- Leather cannon
A leather cannon was an experimental Swedish attempt of constructing a lighter weapon that would bridge the gap between
musket s and heavy stationarycannon s. Ordered byGustavus Adolphus of Sweden , it was unsuccessfully fielded in the third Polish-Swedish war.Background
Cannons in the early 17th century were of a plethora of
caliber s and all were too heavy to be moved during battle, as they had been developed as siege weapons. Gustavus Adolphus reduced the number of calibers of guns fielded to guns firing 24-, 12- and 6-pound cannonballs (roughly 10, 5 & 2.5 kg) in order to simplify logistics. Guns used in the field were limited to bronze cannons; others, such as guns made of cast iron were placed in castles and fortresses.Gustavus Adolphus' tactics were based on use of effective firepower. While heavy cannons were effective at the start of the battle, they could not be moved from the hill that they usually were deployed on (the guns themselves weighed from roughly 300
kilogram s to 3ton s). As such, the artillery could not respond effectively to developments in battle.Leather cannon
In order to fill the gap, the so-called "leather cannon" was developed. A relatively thin copper tube was reinforced by heavy
rope s and finally clad in leather (alternatively clad in leather straps first and then rope). While the weapon was light enough to be mobile, and at the same time was cheaper in construction, it turned out to be flawed.The reinforcing material acted as an insulator, and did not let heat dissipate fast enough. Thus, after only a few shots the gun became red-hot. The heat would either deform the tube and drastically decrease accuracy or at the very least prematurely ignite the gunpowder, severely injuring the loader. As a weapon, it turned out to be a fiasco.
The weapon had still shown its usefulness by giving mobile fire support. Before Sweden's entry in the
Thirty Years' War , a new weapon had been developed, the bronze 3-pound "regimental cannon". It could be towed by one horse or three men and had a range andrate of fire three times greater than the muskets of the period.ee also
*
Grasshopper cannon References
* "Sadan vuoden sotatie, Suomen sotilaat 1617-1721", Jussi T. Lappalainen, Gummerus, Jyväskylä 2001 ISBN 951-746-286-7
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