Results/Conclusion

Please stay tuned until the launching of the cannons in the spring. Remember to comment on all the posts please. There are some more posts on a second page, just click older posts. Hope you enjoy and thanks for your time!

Thank you to those leaving comments, I'll try to add comments on your posts.

-Zaid

Cannon Pre 1800s





The "flying-cloud thunderclap eruptor" invented in China

  



Invention of the Cannon

Alchemists of the Tang Dynasty in China invented one of the simplest, most destructive weapons ever used in history: gunpowder. It isn't known exactly when the first cannon was invented, but the Song Dynasty (960-1279) seems to have created the ancestor for a projectile cannon that employs the use of gunpowder. The invention was called in the Chinese language "flying-cloud thunderclap eruptor". Today, it is known as the fire-spurting lance. The barrel was made of bamboo that could store the gunpowder. The ammunition consisted of gunpowder bombs that would explode upon impact and were a great success in battle, inspiring other empires to employ the use of this technology.

A hand cannon from the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) made in 1288 with a muzzle diameter of an inch.

In the beginning of the Middle Ages in Europe, the cannon became standardized and was commonly used in battles. It was not until later that accurate, in-depth descriptions of cannons were provided. There were many instances in which it is said that a cannon was used in a battle, but the designs, manufacturers, and ammunition were never described. In early history, the cannon was never drawn in blueprints to be analyzed and therefore understood by historians. The most accurate designs come from cannons that have been found and can be restored in order to fully understand the design.

1346: Battle of Cressy

This battle occurred in the early stages of the Hundred Years War and is said to have been when the first actual gunpowder cannon was used in battle.

Design: Vey basic, wooden stands to hold the cannon in place. Iron casting to hold the cannon together. Soldiers would light the gunpowder to project the stones.

Ammunition: Spherical stones used to batter the opponent. Also called "round shot."

Manufacturer: Edward III of England introduced these big guns to the battle at Cressy

 Despite the use of the cannon in the Battle of Cressy (also called the Battle of Crécy), it is extremely difficult to track the cannon's past and find it's first use in battle. Ahmad Y. al-Hassan, an Arab historian, claimed that the Mamluks (Egypt) used the first cannon against the Mongols in 1260 at the Battle of Ain Jalut. The claimed use of cannons in this battle is not considered a solid fact, and no designs or remains have been discovered. At the same time, it is also not proven that the first real cannons were used at the Battle of Cressy.

Cannon 1800-1900

By definition, a mortar is basically a cannon whose projectiles explode upon impact. Mortars tend to cause a lot more damage because of their explosiveness.

Siege of Petersburg: The "Dictator"

This image is of a mortar used during the American Civil War nicknamed the "Dictator"



The "Dictator" was used by the Union forces in the Civil War against the Confederacy. It played a vital role in the siege of Petersburg, which was fought over nine months from 1864 to 1865.

Design: The mortar was mounted on a railroad cart for easy navigation because of its weight of over 8.5 tons. The tube was made of iron with a bore diameter of 13 inches and a length of 53 inches.

Ammunition: Mortar shells, which are made of iron with a cavity containing gunpowder. These shells were used to wreak havoc past enemy lines by exploding upon impact. These particular shells were 220 pounds.

Manufacturer: 1862, Fort Pitt Foundry in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania



A picture of the "Dictator" on a railroad cart



Mallet's Mortar

This is one of the designs of the mortar that was never used



This cannon was never used in battle, although it was built for use in the Crimean War between France/Britain and Russia.

Design: The cannon had a 910 mm caliber out of which huge cannonballs could be shot at very large distances. Caliber simply means the diameter of the tube out of which the projectiles are shot. As you can see above, the actual cannon is very large and powerful-looking. In fact, the cannon is so heavy that it had to be transported in pieces to ensure safety. The designs were never successfully carried out and ended in failed attempts to discharge the projectiles. Robert Mallet created these designs to be built for the Crimean War, after drawing interest from the English Prime Minister Lord Palmerston. After several futile attempts, the project was abandoned.

