Dimensions of Royal Navy guns and carriages, circa 1775

[SketchupModeller]

In my log of HMS Pandora, I had mentioned that the carriages described in Muller's Treatise of Artillery looked incorrect for a late-18th century ship, and how I had used Harold Hahn's proportions, as provided in an earlier thread in this section.  I had also lamented the lack of information about the dimensions of bolts and similar ironwork for carriages.  Since then, I have found a primary source on Google Books (link below) that describes the ironwork and corroborates Hahn's proportions.  This source can be downloaded as a pdf.

 

Published in 1775, John Robertson's Treatise of such Mathematical Instruments as are usually put into a Portable Case (3rd edition) is primarily a mathematical and geometric text, but it includes the set of proportions of British naval guns, mortars, and carriages for that time.  The author states that these proportions were obtained by personally measuring, to an accuracy of a hundredth of an inch, a number of guns then in use.  As in Muller's treatise, directions are provided for drawing up a gun using these dimensions.  The other useful point found in this work is that Muller's proposals for new guns differ considerably from the British establishment of 1775.

 

The relevant section is Article XX of the Appendix, found on pages 206 to 233 of the book (pages 255 to 282 of the pdf).  Page 219 (page 268 of the pdf) is particularly useful, as it gives the dimensions of the various parts of the carriage.  Like most books digitized by Google, the plates have not been unfolded for scanning and are almost entirely useless

 

http://books.google.ca/books?id=Ww8Fg5rD8hsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=robertson+treatise+of+mathematical+instruments&hl=en&sa=X&ei=_BPoU-DtFYWjyATihoLgDw&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

[syartbox]

if it is possilbe, pls have my email address (e-mail adres removed by moderator), if you can send your size requirement, qty ect, i might can know the cost, and I can send some photo to you for your information.

Edited August 11, 2014 by Anja
E-mail address removed to prevent spamming. Non-members can read this as well

[Don9of11]

I had these sitting in my arsenal on cannon carriages. They were handed down to me so I hand them off to you. I don't recall the source but perhaps there is some information you can use.

 

 

 

[druxey]

I suspect that they didn't make items to tolerances of hundredths of an inch!

[SketchupModeller]

Druxey - probably not.  It is interesting that almost all entries in the 24 pdr column fall very close to quarter-inch increments, and this was the size of gun studied in greatest detail by Robertson.  From that I would guess that rounding to the nearest quarter of an inch is probably good enough.

[syartbox]

sorry, I could not open your e-book to see how the cannon is, so, I have to guess. You might use CNC way to make your cannon which pls see my photo, if you feel the size of cannon is ok, I am able to give you some. Re the casting, I need details to make the mould, it will be some cost should be. Anyway, I will bing to make the casting cannon and anchor from next month, (it would tks for Werner's help, he gave me more information).

[Gregory]

I found this topic while researching the guns for my Resolution build..  Thanks a lot for the info.  I think I have what I need now.

 

For what it's worth, I found another E-copy of  John Robertson's treatise, and it is much better quality than the Google book..

 

Here..

Edited October 29, 2019 by Gregory

[Mark P]

Good Evening Gentlemen;

 

Thank you Brandon for the original posting and info, and Don & Gregory for the follow-ups.

 

I have looked in the British Library catalogue, and there are actually three editions of this book, dating from 1747, 1757 & 1775. I will take a look at the earlier two editions and see what Mr Robinson had to say about cannon and mortars in them.

 

All the best,

 

Mark P