
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~017r~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the gunner



The cannon fires at point blank from five to six hundred paces.
But not for battering, in which it can only perform well from two
hundred paces, or three hundred paces at
the most, and it should not be any farther. Its shot usually weighs 40
lb of the King's caliber. There is
a cannon-perrier, which weighs xxv quintals, which are
small, short cannons. It is for fighting the ditch casemates
& for battering at close range. It bears large shot of the
King's caliber like the others, namely of
40 lb. It bears in the breech only the width of two balls
& a quarter of a ball. The front only bears the width of
one ball & a third of a ball. Its charge is similar to those of
bigger ones, namely xx. And for this reason, when one wants to try them
, one ought not to over-charge it, for this damages the
piece. And for the first time & until it has fired five or six
pieces shots, it is better not to give its complete charge,
for the piece is still proving itself. And the test that one can do is
to give it a charge of xx lb of fine arquebus powder
instead of ordinary cannon powder. And four good horses
are sufficient to drag them. They are easy, & close up they have as
much force as the big ones, especially for private houses
& small towns & fortresses of little
importance. They are no more subject to bursting than the others
because they are short. For that which gives great strength to the
powder & in danger of bursting at the piece, is
the length of the piece, because the powder is burned entirely
before exiting, & the its impetuosity is held constrained
for longer in a small long piece than a
gr short one. The cannon-perrier is usually seven to
eight pans long. It is true that this is a
pan of Montpellier & not a
King’s pan, which is not used in the
founding of guns for making them good. For the pan of
Montpellier being of shorter, the cannons
more proportioned there are shorter also, &compensate in
thickness ce the length that they would have by the
King’s pan, by which measure they
will be found longer. But also they would be thinner. The
greatcanno The strength of the cannon-perrier for
making a battery is 4xx paces.



The great cannon, because of the weight of its shot, carries
a range of only a thousand or xii hundred paces without
landing, &bouncing, usually it bounces iii times.



The cannon-perrier does not have a large effect if not close.



One recognizes the good alloy of a piece by seeing it. For if, with the
greenness which they expel on the surface, they redden, that is to say
that they are composed of a sufficient quantity of
rosette. If not, they are only of metal, which
shows up whitish. If they themselves do not make this demonstration,
scratch & you will see. 



The good alloy for pieces is of three parts of
rosette & one of the fine metal from a
la big bell, where there is more
rosette than in the metal of small bells. The
metal usually costs xv lb & fine
rosette xv or xvi.



The pan of Montpellier is equivalent
to six of the King’s inches, which
contains in it two common. 



It is necessary, for a mounting a piece well, that it be as
high at the side of the mouth as at the breech. Otherwise, one does not
mount well.



