| nevinsrip | 01 Nov 2015 12:07 a.m. PST |
What were the barrels made of for these type guns? Iron or brass? |
| xxSepsisxx | 01 Nov 2015 2:45 a.m. PST |
I am pretty sure that the one they have at Cowpens is a brass 3 pounder. |
| historygamer | 01 Nov 2015 7:35 a.m. PST |
It could be either, no hard and fast rule for artillery tubes of the period. |
| 42flanker | 01 Nov 2015 10:24 a.m. PST |
'Grasshopper' was a nickname specific to 'Lord Townsend's Light 3-pdr' as designed by Captain Congreve, was it not? My understanding is that they were brass/bronze guns. 'Galloper' refers to the carriage rather than to the barrel, so- as Historygamer says. Perhaps, since brass/bronze is lighter than iron, the heavier the calibre, relatively speaking, the more one would expect a gun designed for mobility to have a lighter barrel. Perhaps. |
| Supercilius Maximus | 01 Nov 2015 12:38 p.m. PST |
As the calibre reduced, tubes would not only be lighter than iron barrels, but also less expensive relative to iron barrels (ie there would be a huge difference in cost between iron and brass 24-pdr barrels – to the extent that brass versions of barrels that size were rarely, if ever, made – but a much smaller difference between the cost of iron and brass 3-pdr barrels, making the latter more economically viable). Another difference was that brass barrels were safer – iron barrels fragmented lethally when they failed, whereas brass would simply crack. |
Gunfreak  | 01 Nov 2015 12:50 p.m. PST |
I "THINK" that by the 1770s Iron guns where only found in forts, ships and seige train with all "field" pieces beeing bronze. And it would stay like that untill the 1850s/1860s(and even then the wrought/cast iron guns where still much more "oh I go bom now!!!" |
| summerfield | 02 Nov 2015 2:33 a.m. PST |
The 1-pdr and 3-pdr were made of bronze. Cast Iron was considered too likely to fracture so were made with a high weight ratio of 250:1 rather than 110:1 for the bronze guns.
Stephen |
| historygamer | 02 Nov 2015 8:25 a.m. PST |
I am not sure there are any hard and fast rules about what was used to make gun barrels, but would welcome any period info on the subject. FYI, the entire inventory of guns at Fort Pitt in the 1760s were bronze. |
| summerfield | 02 Nov 2015 9:06 a.m. PST |
Look at what I have written in the Smoothbore Ordnance Journal. Naval Guns were Cast Iron (some bronze was used by the French and Spanish due to poor casting of Iron). Royal Navy were still using some bronze guns from the 1700 establishment Garrison guns were Cast Iron for the British. Some bronze guns were used but they were old pieces. The French and Spanish were still using bronze. Siege Guns for British were cast iron. French and Spanish used bronze. All field guns were bronze except for the Swedes who used mainly cast iron due to the superior low sulphur iron used. |
| historygamer | 02 Nov 2015 9:16 a.m. PST |
Do you have a date range on that info, as according to Stotz, all the garrison guns at Fort Pitt were bronze. Interesting stuff. :-) |
paints brigs for the British fleet.
