
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~021r~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gunner

As for small cannons which are not loaded with a linstock,
one charges them with powder up to the escusson, which
is placed on the piece with due proportion.

To point a cannon, that is to say to take its aim, one needs to take
the sight, that is to say aim, from the sides before the top, that is to
say above the cannon. For by aiming along the top, you will be better
able to find the line tending to your target, but you would not find out
if the cannon tends more to one side than the other. Therefore take your
sight on one side, then on the other & adjust your piece to the
point at which you aim. Then take your sight from the top of the breech,
which will soon be done. Next, lower your piece a little at your
discretion if you are within true range, because the force of the
powder usually makes it rise. But if you were farther away than
your piece shoots at point blank, you would need to consider that the
weight of the ball would make it lower.


For shooting from a cannon at night

Some keep their pieces loaded and from the day. Then, in
order that the gunner can shoot into the breach where the
assailed are perhaps making repairs, the besiegers raise a false alarm
in order that the besieged throw torches & artificial
fire into the moats or around the breach, at which the
gunner aims. Sometimes, by using the reflection of
mirrors or flasks full of water, the assailants
light up the breach. The method you know, with a quadrant &
plumb line, is very good. Others nail two or three rows
of boards with strong iron pegs on the wooden platform
made for mounting the cannon, and leave empty notches into which the
wheels of the cannon can just fit. And by such means you will always
te place it at a similar q
point, that it will not incline more to the right than to the left. And
in order that it be neither too high nor too low, when you shoot during
the day, you place a ruler fixed well in the ground, which
comes just to touch the the bottom of the edge of the cannon after it
has been pointed & adjusted for shooting.

If the
platform, the wheels or the
wedges break or are disturbed, this
invention is of no profit.

