That shell and whatever gun its to exit out of ain't that different to what your demi-cannons and cannons were doing, girl. Its just the order on how the boys loaded is very different as you remembered.
That shell and whatever gun its to exit out of ain't that different to what your demi-cannons and cannons were doing, girl. Its just the order on how the boys loaded is very different as you remembered.
except cannons don't have hammers and modern guns don't fuse ignite black powder charges.
I know this is dumb, but can a cannon be modified to shoot ww2 shells?
I mean, if you want to re-melt the whole thing and remake it to correct calibers, it's possible. Old smoothbore cannons are made from cast iron, which means it contains structural imperfections due to the casting process. It's been known to explode to bits on several occasions from those defects. Otherwise you just need to put an ignition/trigger mechanism depending on the shell and hope it didn't go boom on your face.
I mean, if you want to re-melt the whole thing and remake it to correct calibers, it's possible. Old smoothbore cannons are made from cast iron, which means it contains structural imperfections due to the casting process. It's been known to explode to bits on several occasions from those defects. Otherwise you just need to put an ignition/trigger mechanism depending on the shell and hope it didn't go boom on your face.
actually the reason why cannons *don't* actually explode is that thick ring around the mouth. But really, no, it'd be impossible to "modify" an old style fuse lit cannon to accept and fire shells, aside from the fact the shells generally *weigh more then the cannons alone* you'd just have to built a modern gun.
cd_young said: the shells generally *weigh more then the cannons alone*
I'm not quite sure what you mean by this.
Amusingly, i decided to do a quick check of something. An Age-of-Sail 18-pounder cannon fired a ball 138.7mm in diameter. The main guns of the Le Fantasque- and Mogador-class destroyers were 138.6mm in caliber. Theoretically, depending on the relative chamber pressures, one could fire the latter ammunition from the former gun.
Amusingly, i decided to do a quick check of something. An Age-of-Sail 18-pounder cannon fired a ball 138.7mm in diameter. The main guns of the Le Fantasque- and Mogador-class destroyers were 138.6mm in caliber. Theoretically, depending on the relative chamber pressures, one could fire the latter ammunition from the former gun.
Destroyers maybe, but Royal Fortune is apparently an age if sail equivalent to either a heavy cruiser or battlecruiser. and those have much larger guns.
For a heavier ships like first-rate ship HMS Victory ,heaviest gundeck weapon is 32 pounder and fires a 15kg projectile; while WWII era US destroyers standard guns 5-inch/38-caliber fires 24 to 25 kg projectiles with a diameter of 127mm. I couldn't find the diameter for the 32 pdr but I assume will be larger than 138.7mm. So I dont think new ammunition is going to work with old cannons, if meant yeeting it out sure, working as intended no.
Fun fact: A significant minority of guns were made of bronze instead. It was generally preferable, but too expensive for the number of pieces in demand, so iron took an exponentially stronger lead over the centuries. This doesn't appear to be due to a decline in bronze gun production so much as a massive increase in iron gun production relative to it, mind, so bronze guns were still in regular use until rifling and steel took precedence.
