How to cast a cannon from bronze. Cast the cannon. Second approach. Casting cannons in Rus'

With the casting of cannons, the social and public role of the foundry worker increased. This happened after the invention of gunpowder and the advent of firearms.
Gunpowder, based on a number of studies, was invented in China in the 9th century. and already in the 10th century. used for firearms. The Arabs used it at the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th centuries, and they brought it to Europe in the 14th century. via Spain. In the 20-40s of the XIV century. The first samples of firearms appeared in Italy, France, Germany, and England. The earliest known mention of the use of artillery in Rus' dates back to 1382 (defense of Moscow from the hordes of Khan Tokhtamysh).
The first guns were smooth-bore tubes with a blind breech, in which there was a seed hole. They were loaded from the muzzle. This design lasted almost until the second half of the 19th century.
The gun barrel was originally produced by welding forged iron strips with lead, then fastened with copper hoops. The breech was made separately. This technique was suitable only for the manufacture of small-sized tools and could not ensure their reliable operation.
From these positions, a solid-cast cannon, even one made of bronze, was preferable. At the same time, the production process was significantly accelerated and simplified, it became possible to more accurately reproduce the caliber of the gun and improve its design. Structural improvements included trunnions, which made it easier to change the angle of inclination of the gun when firing, brackets on the barrel for convenient carrying, and simple sighting devices (front sight and slot).

Rice. 159. Pishchal “Bear”. Bronze. Foundry master Semyon Dubinin. 1590, Moscow, Kremlin

The first steps in the development of artillery in the West and in the Moscow state were characterized by the fact that each foundry master created his own special type of cannon, assigning the length, thickness and other dimensions of the product at his own discretion. Before the appearance of general requirements for guns,30 it was a common custom to decorate cannons with ornaments, inscriptions, and distinctive sculptures, from which they often got their name: “Aspid,” “Lion,” “Leopard,” “Gamayun,” etc. (Fig. 159). In this, as in other differences, a kind of rivalry between foundry workers was manifested. It is characteristic that the oldest Russian cast cannon that has survived to this day (1492) does not have trunnions and brackets, but its barrel and end are decorated with ornaments. At first, the carriages that appeared later were also richly decorated (Fig. 160). So guns can also be classified as artistic castings for applied purposes.

Rice. 160. Pike with a “twisted” barrel. Bronze. Foundry master Yakov Osipov. 1671 Cast carriage - cast iron. XIX century
By the time firearms appeared, casting technology had developed sufficiently, and this was facilitated by the production of large bells. From a technological point of view, as N. N. Rubtsov writes, the shape of the cannon is a simplified bell shape. As a result, mastering the production of cannons did not present too serious difficulties for bell makers. For example, such famous foundry masters as A. Chokhov and Motorin cast both bells and cannons. In ancient engravings showing foundries, you can see images of bells and cannons at the same time.
The foundry workers quickly realized that the good-sounding but fragile “bell bronze” was not very suitable for making cannons. Traditional gunmetal bronze contains half as much tin as bell bronze, which makes it significantly more ductile, i.e. more suitable for use under shock loads.
Although, unfortunately, for military purposes, it was the mass casting of cannons that marked the beginning of the creation of the first large foundries. Already during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the famous architect, engineer and artilleryman A. Fiorovanti, invited from Italy, expanded foundries in Moscow and created on their basis the cannon foundry enterprise “Cannon Hut” (1478). Soon on the river Neglinnaya, in the area of ​​​​Pushechnaya Street, where the Children's World building is now located, a factory was built - the famous “Cannon Yard”, which worked for several centuries (the Cannon Hut burned down 10 years after construction).
When creating regimental artillery, the technological process is streamlined, and the basic elements of the classification of guns are developed. They began to divide them
into groups depending on the size of the nucleus charged in them. In 1540, a table of calibers was developed in Nuremberg indicating the diameters of stone and cast iron cores. For example, in Russia the three-pounder gun had a caliber of 2.8 inches (70 mm); twelve pound - 4.7 inches (120 mm), etc.
The molding of cannons, established in the 14th century. - the so-called “slow molding”, by analogy with the production of bells, was used for a relatively long time. It was based on the ancient method of making bells using a template with a horizontal axis of rotation (according to Theophilus).

