"cannon barrel lengths" Topic

would someone here know or know where i could look to find out what the physical length of cannon barrels in the napoleonic era were? one can find many diagram of cannon but getting some actual measurements i have less luck

i posed a question re this in 6mm but perhaps a more general query on barrel lengths would suit here and then i can just work out the equivalent 1/285 scale from that

This link is to an article about the Spanish artillery but should give you some good information:
link

thanks that is some guide – i think also it confirms something i came across which gave the tube length of a 6pndr to be 165cm – which if converted to 6mm scale would be 5.7 mm – could anyone with a 6mm napoleonic army with 6pndr cannon confirm what the barrel length is?

"something i came across which gave the tube length"

In the era, the length dimensions of canon barrels were commonly given, in calibres, as :
(a) the length of the bore (i.e. without the breech and cascabel), or
(b) the length without the cascabel-button, or
(c) the real overall length.
Secondary sources, specially general works as opposed to artillery-specific, often conflate the three typical length measurements.
The definition of "calibre" was usually the diameter of the bore, but also sometimes the diameter of the round (i.e. the diameter of the bore less the windage), another source of error in generalist sources.

I looked up a couple of examples ….

French An XI 6-lber
--- calibre (diameter of the bore) : 3.516 pouces de France = 3.747 English inches = 95.2 mm
--- length of the barrel without cascabel-button : 17.339 calibres
--- length of the cascabel-button : 1.464 cailbres
--- total length of the barrel : 18.803 cailbres = 66.111 pouces de France = 70.451 English inches = 178.94 cm

Russian Model 1805 6-lber
--- calibre (diameter of the bore) : 3.762 Russian diuymov = 3.762 English inches = 95.6 mm
--- length of the barrel without cascabel-button : 17.000 calibres
--- length of the cascabel-button : 1.520 cailbres
--- total length of the barrel : 18.520 cailbres = 69.672 Russian diuymov = 69.672 English inches = 176.97 cm
The Russian Model 1798 6-lbers were the same, except the length of the cascabel-button was 1.000 calibres.

The above are rounded to tenths of millimeters and thousandths of inches, roughly the limits of manufacturing (as opposed to laboratory or scientific) measurement in the era.

You will notice that the total French barrel is almost 2 cm longer than the Russian in real life size – or – 0.07 mm / 2.7 thousandths of an English inch longer in 6mm scale

Sources :
link
link
link

Comment : Georg does great in 6mm, while I think 40mm is looking smaller and smaller as my eyes age.
:-)

Get the Nap. Artillery book by Dawson, Dawson and Summerfield.
Has everything.

Page 20 of this link gives some French Gribeauval barrel dimensions.

PDF link

Page 18 of this one gives some Russian dimensions.

PDF link

thanks for the information – that is great, it helps me with my little paper creations :)

Not sure what barrel length helps with it being the shortest part of the chain. Tring to do best with these, this one a Prussian 6 horse limber team with a 10pdr howitzer