Ammunition: Since this cannon is a mortar, the ammunition consists of mortar shells, which are filled with gunpowder. The cannonballs explode upon impact. In the testing process, this cannon used shells that were about 2,500 pounds that could be launched a little under 3,000 yards.

Manufacturer: Designed by Robert Mallet and manufactured by C.J. Mare Ironworks, Blackwall after causing the bankruptcy of Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company. The mortar was never used in battle because of its defects.

Cannon 1900-Modern Day

A revolver cannon is a kind of cannon in which the projectiles, in this case shells, are fired at a very high rate. In history, cannons have usually been semi-automatic, or fire upon single detonations within the chamber. Revolver cannons are automatic, which means that they can fire at a much higher rate than previous cannons. This kind of firearm is used on aircrafts for maximum damage and has multiple chambers to speed up the loading rate.

M61 Vulcan

Near the end of World War II, the U.S. Army wanted a new approach on aircraft guns. Since fighter airplanes had become much faster, the gun had to have an extremely high firing rate so as to get more hits in much less time.

Design: The M61 Vulcan is a Gatling-style cannon, meaning that it has multiple barrels from which projectiles can be shot. This cannon has six barrels that fire once in turn as the barrels spin at a very fast rate and is capable of achieving 6,000 rounds per minute. The spinning of the barrels required an external power source, which comes from the aircraft itself. Since there are six barrels, overheating in the individual barrels is minimized compared to if there was only one barrel firing at the same rate. The M61 Vulcan can fire continuously for up to a minute and a half, or around 10,000 rounds without complications, making the cannon extremely reliable.

Ammunition: At first, the M61 used belted 20 mm shells. The used belts would be ejected and would often cause problems in flight. Later, the M61 Vulcan was replaced by the M6A1, which would then be improved upon in the future.





 As you can see, the linked belts and the shells for the M61 Vulcan were huge and cumbersome 

Manufacturer: Created by General Electric shortly after World War II, but now produced by General Dynamics after several advancements.

Battles: The original M61 Vulcan was not used in any battles but later enhancements (mainly the M61A1 and the M61A2), have been frequently used.

Mauser BK-27

The Mauser BK-27 is also a revolver cannon and it has been used for decades across the world for all kinds of aircraft. It, like the M61 Vulcan, has been improved upon since its first design and is still used effectively in the modern world.

Design: The Mauser BK-27 was initially designed in the 1960s for the MRCA, or the Multi-Role Combat Aircraft. This revolver cannon is gas-powered and can fire up to 1,700 rounds per minute. The cannon has a buffer system to separate itself from its aircraft. This buffer system provides for minimal recoil on the gun and very little vibration on the airframe. In the back of the cannon is an ammunition box into which spent cartridges can be deposited quickly and safely. The cannon's projectiles can be directed by either a prediction sight or by radar.

This is the ammunition box that stores the spent shells of the Mauser BK-27

Ammunition: The first Mauser BK-27 had, like the M61 Vulcan, a linked feed of 27 mm shells. As mentioned above, the spent cartridges were sent into an ammunition box that improved the safety of the flight. The Mauser BK-27 is an automatic weapon that uses a wide range of ammunition effectively, including explosive shells.

Manufacturer: The BK-27 is manufactured by Mauser, a division of Rheinmetall in Germany. Rheinmetall is known for manufacturing many pieces of artillery used in the past.

Battles: The BK-27 has been used ever since the 1960s on a number of aircrafts. Therefore, it is safe to infer that every battle since then has witnessed this gun and its destructive power.

