PMarione Site Admin
Joined: 26 Mar 2007 Posts: 883
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Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 8:33 pm Post subject: |
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First of all, your canon is certainly French and as such most probably belonged to a French ship.
Bronze canons were very expensive stuff but as the bore between French and English canons was different (French pound was different from the English pound and so was the diameter of the canon ball) there is little chance that it was a captured canon. Bronze canon in prizes were simply remelt into new canons.
Jean Maritz is the most famous canon founder.
From the wikipedia entry:
Quote: | Jean Maritz (1680–1743), also Johan Maritz, was a Swiss inventor, born in Burgdorf, Canton of Bern, who moved to France, becoming "Commissaire des Fontes" at Strasbourg (Commissionner of the King's Foundry), and invented the vertical drilling machine, as well as the horizontal drilling machine for cannons in the 18th century. His inventions revolutionized cannon-making. |
As he died in 1743, your canon is probably from his son, Jean Maritz II, who had worked with his father on the development of boring, became Inspector General of Gun Foundries in 1755.
There is an extensive article at "fonderie" (vol 4 of the plates) on the Maritz machine with a lot of plates in the "Encyclopédie" of Diderot and there are examples at the Invalides in Paris.
It was a major improvement as it allowed to prefectly center the bore.
There is plenty of info on the web (mainly in French).
As for your question about a register, you certainly can try the "Archives Nationales" at Paris http://www.archivesdefrance.culture.gouv.fr/ or the "Archives de la Marine at Vincennes http://www.servicehistorique.sga.defense.gouv.fr/Archives-de-la-marine-nouveaux.html
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