15,832
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
0037a 24-pdr drg
Minor corrections
=== Kurnaul 24-pounder ===
[[Image:0037 Bronze 24-pdr.jpg|thumb|300px|24-pounder from Kurnaul]]
'''Bronze Gun 24-pounder'''<br>
Indian probably 18th century.
The muzzle, trunnion ends and cascable button are formed as ‘tigers heads’. Two tigers stripes appear on the chase and the reinforce rings are edged with engrailed bands in relief. The gun is unfinished, the vent has never been drilled, a cartouche on the second reinforce intended for inscription is blank, and a lump of metal below the cascable button intended to provide a fixing for an elevating screw has never been pieced pierced for the securing bolt.
Found with another in the fort of [[Kurnaul]], Madras Presidency, about 1838 (1859 Inventory, 137, No 85). Other pieces of ordnance from the same source are in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotunda_(Woolwich) Rotunda Museum Woolwich]. They were originally found concealed in the fort. From the Rotunda Catalogue 1864 it appears they were intended for the equipment of an insurrectionary force raised to drive the British out of India.
<gallery caption= widths="350px" heights="350px" perrow="2">
File:0075-Furnace-House-Waldern.jpg|'''Furnace Farm, Waldron.''' This was the site of HansonHarrison's Foundry and Furnace. Gun trunnions were marked with a 'W'.
File:0076-Large-furnace-pond.jpg|'''Large furnace pond in front of the house'''
</gallery>
The Fuller's forge at Old Heathfield was built in 1693 and lasted about a hundred years. The site is very large and has a huge man-made 'proving' bank at the base of which many cannonballs have been found. It also had a small quarry for test firing cannon and two boring mills on the stream. As at Waldron, these streams still run red with iron oxide from the massive deposits of congealed borings left in the stream beds. <br />
The Fullers also employed a Master Wheelwright among other highly skilled crafsmencraftsmen, and interestingly there is still a fully-functioning wheelwright's shop on the site today, operated by Douglas Andrews, who has himself constructed a new gun-carriage for an Islamic trophy gun ordered by the Colonel of the Royal Engineers.<br />
The Fuller's forge and foundry was constructed on a particularly difficult site. If it rained too much the site would flood and if it was too dry there was a lack of fast-flowing water in the stream to generate power. In a reply dated 17th October 1754 to the Prince of Severino, who was pressing for a firm delivery date for some guns he had ordered, John Fuller wrote: ''my furnace is a fickle mistress and must be humoured, her favours are not to be depended upon''.
</gallery>
The quantities of gunpowder loaded onto an 80 gun ship varied according to the theatre of war but would be about 288 barrels of cannon powder and 41 barrels of fine powder. Each barrel weighed 90lbs. Gunpowder was not used loose, but made up into cartridges, first of parchment and later of special cartridge paper. The method of priming a cannon was as follows: The cartridge of gunpowder would be placed down the muzzle, rammed home using a ramrod, wadded, and then the cannonball similarly. A sharp-pointed metal rod would be inserted into the vent to pierce the cartridge and the vent would then be filled up with fine powder. A portfire rod would be used to ignite the fine powder in the vent. This in turn ignited the cartridge, the resultant heat causing the gases generated to speedily build up into an explosive power sufficient to propel the cannonball up the barrel towards the target at high speed. The optimum amount of gunpowder needed per cartridge for a 32pdr. 32-pounder cannon would be 14lbs. (1 stone). Any excess could cause such a massive build-up of gases in the barrel thereby risking the destruction of the cannon and probably most of those attending upon it.<br />
The gunpowder mills at Chilworth near Guildford were founded by the East India Company in 1625. They were forced to leave their previous site near Woolwich because frequent explosive accidents caused havoc among the local population. There were, of course, accidents at Chilworth but it was not a heavily populated area. On one occasion a spark from a workman's hobnailed boot striking on a stone path caused an explosion which killed six men. The mills used the fast-flowing Tillingbourne stream to power the heavy grinding stones of the incorporating process. There were many stages involved in the manufacture and thus it was very labour-intensive. As far as the ingredients were concerned, local alder trees provided the finest charcoal, sulphur was imported from Sicily, and saltpetre imported from India cost £45 per ton. A sufficient supply to last seven years in July 1752 cost £9,000. The discovery that saltpetre could be manufactured from earth gathered from dovecots, to which dung, urine and lime were added, meant that it could be collected locally.
