, they remained throughout a battle.There was a great desire for a cannon that could be deployed flexibly depending on the course of a battle.Gustavus Adolphus ordered a leather cannon, with a barrel of thin copper surrounded by rope and leather, for his war with Poland.Cannon added a new service branch to the field army.It was a shock weapon, most effectively used in mass, and its placement was critical.The battery itself was fixed, but fire could be directed to any point within range very quickly.The battery had to be carefully protected from assault, while its field of fire had to be as open and level as possible.One good volley across the front of a cavalry or infantry charge would lead to incredible destruction.Grapeshot had a wooden base and a rod perpendicular to it, around which bullets were stacked, all inside a cloth bag.The shell was a hollow shot filled with gunpowder and fitted with a fuze, as described above.The fuze was lighted, and the shell rammed into the gun and fired.In all this activity, the gun was generally pointed level or only slightly elevated.The battery could protect itself fairly well against a frontal assault by firing directly into the enemy.Cannon rendered fortresses and castles mere temporary protection.In 1494, the Earl of Warwick reduced Bamborough Castle of the revolting Percies to rubble in a week.In 1523, Philip of Hesse brought the most powerful fortress in the Palatinate, Landstuhl, to its knees in a day.The muzzles would be elevated for long range, and the fire directed on an enemy battery, which might reply in kind.Observation of the fire could correct the aim of the cannon for maximum effect.Before the age of electrical communication, only targets that could be seen from the battery, or from a nearby hill, could be attacked by observed fire.Where cannon fire could not be observed, it was generally ineffective, so elevated cannons were not a common sight until later days, when observers could use telephones for spotting.Cannon quickly became indispensable for naval warfare.The engagement did not begin at full range of the cannon, but usually at 'half pistol shot' or about 100 yards, frighteningly close, when the broadsides would have their maximum effect.Lighter guns were placed on higher decks, and even on the top deck.These guns fired broadside, so the ship had to be manoeuvred to direct their fire.Guns on the weather deck could be aimed more flexibly, and the cannon placed at the bows and the stern were especially valuable to protect the ship from attack from these directions, which were favoured by attackers since they were not then exposed to the ship's broadside.When two ships encountered one another, their captains carefully considered their chances, so the result was that nearly all individual battles were between ships of about the same size.More information on naval warfare with cannon around 1812 can be found in Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail, which includes some photographs of cannon and a discussion of the different types used on ships.Admiralty, who could not conceive of a ship without such armament.These cannon were, in fact, totally useless to this ship and were even a disadvantage, since they got in the way, represented unnecessary weight, and required gun ports that weakened the ship.This was a light weapon consisting of a relatively thin tube with a base plate, and a means to hold and adjust the elevation of the tube.The ammunition was a small bomb with stabilizing fins to which the charge of powder was attached in the form of several small bags, the desired number of which would be used as the charge.The detonator in the centre struck a firing pin at the base of the tube when the mortar round was dropped inside, and the explosion would loft the round into the air on a high trajectory.This gave even small units their own artillery, which could be very effective, specially when a modest battery of them could be formed by pooling company resources.Rees' Cyclopaedia (1819), passim.O'Neil, Castles and Cannon (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1960) has information on medieval British castles and cannon, with a few illustrations of early cannon.Robins came from a quaker family of Bath.Wikipedia provides many obscure facts, as well.Return to Tech Index
Composed by J."Are you sure you want to block this user?Enter your mobile number below to receive updates, exclusive content from me!Nick Cannon featured on All Hip Hop !!!!!Are You a Dime Contest!!!!And hed be the first to admit hes seen one too many of the latter himself.Is it something worth devoting the talent and energies of yourself and the people supporting you, or is it snatching at real just because you have the momentum to make things happen.And I always try to do my homework.They were bursting with inspiration for each idea and not just because they were hot and it was handed to them.Everyday I wake up I remind myself my mission is to be the first and the best Nick Cannon.Cannon (I swear I have ADD he jokes) hitting his goals on all cylinders.Creator, Director, Host and the creative