A cannon is any large tubular firearm designed to fire a heavy projectile over a considerable distance. The term can apply to a modern day rifled machine gun with a calibre of 20 mm or more (see autocannon).
Cannon also refers to a large, smooth-bored, muzzle-loading gun used before the advent of breech-loading, rifled guns firing explosive shells. Although a variety of such guns are commonly referred to as "cannon", the term specifically refers to a gun designed to fire a 42 lb shot as opposed to a "Demi-cannon" (32 lb), Culverin (18 lb) or Demi-culverin (9 lb). "Cannon" derives from the Latin canna—a tube. Bombard was earlier used for "cannon", but from the early 15th century came to refer only to the largest weapons. "Cannon" serves both as the singular and plural of the noun.
Early history
"Fire lances", gunpowder-propelled arrows, were used in China from at least 1132. In 1221, cast iron bombs thrown by hand, sling, and catapult are mentioned. Somewhere around 1249, the Chinese of the Song Dynasty began to load early gunpowder in the middle of thick bamboo as a projection firearm, firing clay pellets like a shotgun. At some point in the late fourteenth century (the earliest certain example is dated 1332) they replaced the bamboo with bronze. Additionally, the Chinese and Mongols took up the use of "true" gunpowder instead of the slower-burning older mixture - which made this early cannon, known as the Huochong, more reliable and powerful. During wartime, the Chinese used the early gunpowder weapons in defence against the Mongols, mounting more than 3,000 bronze and iron casted cannons on the Great Wall of China. The weapon was taken up by the Mongol conquerors later. Many of the earliest weapons seem to primarily have functioned as psychological weapons, a trait gunpowder arms would keep for a long time.
The invention of gunpowder spread into India prior to the Mongol intrusion in China. In India, gunpowder was manufactured and used in both rocketry and for powering cannon. Even before this however, the Indians used rudimentary projectile weapons to launch stones and explosive/incendiary objects at besieging armies. The Arthashastra mentions a tubular weapon, the Sataghni. Indigenous gunpowder was called agnicurna. By the 16th Century, the world's largest and heaviest cannon were being cast in India. The best examples of this are the Jaivana Cannon in Jaigarh, Rajasthan and the Thanjavur Cannon in Thanjavur armories in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. The "giant gun" trend was by then disappearing in Europe, in favor of lighter, more manoeuvrable pieces in larger numbers, and the early use of true field artillery.
Medieval Use in Europe and the Middle east
The Islamic world also employed gunpowder, and the Karshuni manuscript has additions of gunpowder recipes from the late 11th/early 12th century. There is mention of rockets or fire arrows being used in the mid-13th century, primarily as psychological weapons, and primarily defensively. There is also possibly references to defensive use of cannon or more likely psychological gunpowder use from tubes in mid-13th century Moorish Spain. Hand cannon or hand cannon-like devices were reported to be employed against the Mongols in 1260 and 1304, in an unattributed manuscript probably written by Shams al-Din Muhammad al-Ansari al-Dimashqi, which also depicts fire arrows and long-handled handguns. By 1340, light cannon are widespread enough in the Islamic world to end up in military inventories.
The first mention of the composition of gunpowder in express terms in Europe appeared in 1216 in Roger Bacon's "De nullitate magiæ" at Oxford. [1] Later in 1248, his "Opus Maior" describes a recipe:
"We can, with saltpeter and other substances, compose artificially a fire that can be launched over long distances... By only using a very small quantity of this material much light can be created accompanied by a horrible fracas. It is possible with it to destroy a town or an army ... In order to produce this artificial lightning and thunder it is necessary to take saltpeter, sulfur, and Luru Vopo Vir Can Utriet".
When he wrote an abridged version of this work he mentions gunpowder in a different way: The text goes like this:
"As everyone knows, you can take 7 parts of saltpeter, 5 parts of hazelwood charcoal and 5 parts of sulfur and that makes thunder and lightning, provided you know the art".
