Wooden Canon

[katana]

Originally Posted by fernando

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But you've made my day, though. This is the first time i see an English speaker spelling the word 'vinho' ... in strictly correct Portuguese .

Best
Fernando

Ah Fernando ....its almost a duty for an Englishman to know how to order a drink in any foreign land ........Cheers

Thank you for posting the pictures, the silk wrapped Chinese cannon is very interesting. The barrel looks metallic ...but has a thin walled barrel. Obviously the 'silk' wrapping adds strength to the barrel...and would assume this made it much lighter, making it easier to carry. A travelling army could 'carry' a larger number of such cannons than the 'normal' metal barrelled type .....more 'fire power' for the 'same' weight.

The tensile strength of silk is quite high (500 MPa) in comparison brass is 200+ MPa , copper is 70 MPa, cast iron is 130 MPa, Steel, high strength alloy is 690 MPa and Steel (AISI 1060 0.6% carbon) Piano wire is 2200-2482 MPa

I would assume that the leather and rope cannons were formed using the materials 'wet', as both materials would 'shrink and tighten' significantly once fully dry. This would mean the rope 'binding' would be extremely tight and pre-stressed....making the structure quite rigid and limiting any flexibility.

Regards David

[clockwork]

Hey fernando

there was nothing in the museum legend but I did purchase a book on the Armoury and there is a refrence to it as a Leather Gun. when I have more time I will go threw the books I picked up and see if I can give you more details on it. Most of the info is on the other Cannons in the collection.

[Jim McDougall]

The photos shared from the museum in Malta by Clockwork have been amazing, and the thread and observations on this extremely unusual wood cannon are most intriguing. I would never have imagined cannon or any sort of firearm made of wood or even more surprising, leather!

I think the suggestions of this being a false cannon are most interesting, but am inclined to agree this seems more likely to have been intended for firing 'empty' charge as noted by David.
This cannon seems very well detailed and constructed, and I would think that something created for visual effect would be essentially a mockup intended to appear to be the object intended from a distance. I know that the 'Quaker' guns used during the Civil War' were sometimes just black painted logs, if I recall from some references. It is truly amazing how often ruse and deception were employed in warfare, and an interesting topic in itself.

Some references I found suggested that some wood cannon were used for effect, but were only able to be fired with single shot or very few. The idea of limited charge with loose projectiles would be somewhat feasible in close quarters, but a solid shot with compressed charge seems unlikely.

Maybe the empty charge idea, for perhaps signalling or ceremonial use might be the purpose?

Whatever the case...extremely interesting!!!

All best regards,
Jim

[fernando]

After all, it seems as wooden cannons were used more often as actual weapons than as fakes .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wooden_cannon

Fernando

[clockwork]

this is a excert from the book The Palace Armoury regarding the cannon/gun
One of the earliest Doc mention of the presence of weapons kept soley for the display purpose, dates to the time of the magistracy of Ramon Despuig in 1737 and refers to the leather gun. This cannon, long thought to have either been imported from some northern country, produced at the end of the 18th centry or worse still, brought over from Rhodes, was actually constructed by a local gun smith. A petition by Margarita Ellul reminded the Grand Master that it was one of her ancestors who had built the leather gun:--Margarita vedova di francesco ellul di questa Citta Valletta esponeche per riguardo d'aver un suo antentato fatto il cannone di pelle che ritrovasi conservato nella sua armeria fu alli suoi antecessori, e successori concesso l'uso della mina che ritrovasi in questa citta sotto il Forte Cavaliere--

[clockwork]

Saw this and it looked intresting
http://www.thepirateking.com/histori...y_and_gust.htm

[fernando]

Originally Posted by clockwork

Saw this and it looked intresting
http://www.thepirateking.com/histori...y_and_gust.htm

Coincidence. That's the cannon shown above, in post #13 (center picture), further comented in post #15 ... the one at Woolwich Museum.
Feenando

[fernando]

Originally Posted by clockwork

this is a excert from the book The Palace Armoury regarding the cannon/gun
One of the earliest Doc mention of the presence of weapons kept soley for the display purpose, dates to the time of the magistracy of Ramon Despuig in 1737 and refers to the leather gun. This cannon, long thought to have either been imported from some northern country, produced at the end of the 18th centry or worse still, brought over from Rhodes, was actually constructed by a local gun smith. A petition by Margarita Ellul reminded the Grand Master that it was one of her ancestors who had built the leather gun:--Margarita vedova di francesco ellul di questa Citta Valletta esponeche per riguardo d'aver un suo antentato fatto il cannone di pelle che ritrovasi conservato nella sua armeria fu alli suoi antecessori, e successori concesso l'uso della mina che ritrovasi in questa citta sotto il Forte Cavaliere--

Fine Tony,
So it was the widow who ordered the leather (not wooden) cannon, to defend herself from possible assaults ...

[katana]

Isn't that rope....and not wood ??