force behind the ..PNB Nation, and most recently signed a much heralded deal with Motown Records to launch Can I Ball Records, aligning with storied executive and President of Motown, Sylvia Rhone, to deliver an arsenal of new artists, as well as his own albums.Sylvia has been such a mover and shaker in the industry, she defines my idea of what a great executive should be, says Cannon.Working with her, and being part of the great Motown legacy is like a dream come true.Kanye West produced a track for me on the album (the up tempo My Wife) and he was so influential in my overall philosophy towards the album, and how I can relate to the audience out there in everything that I do, says Cannon.Stages to me represents the various stages it took to get here, the performance stage, the stages of your career, and now this new stage of controlling my business platforms so that my growth reflects every direction that I want to go in.Its also indicative of Cannons strategic compass that he seldom moves forward without looking back, reflecting on the many small and giant steps it took to achieve his incredible accomplishments in such a short span of time.The young Cannon would even open for his dad in church, eventually moving back to California at age 13, where he began exploring the comedy club circuit.His first big break came at the famed Comedy Store when he was 15, and a subsequent breakthrough role 3 years later on the hit Nickelodeon series All That, cementing his rep as a rising star with an uncanny business sense.Before long, Cannon was holding down his own starring vehicle on the cable network, the award winning Nick Cannon show, directing and producing the lively showcase, as well.The acclaim Cannon received would eventually lead to his 2002 breakout movie, Drumline, and other key movie roles, including 2003s Love Dont Cost A Thing.Kelly, Lil Romeo and B2K.Its a reflection of Cannons confidence and willingness to keep learning that he seeks out industry stalwarts such as Rhone and Williams to help him map out his next series of moves in the volatile music industry.But part of maintaining success is knowing what your purpose is.DIV td, li, p, div, textarea tablea.All fields are required.What's poppin Nick just dippin thru real breif 2 see whats good hope all is well takecare..Comment Myspace Sexy at CommentMyspace.Everyone check out my new song called killa in the attic!!I'll be married this Saturday.Myspace joint for a min!Just dropped in to say, Thanks 4 da add!Is Therefore Under Our Own Control"The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time."Thanks for the add, bro!Successful Please keep me forever where I have loaded my self...When no one is there for you**And you think no one cares**When the whole world walks out on you**And you think you're alone**I'll be there**When the one you care about the most**Could care less about you**When the one you gave your heart to**Throws it in your face**I'll be there**When the person you trusted**Betrays you**When the person you share all your memories with**Cant even remember your birthday**I'll be there**When all you need is a friend**To listen to you whine**When all you need is someone**To catch your tears**I'll be there** When your heart hurts so bad** You cant even breathe** When you just want to crawl up and die**I'll be there**When you start to cry**After hearing that sad song**When the tears just won't**Stop falling down**I'll be there**So you see I'll be there until the end**This is a promise I can make**If you ever need me**Just give me a call and...EVEN ME IF YOU CARE ABOUT ME ASA HOMIE OR CRAZY VATO...Hey Nick, thanks for the add...Just stopped by to show you some LOVE!This could be an attempt to steal your username and password.This is not a MySpace login page, please do not enter your MySpace login information (email address or password).Do you wish to continue your form submission?"This video has been added to your favorites.The video has been added to your playlist.Thank you for flagging this video.Per our Community Guidelines, hate speech is specifically defined in reference to "protected groups."Thank you for sharing your concerns.We can only process copyright complaints submitted by authorized parties in accordance with processes defined in law.There may be significant legal penalties for false notices.In order to process a privacy complaint we need more information from you.Thank you for sharing this video!Change this to see only comments above a certain value.Change the value of a comment by clicking on a thumb.If I said this was the best thing put on You Tube it would be an understatement!Please make a video to teach people to play it.Would you like to comment?The code changes based on your selection.Cannon include guns, howitzers, and mortars.The section of the lower leg in some hoofed mammals between the hock or knee and the fetlock, containing the cannon bone.To bombard with cannon.To cause to carom in billiards.To make a carom in billiards.Middle English canon, from Old French, from Old Italian cannone, augmentative of canna, tube, from Latin, reed.Library