He then goes on to describe firecrackers, "used in certain parts of the world". Bacon's mixture resembles the assumed composition of Chinese slow-burning powder as used in fire arrows and rockets, but will probably not function well as cannon gunpowder - the saltpeter content is too low. The Norwegian "King's Mirror" (1260) mentions in its military chapter the use of "coal and sulphur" as the best weapon to use in ship-to-ship combat, and in 1298 the use of psychological-warfare gunpowder is described being demonstrated to an interested Christmas feast in the same kingdom. The earliest depiction of smoothbore bronze-cast cannon, firing a large arrow, first appears in a manuscript from 1326. That same year the council of Florence employed masters for the making of "large iron arrows and balls and cannons of metal". An earlier Ghentian document mentions cannon in 1313, but this reference is disputed by some scholars. Cannon appeared in Scotland in 1327. Hand guns had probably been in use earlier - we have cited references to Italian scopettieri in 1281, mentioned in conjunction with crossbowmen.
Overall, the spread of the military use of gunpowder technology seems to have been extremely rapid in the middle eastern and European region.
Beyond the Middle Ages
Western guns during the 19th century became very massive, destructive, more accurate, and covered a very long range -such as the American 3 inch Wrought-Iron Muzzle-Loading howitzer used during the American Civil War with an effective range of over 1.83km.
The Civil War also heralded the invention of the Gatling gun in 1861 - a weapon that used multiple rotating barrels to produce continuous bursts of fire. It was the first highly successful rapid-repeating firearm, and may have been the first "machine gun", depending on the definition. Earlier weapons, such as the French mitrailleuse, had limited capacity and long reloading times.
It was capable of firing long, continuous bursts of repeating fire, and during its debut in combat both Union and Confederate soldiers were awestruck by its power and effect. However, they were only put into limited service late in the war by the Northern army.
The superior cannon technology of the Westerners in the later years would bring them tremendous advantages in warfare. For example, in the Opium War in China during the 19th century, the British battleships bombarded the coastal areas and fortifications safe from the reach of the Chinese cannon.
Modern cannon
A modern artillery piece is generally referred to either as a "gun", or by the name of its specific type, such as a Howitzer.
Since World War II the term cannon is used to refer to a gun of around 20 mm to 125 mm calibre, sometimes with an automatic loading action capable of firing explosive ammunition, an auto-cannon.
The minimum calibre of a cannon, 20 mm, has been a de facto standard since WWII, when heavy machine guns of 12.7 mm (0.5 inches) and 13.2 mm calibre were used side by side with 20 mm and larger guns, the latter using explosive ammunition, e.g., RAF fighters with 20 mm Hispano cannon and Luftwaffe with 20 mm and 30 mm cannon. The Bofors 40 mm gun and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon are two examples largely used during the Second World War, and still in usage today.
Most nations use these modern (auto-) cannon on their lighter vehicles. Typical of the type is the 25 mm 'Bushmaster' cannon mounted on the LAV and Bradley armoured vehicles.
A cannon generally refers to a high velocity, low trajectory, direct fire weapon such as the main gun on most modern main battle tanks.
A howitzer generally refers to a weapon using a lower velocity than a cannon, which fires on a higher trajectory, and provides indirect fire.
These are both differentiated from a mortar, which fires a low velocity (by comparison) round at very high trajectory at much more limited range.
Projectiles fired from cannon
- Round shot
- A solid projectile made, in early times, from dressed stone but, by the 17th century, from iron. The most accurate projectile that could be fired by a smooth-bore cannon, used to batter the wooden hulls of opposing ships, forts, or fixed emplacements, and as a long-range anti-personnel weapon.
- Chain shot or bar shot
- Two sub-calibre round shot (a good deal smaller than the bore of the barrel) linked by a length of chain or a solid bar, and used to slash through the rigging and sails of an enemy ship so that it could no longer manoeuvre. It was inaccurate and only used at close range. Two-headed bullets (angels) were similar but made of two halves of a ball rather than two balls.[2]
- Canister shot
- An anti-personnel projectile which included many small iron round shot or lead musket balls in a metal can, which broke up when fired, scattering the shot throughout the enemy personnel, like a large shotgun.