Chemistry in the Designs

Chemistry Vocabulary
reactant-the compounds used initially to make a reaction
product- the chemicals produced after a reaction takes place
limiting reagent- the compound in a chemical reaction that determines how much of the product is formed (this reactant runs out to stop the reaction)
excess reagent- after a chemical reaction, a product is left in excess because the reaction has stopped
combusttion reaction- a chemical reaction in which the only products are carbon dioxide and water

Gas Laws
Boyle's Law: volume and pressure are inversely proportional

 Charles's Law: temperature and volume are directly proportional

Gay-Lussac's Law: temperature and pressure are directly proportional

 

For our cannon design, we had planned to cut the first tennis ball can in half in order to decrease the volume contained in the can. This procedure would double the amount of pressure in the can because volume and pressure are inversely proportional according to Boyle's Law of Gas. After cutting the container, we started to wonder if there would be enough oxygen to carry out the reaction. On the basis of our knowledge of limiting and excess reagents, we knew that oxygen would have to be the excess reagent in the reaction taking place in the cannon as we fired them. The equation below represents the combustion reaction that will occur in the cannon:

C₂H₅OH+ 3O₂ ---> 2CO₂+ 3H₂O

Ethanol (C₂H₅OH) would have to be the limiting reagent for our cannon to go as far as it can. In order to test this, we took the following steps to ensure that we would have enough oxygen in the reaction, thanks to the help of Mr. Kelly.
1. Fill the halved can with water until it has reached its maximum height.
2. Repeatedly pour this water into a beaker to measure the volume of oxygen in the container
3. Leave enough space to allow for the nerf ball to fit partially in the chamber
4. Solve for the limiting and excess reagents knowing that there are .400 L of oxygen and .002 L of Ethanol

Below are the calculations we used to solve:

Initial Designs

In the first stages of cannon designing, we wanted to halve the first tennis ball can and simply prop it up at a 45 degree angle. It was a very simple design that we thought would be effective due to our use of Boyle's Law and our math knowledge to determine the launch angle. We would prop the cannon up with open scissors that would simply be taped to the tennis ball can.



Please ignore the random peace sign



Reflection

Since volume and pressure are inversely proportional according to Boyle's Law, we hoped to increase the pressure by cutting the tennis ball can in half. In reality, this action reduced the amount of oxygen to the point where it would be the limiting reagent in the ethanol-oxygen combustion reaction. We changed our design to compensate for this error and now have a full tennis ball can as the actual cannon.

Designing Mistakes and (New) Procedure

In hindsight, cutting the tennis ball can in half to increase the pressure wasn't such a good idea because oxygen would, by far, be the limiting reagent in the reaction. To improvise for this cut, we changed our original plans to make it so that the halved can would be the base of the cannon. This will increase the distance traveled by the nerf ball because it will now be launched four inches higher than before.

We attempted to use Boyle's Law in order to maximize the launch distance, but we forgot that there might not be enough oxygen in the container for the ethanol to properly ignite. Luckily, our mistake was caught and we were able to improvise in time to finish building the cannon.

In addition, we thought that we could use scissors in the actual design and we planned to use them as a prop to prevent the cannon from falling forward. Unfortunately, we weren't supposed to, and were told to remove the scissors after we were done building.

Just for fun, we added the tennis ball lids in the designs as "wheels". They serve no purpose in the actual launching, but they make it easier to distinguish the can as a cannon.

Now all we have to do is launch and see if our work has paid off.



This is a picture of the remake of our cannon



As you can see above, the halved tennis ball can became our base that will had more height to our cannon.

1. Obtain materials (tape, scissors, tennis ball can, lids, protractor, and writing utensils)

2. Cut one of the tennis ball cans in half with the scissors. Be sure that the cut is even so as not to create an oblique angle.

3. Place the second tennis ball can with no cuts in the halved one at a forty-five degree angle, so as to add height (and therefore distance) to the nerf ball's launch.

4. Tape the tennis ball cans together firmly.

*We wanted to make sure that we had enough oxygen in the reaction in order to allow for the full use of the ethanol. Because of this, we didn't cut the second tennis ball can just to be on the safe side.