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P E N N S Y L V A N I A A R T I L L E R Y
The Pennsylvania State Navy took delivery of
its first full-scale English 3 pounder in June of 1999. Three more cannon were then
ordered, averaging one every six months. The tubes were manufactured by Cannon LTD,
with a slight design modification Damian Siekonic Taking a piece of plywood, one of the 3 pounders was laid on top and traced using a square and a pencil. The outline was then cut out and painted black. The result was a silhouette cut-out of the cannon barrel.
Adobe Photoshop was used to adjusted the plans to accommodate the length and width of the 3 pounder barrel. The plans for the carriage were now life-size and proportional in every detail. The convenience of using an overhead
projector was obvious. By moving the projector nearer or farther away from the
plywood, the plans for the carriage were blown up or reduced as needed. The cut-out
of the cannon barrel was held up to the projection, and when the silhouette of the cannon
barrel fit the Instead of using solid oak, which was an
option, it was decided that the carriages would be built using laminated
mahogany. Mahogany, although not as hard as oak, has the same waterproof
qualities without all of the weight, and when laminated using four pieces of
1"x8" and set counter-grained, it provides more strength than oak with an
increased durability over any one The two carriages depicted here took just over two months to build, which included custom blacksmithing. The only piece of ironwork that was not fashioned by hand or purchased from an antique building supply store were the trunion caps which came from Cannon LTD. Two more carriages are being built for cannons three and four and should be ready for service by the end of 2003. Hindsight tips: Although the laminated mahogany works great for the carriages, there is much to be gained by having solid oak wheels. The current laminated wheels hold together quite well, being lag-bolted from inside, countersunk and filled. However, the wheels are not as hard as we'd like them to be and don't hold paint very well during extended use. A solid oak wheel will last far longer as well as afford the crew the option to not paint them, but instead stain them dark brown or black.
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over the normal artillery pieces made at the foundry. Because of the
Navy's prity for live-fire demonstrations, the use of the typical 3/8" steel
liner that is standard in most modern artillery reproductions was changed. The
Navy's full scale English 3 pounders were reengineered to include a 1/2" steel liner,
making these cannon far stronger than any other in their class.
and Don Becker researched John Muller's "Treatise of
Artillery", printed in London in 1780. The only detailed technical drawings for
a naval or garrison carriage depicted in that publication were for an English 24
pounder. Although the book's text provides calculations and rudimentary measurements
for most of the guns of the time, including the 3 pounder, the two found a more accurate
way of devising suitable plans for the size carriage they needed.
Becker
and Siekonic employed an overhead projector, laptop and a VGA projector which allows one
to project images from a computer. Muller's plans for the 24 pounder were scanned at
high resolution and then projected onto a white painted 4'x8' sheet of plywood.
plans exactly to scale, the cut-out was removed and the plans were traced
onto the plywood using black markers. The result was an accurate set of building
plans custom-fit to our barrels.
piece of wood.