Rice. 161. Operational production of a gun casting mold using the “slow molding” method
First of all, a clay model of the cannon body was prepared. A straw rope was placed on a round or faceted wooden core of a slightly conical shape, repeating approximately the outer contours of the cannon barrel (Fig. 161, b). Next, the molder applied layers of clay with his hands, after drying the previous layer in air. The first layers consisted of fatty wet clay mixed with ground bricks, the last layers consisted of finely ground fatty clay mixed with hair (wool) and horse manure. Excess clay was cut off with a template that repeated the configuration of the outer surface of the trunk (Fig. 161, c).
Wooden models of axles were nailed onto the resulting clay model, and models of handles and decorations were attached (Fig. 161, d, Fig. 162). The latter were made from a mixture of wax, lard and crushed charcoal in special plaster molds (Fig. 163).
After receiving the model, we proceeded to manufacturing the mold casing. To do this, the gun models were lubricated with a release agent consisting of lard and vegetable oil. Then several layers of a wet mixture similar to that used in the last layers of the model were applied. Each layer was dried in air. And then layers of thick clay were applied on them until a casing with a thickness of 175 to 300 mm was obtained (depending on the size of the gun). Then the trunnion models were removed, and the resulting holes were sealed with clay. Iron hoops, longitudinal strips (Fig. 161, e) and again iron hoops (Fig. 161, f) were placed on top of the casing for strength. The intersections of the transverse and longitudinal bands were secured with wire. After this, the uniform was dried on trestles, lighting a fire under it (Fig. 161, e, Fig. 164). The dried form was removed from the trestle, the core was knocked out of the model, which pulled a straw cord behind it, as a result of which it could be easily removed from the model by unwinding the strand.

Rice. 162. The “slow molding” method: attaching models of trunnions, handles and decorations to a clay model of a cannon. Ill. to the "Encyclopedia" of J. L. D'Alembert and D. Diderot
The mold with the model's clay shirt remaining in it was placed vertically in a pit on iron linings and a fire was lit inside the barrel to melt the separating layer between the casing (mold) and the model's shirt, as well as to melt wax models of handles and decorations.