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More...Such ordnance was first recorded in Ghent in 1313 and was used at the siege of Metz in 1324.The defeat of the English army by the French at Formigny on 15 April 1450 was probably the first in which field artillery played a significant role; and the eviction of the English from France was largely due to the reduction of English fortresses by French guns.They were made of wrought iron strips bound together with hoops and fired stone shot.Moyen (12 oz ball), the Robinet (1 lb ball), the Aspic (2 lb ball), the Falconet (3 lb ball), the Dragon (6 lb ball), and the Culverin (18 lb ball).Heavier pieces included the Bastard Cannon (36 lb ball), the Cannon Royal (48 lb ball), and the Syren (60 lb ball).Early siege cannon, or bombards, were heavy and rested in a static mount.The idea of concentrating cannon in batteries for a more decisive effect was perhaps Napoleon's greatest contribution to tactics.By the 1860s, heavier cannon were generally reinforced with wrought iron collars to contain the higher pressures of more powerful ammunition.August Kotter had described the greater accuracy achieved by a spinning ball as early as 1520 and the benefits of rifled barrels were explained by Benjamin Robbins in 1742, but the metallurgy of the day was inadequate for such designs.They had existed since the 15th century but technology was wanting until the late 19th century.Increasingly powerful ammunition destabilized the piece, reducing the rate of fire.These were first deployed for coastal defence in the early 1890s and lighter versions for field use followed.Field artillery today is either SP or towed.Future towed cannon are likely to be lighter to increase their airportability, making them more strategically and tactically mobile.Field Artillery and Firepower (Oxford, 1989).German Artillery of World War Two (London, 1975).Cannons, an Introduction to Civil War Artillery (Gettysburg, Pa.They were mounted on wheeled carriages, which were thrown backward when the cannon was fired.Rifled bores and breechloading were adopted in the later 19th century, and new mechanisms such as the hydraulic buffer absorbed the recoil.Before 1850 ammunition was either cannister, grapeshot, or round, solid cannonballs and black powder, but rifled bores made possible the use of elongated projectiles, which had a longer range.Ambrose Bierce
cannon
n.Lower part of the leg extending from the hock to the fetlock in hoofed mammals; A large artillery gun that is usually on wheels.Tutor's tip: A "cannon" is a weapon that fires heavy projectiles, a "canon" is a set of written documents that are authoritative, while a "canyon" or "canon" is a deep gorge.Not to be confused with Canon.They were first used in
China, and were the archetypal form of artillery.The
first cannon in Europe probably appeared in Islamic and Christian Spain.The end of the Middle Ages saw the construction of larger and more powerful cannon, and their spread in warfare throughout
the world.Asia saw the construction of some of the world's largest cannon, such as the
Indian Jaivana cannon.The "giant gun" trend was by then disappearing in Europe, in favor of lighter, more manoeuvrable pieces in larger numbers, and
the early use of true field artillery.While the medieval Dardanelles Gun had
required 200 men to operate it, 18th century English cannon required only a dozen men,
including two gunners, while during the Napoleonic Wars five gunners were used.DC's For those about to rock, we salute
you.The Latinised word canon was used for a gun
since 1326 in Italy, and 1418 in England.Bombardum, or "bombard", was earliest used for "cannon", but from 1430 it came
to refer only to the largest weapons."Cannon" serves both as the singular and plural of the noun, although the plural "cannons" can also be used.The term can apply
to a modern day rifled machine gun with a calibre of 20 mm or more (see autocannon).When on board a warship a cannon is called a gun, while a cannonball is a roundshot.For more details on the history of gunpowder, see Gunpowder.For more details on development of gunpowder warfare in China, see Technology of Song Dynasty.Ctesibius of Alexandria invented a primitive form of a cannon, operated by compressed air,
before 200 BC.The first documented battlefield use of artillery with gunpowder propellant took place on January 28, 1132 when
Song General Han Shizhong used escalade and Huochong to capture a city in Fujian.The first illustration of a cannon is dated to 1326.In his 1341 poem The Iron Cannon Affair, one of the first accounts
of the use of gunpowder artillery in China, Zhang Xian wrote that a cannonball fired from an eruptor could "pierce the heart or
belly when it strikes a man or horse, and can even transfix several persons at once".Huolongjing may be among the first of their kind.The Chinese mounted more than 3,000 bronze and iron casted cannons on the
Great Wall of China in defence against the Mongols.The weapon was taken up by the
Mongol conquerors later, and was also used in Korea.Middle East
Main article: Muslim military technology
