Wooden Canon

[clockwork]

Saw this very intresting piece in the Armory in Malta. Enjoy the pics

[Ed]

Wow. Talk about a rarity.

Amazing that it survived.

[katana]

Originally Posted by Ed

Wow. Talk about a rarity.

Amazing that it survived.

Hi,
Perhaps this was a fake cannon ...to fool the enemy into believing you had more armaments . I believe that this tactic was used during the American Civil War and were call Quaker guns.

Rgards David

[celtan]

The Conquistadores used wooden canons, reinforced with iron belts...

[katana]

Originally Posted by celtan

The Conquistadores used wooden canons, reinforced with iron belts...

Hi Celtan ,
yes ..and others, however there seems to be no iron re-inforcing on the wooden cannon posted by Clockwork. There does seem to be a rope wrapped 're-enforcement' ...but it seems to be originally coated with something like clay or resin. So it is possible the rope was used to give the cannon shape and was not a strenghening 'aid'.

On 'Mythbusters' an American 'Discovery Channel' production, they constructed a cannon from a 'bored' tree trunk which had steel banding re-inforcement.. which actualy worked well. They eventually greatly overloaded it with an 'exaggerated' charge of gunpowder and blocked the barrel. Needless to say it exploded violently

Kind Regards David

[fernando]

Trying to focus on the muzzle; not all layers are in wood. First you have a 'shirt' in the bore and next to it, could be a (nother) metalic section ?
I wouldn't know about wooden cannons, but leather ones actually existed; i hace pictures somewhere around.
Still David's aproach is quite a pertinent one .

Fernando