Also known as: gun founding.
| Materials | Cast iron and bronze (gunmetal) |
|---|---|
| Traditional method | Cast solid, then bore out the barrel |
| Improvement | Rodman's hollow casting with a water-cooled core |
| Finishing | Boring, turning, and rifling as required |
Founding a gun
A cannon began as molten metal, iron or bronze, poured into a mould at a foundry. In the traditional method the gun was cast solid and then bored out, turned to shape, and, for rifled pieces, cut with rifling. The quality of the iron and the soundness of the casting decided whether a gun would stand its charges.
The chief advance of the period was Thomas Rodman's process, which cast large iron guns hollow around a water-cooled core so the metal set from the inside outward, greatly reducing the internal stresses that caused big guns to burst.
On this site
Sources & further reading
- CivilWarArtillery.com research archive: manuals, reports, and reference pages.
- United States Army, Ordnance Department. The Ordnance Manual for the Use of the Officers of the United States Army. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1862.