Rice. 163. Plaster molds for making wax parts of a gun model

Rice. 164. “Method” of slow molding.” Drying and firing of the cannon mold. Illustration for the “Encyclopedia” by J. L. d’Alembert and D. Diderot
The remaining clay shirt of the model became brittle when heated and could easily be removed. To make it easier to remove the shirt, especially from the mold of small-caliber guns, when making the model, a groove was cut out along a helical line with the depth of a straw strand, then the groove was filled with rosin or resin. Thus, after the removal (destruction) of the clay model, a casting mold for the cannon barrel remained with imprints on the inner surface of all decorations, inscriptions, etc.
The core for the cannon shape was made in the same way as the model, with the difference that the core was an iron rod; instead of a straw rope, a hemp rope was taken, and the template from which the rod was turned had the configuration of the internal channel of a cannon.
Then the casting mold was assembled: a rod was installed inside, secured with special devices - drawers, and a mold for the breech was attached to the shape of the barrel. A longitudinal section of the form is shown in Fig. 161, a.
The assembled mold was placed vertically in the pouring pit with the breech side down. The space around the mold was filled with dry earth and a sprue bowl was made on it, from which the metal entered the casting mold. Molds were poured, as for all other large castings, directly from the furnace through channels in the foundry floor. This is how bronze cannons were cast in Western European feudal states and Muscovite Rus'. During the reign of Ivan III, the production of cast artillery guns was established in Moscow, the foundry master Yakov, his students Vanya da Vasyuk, Fedka the Cannonman, Pavlin Fryazin Debbosis and others worked there.
During the time of Ivan the Terrible, Russian artillery was not inferior in power and strength to the artillery of Western European countries, and in some ways surpassed them. This was reported by the ambassadors of Byzantium, Venice, and England who visited Moscow. The English ambassador J. Fletcher wrote in the late 80s of the 16th century. “...none of the Christian sovereigns had such a good supply of military ammunition as the Russian Tsar.” Thus, in the siege of Kazan in 1552, 150 firearms took part.
In the 70s of the 16th century, preparing for a new campaign in Livonia, Ivan the Terrible decided to significantly increase the power of siege artillery. During the siege of Polotsk in 1563, only 4 battering guns were used, yet the effect of their use was colossal. It was then that the Moscow Cannon Yard, which had just been rebuilt after the devastating raid of the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey in 1571, received an order to manufacture several heavy battering guns. The work was supervised by the famous Russian foundry worker A. Chokhov (c. 1545-1629).
At that time in Rus', casting large-caliber guns was not a new thing for foundry workers. Back in 1554, more than twenty years before the Livonian campaign of 1575, at the Cannon Yard Kashpir Ganusov, A. Chokhov’s teacher, cast a large cannon, called the “Kashpir’s Cannon.” It had a length of 448 cm, weighed 1200 pounds (19.65 tons) and fired stone cannonballs of 20 pounds (327.6 kg); its caliber was 53 cm. A similar weapon - the Peacock mortar - was cast by Stepan Petrov in 1555. It weighed 1020 pounds (16.7 tons) and fired stone cannonballs weighing 15 pounds (245.7 kg). But these weapons also had a predecessor: in 1488, under Ivan III in Moscow, P. Debbosis cast, apparently, an equally formidable weapon, which the historian N.M. Karamzin called the “Tsar Cannon.” Later, in the 17th century. it was called “Peacock”, just like the weapon cast later by S. Petrov.
Only under the leadership of A. Chokhov, about one and a half dozen battering guns were cast at the Cannon Yard, not counting short-barreled mortars and small-caliber arquebuses. Some large guns of A. Chokhov have survived to this day. In the Moscow Kremlin there are battering guns “Aspid” and “Troilus” "(1590). In the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering Troops and Signal Corps of St. Petersburg, 4 battering cannons of A. Chokhov are stored: “Inrog” (1577), “Lion” and “Scorpea” (1590). ) and "King Achilles" (1617). Each of them has a special history. For example, the "King Achilles" cannon (Fig. 165) was used during the siege of Dorogobuzh, Novgorod-Seversky and other cities in 1632. In the same year it was captured by the Poles near Smolensk, and taken by the Swedes during the siege of Elbing in 1703. In 1723, the cannon was bought by Russian merchants and returned to its homeland... The caliber of the gun is 152 mm, barrel length 6080 mm, weight 3603 kg, its carriage made of cast iron, apparently much later. However, the crowning achievement of the outstanding master’s work is the “Tsar Cannon,” cast by him in the prime of his creative powers and which today is one of the most famous museum exhibits of the Moscow Kremlin (Fig. 166).

Rice. 165. Battered arquebus “King Achilles”. Bronze. Foundry master A. Chokhov. 1617 Cast carriage - cast iron, XIX century, St. Petersburg

Rice. 166. “Tsar Cannon” in the Kremlin (photo from the beginning of the 20th century). Bronze. Foundry master A. Chokhov. 1585 Cast carriage - cast iron. Author A.P. Bryulov, 1835, Moscow

Rice. 167. Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich (image on the “Tsar Cannon”)
When we pronounce the words “Tsar Cannon,” we think, first of all, about the size of this weapon. Meanwhile, the name of this mortar was given by the cast image of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, during whose reign it was cast (Fig. 167). However, the unknown author of the so-called “Piskarevsky Chronicler”, noting the casting of the mortar as an event of extreme importance, wrote: “... by order of the Sovereign Tsar and Grand Duke Theodore Ioannovich of All Rus', a large cannon was cast, the likes of which had never happened in Rus' and other lands, and her name is “Tsar”. To be fair, it should be noted that at that time there was a larger bronze cannon weighing 57 tons, cast in the city of Ahmedagar in India in 1548. It still stands on the wall of the city fortress near the famous Gol-Gumbaz mausoleum, but neither A. Chokhov, neither his contemporaries might have known about it. This fact is not particularly advertised even now.
The dimensions of A. Chokhov's "Tsar Cannon" - this magnificent example of foundry art - are impressive even today: the length of the mortar is 5.34 m, the barrel diameter is 120 cm, the belt diameter is more than 134 cm, the weight of the gun is 39.3 tons, the weight of the stone kernels 52 pounds (352 kg).
It cannot be said that the design of the Tsar Cannon was technologically advanced, given the casting techniques used. The traditional shape of mortars, including those made by A. Mokhov (Fig. 168, a), is characterized by a stepped outer contour that follows the internal shape of the barrel. This makes it possible to reduce the difference in the wall thicknesses of the barrel and the breech.

