just found this manual: (pdf format)
Gibbon Artillery Manual 2nd ed. 1863
rather extensive tome covering gunpowder and how to make it, artillery history,theory, construction in bronze and cast iron for coastal defence, naval and field artillery, alloys used, casting methods, bore turning, fittings, fixtures, tools, methods of employment, loading, firing, cleaning, spiking, unspiking, testing, etc. etc. also includes use with hot shot, heating shot in furnaces, how use of hot shot varied in differnt countries (french used wet hay wadding) use of sabots, rifling, elongated shot, shells, and even mentions electrical measurements of velocity (odd for 1863) as well as the development of gun cotton in 1846 which proved too strong for the guns and small arms of the time so was abandoned in spite of it's smokelessness...