The first wrouught guns were made up from strips of metal, and one, dating from the time of Henry VI and still in existence is a good example of the the type...It is 7 feet 6 ins long, has a calibre of 4 1/4 ins and weighs 400 lbs . The Gun was damaged, which allowed experts at Woolwich [arsenal] to examine it. Their description says:
'Fourteen longitudinal bars are arranged in a circle, two deep, like the staves of a barrel, and imperfectly welded together, leaving interstices into which melted lead has been poured.'
Thirty-five rings, averaging about one and a half inches thick and more than two inches wide, were driven over the tube, like the hoops holding the staves of a barrel in place, but closely spaced.
The same method of construction was used for the small breech-loaders with separate powder chambers which were the forerunners of the petarara shown on pages 34 and 35. Except for the inherent weakness of the gun, and that a gas-tight fit could not be obtained for the chamber (the problem of obturation) so that
some of the force of the powder escaped, they were ingenious, considering that muzzle-loading cannon little different in concept from the 'vase' were to continue in use until the 1860's.
There was no standardization of names at this time, but these small breech-loaders were not a hollow tube closed by a block of wood and a wedge at the breech end, like the bigger guns (one of which is shown on page 30): instead, as shown on page 34, the tube was closed at the breech end as part of the construction, but the upper half of the barrel was cut away at the breech for a short distance, forming a short trough into which the chamber fitted. This was like a tall, parallel-sided mug, complete with handle, and filled with powder. After a shot had been put into the 'trough' and pushed forward into the barrel, the whole chamber was then placed in the trough, handle uppermost and the open end facing up the barrel. Wooden or metal wedges held the chamber hard against the barrel and the gun was ready to fire, the chamber having a touch-hole. The early carriage was a beam of timber which had been hollowed out, so that the gun fitted into it as though lying in the lower half of a mould.
Up to this time the gunmakers, mostly working in Flanders, had produced guns which were unwieldy rather than heavy one of the later models with a calibre of 4 1/4 ins weighed nearly 900 lbs and was 8 feet 6 ins long. Then, within a space of a few years, they produced some huge wrought iron cannon - huge even by today's standards. Fortunately several have survived, and although the exact date of their con-struction is not always known, records show when some of them were first used.One, called Dulle Grette (Mad Margaret) and weighing 15 tons, can still be seen in the Belgian town of Ghent. The whole gun is 18 feet long and has a 33 inch bore. Another gun, now at Edinburgh and called Mons Meg, is just over 13 feet long,,weighs 5 tons and has a bore of 19 1/2 ins. The first mention of Mons Meg does not come until I489, when the following was recorded in the accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland:
~ITEM given to the gunners, to drinksilver, when they cartit Monss by the King's command, xviii shillings.
Mons Meg, probably from Flanders, was made on the same principle as described earlier, and the rings are shown clearly in the picture on page 38.
Nor were these big guns always made in workshops;an account dated 1375 describes how, at Caen, Bernard de Montferrat, maistre des canons, took over the market-place, put up three forges, placed a fence around them to keep onlookers at a distance, and set to work with three master smiths, one smith and nine workmen.
Beginning in March, they worked until 3 May (resting on Sundays and taking a day's holiday on 23 April) using 2110 lb of wrought iron and 200 lb of steel. They used the same method of construction as for Mons Meg, made up a carriage (in effect a bed) of baulks of wood, fired a couple of stone shot to test the gun, and on 5 May the gun was on its way to take part in the siege of St Sauveur de Vicomte, 56 miles to the westward.