Rice. 168. Design of the barrels of ancient mortars by A. Chokhov: a - Mortar “Impostor”, 1605; b - “Tsar Cannon”, 1585
Apparently, K. Ganusov (1554) broke this tradition for the first time when casting a large-caliber mortar, known to us as the “Kashpirova Cannon.” In an effort to make the breech more durable so that the thick walls of the chamber could withstand the gas pressure when firing a 20-pound cannonball, he made the cannon barrel with a constant outer diameter. The Tsar Cannon has the same design (Fig. 168, b). The average thickness of the wall of its barrel in the muzzle is about 15 cm, the powder chamber is 38 cm, the rear wall is 42 cm thick. With such a difference in wall thicknesses and the accepted position of the mold when pouring (breech side down), there is a high probability of internal defects of shrinkage origin. in massive parts of the casting. To avoid this, you should turn the mold over with the breech side up and place a profit33 on the bottom of the gun to eliminate possible shrinkage defects in the rear wall and the walls of the breech. However, this poses additional challenges when forming and assembling such a large shape. The conditions for removing gases from the core during pouring of the mold and hardening of the casting worsen. In addition, at that time it was hardly possible to cut off the profit from a cannon with a diameter of almost 1.5 m.
However, everything turned out well. In any case, no major defects extending outward that could significantly reduce the strength of the gun metal were found. The relatively thin handles (staples) on the breech, which served as refrigerators, apparently also played a positive role.
The giant cannon was not created for props, so it was installed without a carriage on Red Square, near the Moskvoretskaya crossing, next to S. Petrov’s “Peacock” mortar, which had been there for 30 years. The Tsar Cannon was transported from the Cannon Yard to Red Square on rollers made of thick logs. She was dragged by at least 200 horses. In 1626, special “rolls” for these cannons were built and, with great difficulty, in 1627 they were moved to the Execution Ground.
In 1701, Peter I, creating new artillery, issued a decree according to which the Peacock cannon and Kashpirov cannon were melted down along with other old guns. However, realizing the historical value of the Tsar Cannon, he ordered its preservation. In 1765, the Tsar Cannon was transported to the Kremlin and placed under a specially built stone tent near the Resurrection Monastery. In 1835, for the “Tsar Cannon”, according to the design of Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts A.P. Bryullov, a cast iron carriage was cast in St. Petersburg at the Berda factory and the cannon was installed on the carriage at the main gate of the Moscow Arsenal.
In 1843, the Tsar Cannon was transported from the main gate of the Arsenal to the old building of the Armory Chamber (the building was dismantled in 1960 in connection with the construction of the Palace of Congresses on this site). A pyramid of four hollow (decorative) cast iron cannonballs was placed in front of the cannon, the mass of each cannonball being 1000 kg. On both sides of the gun, two more pyramids were built from smaller cores (Fig. 166). They put up a board with the inscription: “Shotgun Russian lit 1586. Cannonball weight 120 poods.” The weight of the cannonball was mistakenly overestimated by half, hence the widely known version about the fake purpose of the cannon, since with the indicated weight of the projectile the cannon would have exploded.
In 1960, the cannon was finally installed near the Church of the Twelve Apostles, next to the Tsar Bell, where it is currently located. It should be noted that proximity to a giant bronze bell is disadvantageous for the cannon. According to Montferrand's design, the Tsar Cannon was placed among other ancient cannons on display in the Kremlin, against which its power was more clearly felt. The remaining cannons are now located at the other end of the square, near the Arsenal building, where access to Kremlin visitors is limited.
Further improvement of the cannon casting process was associated with the need to increase their reliability, service life, mobility, and increase their number. The requirement to reduce the mass of guns led to strict standardization of their sizes, reduction, and then elimination of decorations. The latter also simplified their production.
In the 17th century In many countries, the technology of casting guns and shells from cast iron begins to spread. This material appeared in China, according to some sources, in the 6th century. BC, according to others - at the turn of the old and new eras. In any case, the mentioned giant cast iron “Lion Tsar” dates back to 954 (see Fig. 50). In Europe, the appearance of cast iron dates back to the 14th century, which led a number of researchers to associate the invention of cast iron with Germany in the 14th century.
In fact, this is a striking example of a multi-temporal, but almost independent emergence of an innovation due to poor dissemination of information.
It is not known exactly how they began to smelt cast iron in the Middle Ages. Apparently this happened by accident. With an increase in the amount of blast in the shaft furnaces, which were used at that time to produce iron ash from ore, it was noticed that a substance that did not resemble slag flowed out of the blast furnace along with the slag. Having hardened, it had a metallic sheen when broken, was as strong and heavy as iron, but differed from it in its fragility and could not be forged. Since its appearance during smelting reduced the yield of finished iron, this substance was considered undesirable. It is no coincidence that cast iron in England still retains the old, very unflattering name pig iron, i.e. "pig iron"
Foundry workers began to use cast iron for cannons as a material that was more durable, technologically advanced34, and most importantly, less scarce. But its use required a more advanced metallurgical base. Therefore, until the 18th century. in some countries cannons were still cast from bronze, in others from cast iron.
The increasing need for guns comes into conflict with the process of their “slow molding”. Making a one-time, destroyable clay model for each casting was clearly irrational, especially after the standardization of the sizes of guns of the same caliber. The process of obtaining a puff mold from clay was also labor-intensive. Essentially, a revolution in this area was carried out by the famous French scientist, engineer and politician Gaspard Monge (1746-1818), the author of the method of so-called rapid casting of cannons.
G. Monge was the creator of descriptive geometry, without which technical drawing is impossible, co-author of the modern decimal metric measurement system and much more. An active supporter of the Great French Revolution, he was in 1792-i 793. was Minister of Naval Affairs, in 1793 he was in charge of gunpowder and cannon affairs in the republic. Based on the results of his activities, he published the book “The Art of Casting Cannons,” which was popular in its time, translated into Russian in 1804. Grateful descendants, noting his merits, in 1849 installed his bust and four tricolor banners with the inscriptions on the house where he was born with the inscriptions: “Descriptive Geometry”, “Political School”, “Cairo Institute”, “Cannon Casting”.
At the suggestion of G. Monge, the permanent model of the cannon is divided into parts, which are molded separately (similar to dividing a statue into parts). In Fig. 169 shows a longitudinal section of the mold with parts of the model not removed. The hollow brass or cast iron model of a cannon consists of six separate parts, tightly fitted to one another: four ring models of the barrel, one ring - a profitable extension and one breech. The protrusions on the model at the joints reproduce the belts on the body of the gun. Each of the six parts of the model has hooks on the inside to facilitate assembly and disassembly. The upper part of the model forms the profit, which is then cut off from the body of the gun.
The mold was made in a collapsible metal jacket (opoke3"1), consisting of ring parts corresponding to parts of the model and additionally divided along the axis of symmetry, i.e. there were 12 parts of the jacket for 6 parts of the model. The individual parts of the jacket were fastened with pins and pins ( wedges).