- Shrapnel or case shot
- An iron anti-personnel projectile containing an interior cavity packed with lead or iron round balls around a small bursting charge of just enough force to break open the thin-walled iron projectile. A powder train in a thin iron sleeve led to a time fuze inserted into a holder at the outer edge or the projectile. The fuze was designed to be ignited by flame from the propellant charge. Ideally the case shot fuze would detonate the central bursting charge when the projectile was six to ten feet above the heads of enemy infantry thereby showering them with the iron balls and fragments of the casing. (Invented 1784 by Lt. Henry Shrapnel, Royal Artillery, Great Britain).
- Shell
- An explosive anti-material and counter-battery projectile, of iron with a cavity packed with a high explosive bursting charge of powder used to destroy enemy wagons, breastworks, or opposing artillery. Two types of fuzes were used--impact fuzes that detonated the bursting charge by percussion, and time fuze cut to length measured in seconds and ignited by flame from the propellant charge. (Source: Ordnance & Gunnery, J.G. Benton, 1859, U.S. Military Academy)
- Grapeshot
- An anti-personnel weapon, similar to canister shot, but with the shot being contained in a canvas bag, and generally of a larger calibre. So called because of the resemblance of the clustered shot in the bag to a cluster of grapes on the vine. In one variation of this, the shot was held together by a coiled bar, and was spread by a fused charge in the same way as a shell.
- Carcass
- An incendiary/antipersonnel projectile designed to burn fiercely and produce poisonous fumes. It was constructed of an iron frame bound with sack cloth and filled with various ingredients such as pitch, antimony, sulphur, saltpeter, tallow and venetian turpentine. It was ignited by the cannon's propellant charge, bursting on impact with the target and releasing noxious fumes while setting fire to its surroundings. It was effectively an early chemical weapon as well as an incendiary and area denial weapon.
- Heated (or hot) shot
- A process where a solid iron cannonball is heated red hot in a specially-designed coal-fired furnace and then is loaded in a muzzle-loading cannon, cushioned by a substantial thickness of wet wads, and is then fired while still red hot, at flammable targets with the intention of setting them on fire. This was a much advocated tactic (and many times a very successful one) for shore based forts defending against attacks by wooden warships. Examples of these small brick furnaces may still be seen at permanently constructed pre-1860 forts in Europe and the United States. The adoption by most navies of iron hulled ships generally made these obsolete. The shot was carried on a specially-designed iron barrow or 2-man litter and, in the era of blackpowder cannon charges contained in cloth bags, occasioned much fanfare and notice as it was conveyed to the cannon muzzle as the red-hot projectile would easily ignite any carelessly handled loose powder. Any reckless or somewhat dangerous individual who seemed to draw trouble to themselves and those around them was referred to as a "Hot Shot", giving rise to the term in common use to this day.
In music
The cannon can be used as a kind of percussion instrument in certain pieces of music. The best known example is the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky, which should properly be played using an artillery section together with the orchestra. It is supposed to simulate the Battle of Borodino. The version using cannon fire was first laid down on a recording by the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in the 1950s. Subsequent similar recordings have been made by other groups, exploiting the advances in audio technology. Cannon fire is used annually on the Fourth of July by the Boston Pops during their annual concert on the shores of the Charles River and by the National Symphony Orchestra during their annual concert on the steps of the US Capitol Building.
The hard rock band AC/DC also use cannon in their song For those about to rock, we salute you. The album of the same also features a cannon on its cover.
Due to their impracticalities, cannon are used for only grand, theatrical pieces, often with a military theme. In the case of the 1812, the cannon may be replaced with bass drums. Less frequently strongly accented snare drum diminuendos can be heard.
Reference
- The World's Great Artillery (2002), Hans Halberstadt. ISBN 0-7607-3303-1
See also
Patents
- U.S. patent 5,236 -- Casting ordnance
- U.S. patent 6,612 -- Cannon
- U.S. patent 13,851 -- Muzzle loading ordnance
External links
- Artillery Through the Ages - NDS Interpretive Series
- Artillery Tactics and Combat during the Napoleonic Wars
- Modern and Civil War Era Cannon Information
