The last article was devoted to stone cores and the issue of their production. We came to the conclusion that it is very labor intensive. (Unless, of course, they are not cast out of concrete. About which I have not yet dug up any reliable information. But I will not stop looking.)
It is much easier to cast from metal than to make a perfect ball with a chisel, and even to fit the diameter of the gun barrel. So why didn't you pour it? There were no problems with the swamp iron. So they could cast such a fool, but there is no kernel for it ???
In one of this photographs, they combined a huge weapon with reinforcement belts in the right places, (and this is a mathematical calculation!) Stone cannonballs and a wooden carriage!
Well, the carriage is okay yet, perhaps - a lightening of the structure or dampens vibrations … Although the recoil of such a fool should be monstrous. On the ships, the guns were chained on chains, so that they would not roll away further than necessary. Where to attach the chains right there? To the wooden carriage? Will it not vomit? Well, that's not about that now.
So, iron cores. Why kernels at all? A tribute to tradition? Flight stabilization? So feathers on the arrow were invented in the days of bows! I think even then they knew how to solve this problem, and casting an oblong blank is much easier than a ball. poked a sharp log into the clay and lei! The form is ready! And the ball must be welded in two halves. Or sculpt two halves of clay and mold them and then pour in there … phew … Grenades are another matter!
Bursting iron balls. Here it is already possible to shoot at the enemy's infantry - shrapnel wounds rule in the defeat of the enemy's manpower.
Promotional video:
Cast two halves, welded, poured gunpowder and AHA! But not all of the cores were hollow. A lot of photos are solid. What's the point of them?
On the infantry - meaning zero. On the ship, so it is necessary to get below the waterline, so that the hole turns out and the adversary sinks! On the fortresses - so everything is clear in the photo above? What is the point of moving from stone to iron, if the production technology of the former has already been worked out? The weight is more - so the charge must be more powerful and the gun stronger.
Or maybe there were no cast metal cannonballs at all? Maybe those that are found were not used for shooting at all? Maybe these are bearing balls? Or was it used to grind something?