GPS location: 44°44'31"N 65°31'08"W
Washington Navy Yard Washington, D.C., U.S.A. http://www.history.navy.mil/cannons/cannons.html Close up of name LE VIGOUREUX (The Vigorous One) on a French bronze cannon http://www.history.navy.mil/cannons/cannons43.html Close up of name LE BELLIQUEUX (The Warlike One) on a French bronze cannon http://www.history.navy.mil/cannons/cannons41.html Close up of name EL TOSICO (The Poisonous One) on a Spanish bronze cannon http://www.history.navy.mil/cannons/cannons12.html |
A Short Illustrated History of Cannon... http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/source/is3/is3c1.htm The cannon of the late 1600s (and well into the 1700s) was an ornate masterpiece of the foundryman's art, covered with escutcheons, floral relief, scrolls, and heavy moldings... Many guns were personalized with names cast in raised letters on the gun. Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Florida, has a 4-pounder "San Marcos," and, indeed, saints' names were not uncommon on Spanish ordnance. Other typical names were El Espanto (The Terror), El Destrozo (The Destroyer), El Toro (The Bull), and El Belicoso (The Quarrelsome One). |
The inscription Ultima ratio regum, "the last argument of kings," was widely used on European ordinance during this age of royal absolutism. Source: http://www.history.navy.mil/cannons/cannons.html |
BronzeBronze is an alloy of copper and tin commonly used in18th and 19th century artillery. Often mistakenly called brass. | |
Brass versus BronzeBRASS: An alloy composed of copper and zincand not suitable for ordnance. BRONZE: An alloy composed of copper and tin and definitely suitable for ordnance. | |
BronzeA metal made of two or more pure metals (pure chemical elements),mixed and melted together, is called an alloy. Any alloy, or mixture, of copper and tin is called bronze. Many bronze alloys also contain small amounts of other materials. Bronze was one of the first alloys developed by metal workers in ancient times. The Mesopotamians ushered in the Age of Bronze about 4500 years ago. In the earliest fortified towns bronze was used for shields, helmets, and battle axes. 4000 years ago the Chinese made early coins of bronze. Bronze melts at a lower temperature than iron, reducing the manufacturing cost. Bronze is softer and weaker than iron, but bronze resists corrosion (especially seawater corrosion) and metal fatigue better than iron. Because it does not rust, bronze was preferred aboard ship or in seacoast forts. Originally "bronze" was a term for copper alloys having tin as the only or principal alloying element. In modern usage the name "Bronze" is seldom used alone, and a term such as "Phosphor Bronze" or "Aluminum Bronze" is used for identifying alloys of copper and tin with small amounts of other elements added to produce special characteristics. | |
Brass or Bronze?As we prepare almost every issue of The Artilleryman Magazinethe confusion of "brass" and "bronze" comes up in things written in an earlier time period when the terminology was incorrect, or by modern writers who don't know the difference. We recently came across this in Harold L. Peterson's Round Shot and Rammers (Bonanza Books, 1969): "In almost all the contemporary [18th and early 19th centuries] references the term used is brass. Bronze is almost never mentioned. Yet the alloy itself sometimes consisted only of copper and tin, which would make it bronze according to a modern definition..." The only brass guns were those made by the uninformed. All surviving antique cannon of a copper-based alloy are in fact "bronze." The actual definition of "gun metal" was 90 percent copper and 10 percent tin, which was the strongest of the various bronze alloys. — Submitted by Bill Anderson, 1st Continental Artillery Online source: Brass or Bronze? — The NWTA Spy, Spring 2000 http://www.nwta.com/Spy/spring00/brass.html
|
Hits per calendar month 2005 Aug 82 2005 Jul 52 2005 Jun 57 2005 May 75 2005 Apr 74 2005 Mar 72 2005 Feb 69 2005 Jan 74 2004 Dec 62 2004 Nov 97 2004 Oct 94 2004 Sep 102 2004 Aug 83 2004 Jul 78 2004 Jun 65 2004 May 92 2004 Apr 88 2004 Mar 96 2004 Feb 81 2004 Jan 101 2003 Dec 49 2003 Nov 30 2003 Oct 0