The first explosive portable hand cannons
(midfa in Arabic) were used by the Egyptians to
repel the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut in
1260, and again in 1304.The gunpowder compositions used for the cannons at the battles were later described in several
manuscripts in the early 14th century.The gunpowder compositions for an explosive cannon were not known in China
or Europe until the 14th century."We can, with saltpeter and other substances, compose artificially a fire that can be launched over long distances...By only
using a very small quantity of this material much light can be created accompanied by a horrible fracas.Bacon described firecrackers, "used in certain parts of the world".The first use of gunpowder in Europe was the Moorish cannon first used by the Andalusians in Spain at the siege of Seville
in 1248, and the siege of Niebla in 1262.Cannon saw its first real use on the European battlefield during the Hundred Years
War, being only used in small numbers by a few states during the 1340s.The Florentine Giovanni Villani recounts their
destructiveness on the field, indicating that by the end of the battle, "the whole plain was covered by men struck down by arrows
and cannon balls.""Dardanelles Gun Turkish Bronze 15c.Similar cannon appeared also at the Siege of Calais in the same year, although it
would not be until the 1380s that the "ribaudekin" clearly became mounted on wheels.The first definite use of artillery in the region was against the Ottoman siege of
Constantinople in 1396, forcing the Turks to withdraw.The Turks acquired their own
cannon by the siege of 1422, using "falcons", which were short but wide cannon.Tsar Cannon, the largest howitzer ever made, by Andrey Chokhov."Tsar Cannon, the largest howitzer ever made, by
Andrey Chokhov.The end of the Middle Ages saw the construction of larger and more powerful cannon, and their spread in warfare throughout the
world.The Tsar Cannon, founded by Russian founding master
Andrey Chokhov in 1586, was the largest howitzer ever
made.The cannon, which still survives today, was intended to fire grapeshot and to defend
the Kremlin, but was never used.In fact, with such a large cannon, it may have been
intended as a showpiece of military might and engineering from the beginning.Conventional siege artillery, such as siege towers and trebuchets, became vulnerable and
obsolete with the development of large cannon and changes in fortification.As wheeled gun carriages became more common by the end of the 15th century, field artillery began to emerge.As was the case at Flodden in 1513, the English field guns outpaced the Scottish
siege artillery firing twice or even thrice as many rounds.Most notable in this period, however, is the effect of cannon on conventional fortifications.Although castles were not immediatedly made obsolete by
cannon, their importance declined.Instead of majestic towers and merlons, the walls of new
fortresses were thicker and angulated, while towers became lower and stouter.Forts featuring cannon batteries were built during the Renaissance, such as the trace italienne of Italy and the Tudors' Device Forts in
England.These soon replaced castles in Europe, and eventually castles
in the Americas were superseded by bastions and forts.By
the end of the century, principles long adopted in Europe specified the characteristics of cannon of the British ship design and
the types and sizes of acceptable defects.Navy tested guns by measurement, proof by powder (two or three firings), and
using compressed water for leak detection.It was much shorter and a third to a quarter of the weight of an equivalent long gun:
for example, a 32 pounder carronade weighed less than a ton, but a 32 pounder long gun weighed over
3 tons.As a result, the classification of Royal
Navy vessels in this period can mislead, since they would often be carrying more pieces of ordnance than were listed.The Turkish cannons of the siege of Constantinople, after being on permanent display for four centuries, were used to battle a
British fleet in 1807.The artillery hit a British ship with two 700 pound cannonballs, killing 60 sailors.American Civil War with an effective range
of over 1.The carronade, although initially very successful and widely adopted, disappeared from the Royal
Navy from the 1850s after the development of steel, jacketed cannon by William George Armstrong and Joseph
Whitworth.Nevertheless, carronades were used in the American Civil War in the
1860s.The practice of rifling, involving casting spiralling lines inside the barrel, was first
applied to artillery in the 1860s, giving new cannon gyroscopic stability and improving their
accuracy.The superior cannon technology of Westerners in later years would bring them tremendous advantages in warfare.For example, in
the Opium War in China during the 19th century, the British battleships bombarded the coastal
areas and fortifications safe from the reach of the Chinese cannon.It can also operate as a lower velocity,
high trajectory, indirect fire weapon or howitzer.Nevertheless, tanks can fire high trajectory missions and artillery
