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{{Template:Origin|text=This article describes some famous artillery pieces with connections to the era of the British in India.<br>The information and images have been provided by Elizabeth Hancox, FIBIS member and acknowledged expert on gunswith a special interest in artillery.}}
[[Image:0001 Woolwich Barracks.jpg|650px|thumb|left|The Barracks of the Royal Arsenal Woolwich]]<div style="clear:both"></div>
L 3ft 9in ( 114.3 cm) 4ft 2 in (127cm) Cal 4.2in (10.7cm) wt 7cwt 8lb (359.2 kg).
Transferred from the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich 1968. This gun together with a similar one now in the Rotunda Museum Woolwich which may have formed part of another gift, is similar in form and decoration to the above but bears the name D PREGRAVE . Presgrave and is dated 1839 (its companion at Woolwich is illustrated as fig, 85 in ‘plans of ordnance captured by the Army of the Sutledge during the campaign of 1845-46’. Drawn by Capt Ralph Smyth, Bengal Artillery.n.d)
=== Bronze Tiger Mortar ===
'''Bronze Mortar'''
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The [[3rd Burma War]] was prosecuted using large gun vessels such as “IRRAWADDY” and “KATHLEEN”, barges, flats, small pleasure craft and the like, in order to move troops and equipment up river to complete the subjugation of Upper Burma. All these vessels carried guns of various calibres. “IRRAWADDY” did carry a 64-pounder cannonade carronade amongst other guns. One of the barges “WHITE SWAN”, is noted as being “bristling with guns”
Apparently the Maymyo cannon have been placed on carriages suitable for use on the railway.
''The cannon is constructed of iron bars about 1½” square which run along the entire length. Round these bars lateral hoops or rings of similar bars are shrunk on and the whole welded together. Five pairs of enormous rings are welded onto the upper surface, apparently for the purposes of transport by means of long poles carried on men’s shoulders.
''
''Lying in close proximity is another lesser size and of the same construction, and a few yards tp to the east buried in rubbish and jungle is a third, about 7 or 8 ft long with a caliber calibre of about 16” which, from its chubby appearance, was probably a mortar for throwing shells or bombs."''<br />
These two descriptions are clearly of the same cannon although the measurements vary slightly. The photograph in George Bird’s book was taken by the famous war photographer Felice Beato who had finally settled in Mandalay and opened a curio shop. Finally the cannon was moved to the grounds of Mandalay Palace where the modern photograph was taken by Mr Mark Steevens.
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.
The 12th to 13th century chapel of St. Martha's built on a 600ft hill above the mill and half a mile distant, was considerably reduced by successive explosions, finally to a heap of stones, and only rebuilt in 1850. A massive explosion later on split the mill walls open, shattered the glass in the windows of the ancient manor and even severely damaged the village of Albury a short distance away, not to mention the deaths of the workmen and the terrible injuries caused by the volatile black powder, ignited by the slightest friction and spark.
== Sources and advice obtained for research ==
