Breech loading chamber for a cannon 16th century

[Matchlock]

Originally Posted by Marcus den toom

At the advice of Fernando i am starting a new topic on my previously announced new purchase, the breechloading chamber from a cannon.

As a young collector i have to scout for any opportunity for something great to roll into my direction. The first time i had such a stroke of luck was when i bought a German wheel lock covered with rust and dirt. After cleaning there where several marks on the lockplate placing it to Nurmberg 1625. After this i bought a breechloading chamber for a rifle. If this was not fun enough, some months later i bought a book in which the original rifle was documented with a twin of the breechchamber i got.

All good and fun, but this doesn't happen every week... so my search for some affordable treasure takes me trough piles of unaffordable treasure (so if you got a box full of non confederate money and you want to convert it to something nice, call me )
Coming to my latest purchase and towards the end of this story that is getting way out of hand... A Breech chamber for a 16 century cannon (probably a swifelgun). Found in the Sea of cortez, this item is heavily corroded. It measures 20 cm (8 inch) in lenght and seeing as it lay on the seafloor for probably 400 years, it looks respectably well.


If anyone could provide additional information or give me some advice on how to clean this or not to clean this but preserve etc.. well you know, just start typing

Hi Marcus,

Once more I must say that I like that ca. 1540 mug-shaped interchangeable breech of yours a whole lot!
For more than 20 years I had a similar one, only slender and about 100 years earlier, ca. 1440, which is extremely early for breechloaders; it now is in 'Nando's collection!
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...oading+chamber

Best,
Michael

[Marcus den toom]

Hi Michael,

Thank you very much for the information, i also bought a iron cannonbal which fits the dimensions of this breech chamber, but i doubt that the cannonbal is nearly as old as the chamber (good enough for presentational purposes though).
I will post a other neat item shortly

[Matchlock]

Hi Marcus,


Not that any ball was originally part of a breechloading chamber ...

As I have shown in my thread and demonstrated by photos of a ca. 1480-1500 Late-Gothic chamber dug up still loaded only with powder and a wooden plug, the ball was separately shoved in at the rear of the barrel, at the beginning of the breech recess, before the powder chamber/breech was inserted.


Best,
Michael

[Marcus den toom]

Ingineus, did they do this (the wooden plug) to make a solid seal for the chamber which would still be less stressfull than a iron seal? Or?

sorry if you are already told this in the thread, i will read it soon (Dutch holiday is tonight so )

[Matchlock]

I guess the breech plug was mainly there in order to prevent the fine meal powder from falling out, and to preserve it from moisture.


The thread I told about this fact is here:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=7364



Best,
m

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Matchlock

I guess the breech plug was mainly there in order to prevent the fine meal powder from falling out, and to preserve it from moisture...

Sure thing, no guess, i would add !
Have i heard that such plugging was also made of wax ?

[Matchlock]

Wax?
For sealing interchangeable iron 'patrons' for long guns and hand firearms, possibly ... we have no records of such a surviving piece though.

What we do know for sure, however, is that in early-19th service manuals (by Beroaldo Bianchini et al.), the soldier was ordered to keep the muzzle of his loaded long gun (flintlock musket) closed by either a wooden 'anti-rain' plug (Old German Regenpfropfen) fitted with a lead cover and either cloth or leather side straps (I do keep some 20 original muzzle plugs of 16th to 19th c. date in my collection).
Early-17th c. musketeers on watch used to seal and tighten the closed covers of the primed pans of their matchlock muskets by tallow (Old German Unschlitt) against both moisture and fine priming powder that was literally everywhere on their clothes ...

The huntsman of the muzzle-loading era, on the other hand, used to seal the muzzle of his gun by a hard wax plug - which of course had to be carefully removed before each shot, in order to prevent the barrel from horribly bulging or bursting ...!!!


Best,
Michl