use of loam in early cannon

[2172]

I just finished reading Bernard Cornwell's "Vagabond" about the 14th century English/French wars. In the book, they describe the early cannon loading process as requiring "damp loam, tamped on top of the powder to seal it..." and elsewhere, mention that the loam must dry before the gun is fired, so that a gunner could get off, at most, 4 shots a day.....I'm guessing that the loam acted as a kind of "patching" since the projectiles were stones, not very regular in their fit in the barrel....is this info accuracte, or was Cornwell exercising more than poetic license? Hank
PS...darn good book, by the way.

 

[bezoar]

Think about the statement Hank, "damp loam, tamped on top of the powder", thats going to get moisture into your powder charge, and any moisture in a powder charge is BAD.

dry material has always been used. even grass. the breechloaders on the mary rose used shotgun style over powder and over shot card wads made out of wood.

powder-thin wood disk-roundball-thin wood disk

 

[musketman]

Think about the statement Hank, "damp loam, tamped on top of the powder", thats going to get moisture into your powder charge, and any moisture in a powder charge is BAD.

Apply that statement to a spit patch in a muzzleloading musket/rifle, isn't the damp patched roundball going to do the same thing?

The damp patch touched the powder... :hmm:

 

[2172]

My assumption was that the "damp" part of "damp loam" was just that, not bone dry, but moist enough to be "moldable", correctly, plastic enough to fill the air space void. I would expect that the ineffeciency of this led to somebody coming up with better wadding techniques, pretty quickly.
In any event, thanks for the responss..Hank

 

[trent/OH]

I dunno if this is cause and effect, but I understand that "overpowder wads" of straw were used for firing hot shot from forts at ships. The shot was heated almost red hot in a shot furnace, then fired into wooden ships. As I recall the straw was wet, to protect the powder charge from igniting too soon, say, before the loaders arms and heads were away from the muzzle.

 

[Bri in Chi]

I wondered the same thing when I read the trilogy. He's so scholarly, I can't see him making up something like that. They didn't have a lot of choices of material in a siege, so you adapt what you have, I guess.

 

[lanedh]

There are a few places where hot shot furnaces survive today. While excavating some gun rooms in Fort Zachary Taylor in Key West I went to Fort Jefferson in the Tortugas (about 60 miles west) and saw a perfectly preserved shot furnace inside the fort. Solid shot was placed on a ramp near the top and gravity-fed (like a soda can vending machine) to a shutter at the bottom, being heated on the way down. The heated shot was then carried on a sort of hod by two runners to the waiting gun. As soon as the shot was seated the gun was run up to battery and fired--not waiting! I believe the furnace was coal-fired.