Rice. 169. Method of “quick casting” of guns. General view and section of the form
This design of the jacket makes it easier to mold and, most importantly, remove the finished casting from the mold.
The mold was made in a vertical position: first, the lower part of the model was molded at the bottom of the ring jacket. It was pre-lubricated with a release agent. Then the space between the wall of the model and the jacket was filled with a molding mixture consisting of greasy sand mixed with horse manure and compacted. After that, both the model and the casing were gradually increased. The contact surface of the individual parts of the mold was coated with a release agent. The molded parts were removed (the mold was disassembled), the models were removed from them, and the parts of the mold were dried separately from one another. After this, the inner surface of the mold parts was painted with molding ink and dried. The rod for decorating the inner surface of the gun was made in the same way as with the “slow molding” method.
The mold was assembled, the rod was installed, and all parts of the jacket were fastened together. The mold was poured in a vertical position. Later, a modernized method of rapid cannon casting was used to produce cast iron water and sewer pipes (before the widespread use of centrifugal casting for these purposes).
You should focus on the quality of the guns being cast. Long clay rods had poor gas permeability, so it was difficult to obtain castings without gas pockets on the inner surface of the tools. While the quality requirements were not very strict, minor defects were repaired. However, when a connection was established between the presence of gas pockets in the channel and the service life of the gun, the requirements for the cleanliness of the internal channel became more stringent. As a result, from 40 to 90% of cast iron cannons began to be rejected)