cannons can fire direct fire missions if the battlefield situation calls for it.The minimum calibre of a cannon, 20 mm, has been a de facto standard since World War
II, when heavy machine guns of 12.RAF fighters with 20 mm Hispano cannon and
Luftwaffe with 20 mm and 30 mm cannon).The
Bofors 40 mm gun and Oerlikon 20 mm
cannon are two examples largely used during World War II, and still in use today.Mark 45 gun, immediately after the shell has left the barrel."Mark 45 gun, immediately after the shell has left the barrel.At the same time, the guns used aboard the Iowa class USS Wisconsin and USS Missouri were
capable of firing projectiles a distance of 39 km.Significant innovations have been made regarding the cannon's place in modern warfare."Superguns" have been developed since the early 20th century, and the 20 cm (200mm) calibre "Paris Gun" of World War I had the greatest range of a gun, achieving 122
km.Cannon have also found peaceful application outside warfare, such as water cannon,
snow cannon, hail cannon and cannon netting."The parts of a cannon described, John Roberts, The Compleat Cannoniere, London 1652."The parts of a cannon described, John Roberts, The Compleat Cannoniere, London 1652.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, while the left gunner would fetch the powder from the magazine and keep ready to
fire the cannon at the officer's command.Three soldiers stood on each side of the cannon, to ram and sponge the cannon, and hold
the ladle.Prior to loading, the cannon would be well cleaned with a wet sponge to extinguish any smoldering material from the last shot
(because fresh powder was about to be poured in, and any lingering ignition sources would set it off prematurely).The powder was
added, followed by a wad of paper or hay, and the ball was thrown in.After ramming the cannon would be aimed with the elevation
set using a quadrant and a plummet.The officer of artillery had to ensure the cannon was diligently served.The large amounts of gunpowder often affected visibility significantly.Gunners hope for a strong wind that will allow them to continue to see their target."The large amounts of gunpowder often affected
visibility significantly.Battle of Borodino, which marked 1812 as a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars and inspired the 1812 Overture."During the Napoleonic Wars, a British gun team consisted of 5 numbered gunners.At the same time, the No.The charge loaded, the No.In music
The cannon can be used as a kind of percussion instrument in certain pieces of
music.The best known example is the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky, which should properly be played using an artillery section together with the
orchestra.The version using
cannon fire was first laid down on a recording by the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra
in the 1950s.Subsequent similar recordings have been made by other groups, exploiting the advances in audio technology.Cannon
fire is used annually on the Fourth of July by the Boston Pops during their annual concert on the shores of the Charles River and by the
National Symphony Orchestra during their annual concert on
the steps of the US Capitol Building.DC also use cannon in their song
For those about to rock, we salute you.The
album of the same name also features a cannon on its cover.Due to their impracticalities, cannon are used for only grand, theatrical pieces, often with a military theme.In the case of
the 1812, the cannon may be replaced with bass drums or timpani."Weapons: An International Encyclopedia from 5000 B.Arms and Amour in Spain
Holmes, Richard.Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive
that Changed the World, Basic Books.Naval Documents related to the United Stats Wars with the Barbary Powers, Volume I.V:7: The Gunpowder Epic, Cambridge University Press.Marlborough: The Crowood
Press.Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.Mil, Hist) canon, (Aviat) canon, (GB) carambolage (billards)v.To select your translation preferences click here.Post a question or answer questions about "cannon" at WikiAnswers.Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.Read more
Military History Companion.The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.Oxford University Press, Inc.Spindle Learning, a 501(c) nonprofit organization.Spindle provides personalized spelling and vocabulary tutoring online; free trial.This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Cannon".More InfoAdd Answers to the IE7 Toolbar Search Box!Select Article
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US Military Dict.What is a cannon?What was the name of the new cannon by the Germans?For Cannon Soldier it's effect allows you to tribute a monster on your side and inflict 500 pts to ...Who invented the cannon?Do you have the answers?What other systems does the reproductive system interact with to help maintain homeostasis?In what year did Congress split the Great Sioux Nation into six smaller nations?What types of fish are found in the bodies of water of Georgia?What British colonies existed in 1754? |
