﻿MEMOIRS 



AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



I. 



On the Practicability of Constructing Cannon of Great Caliber, capable of enduring Jong- 

 continued Use under full Charges. 



By DANIEL TREADWELL, 



VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE ACADEMY, A:?D LATE RCMFORD PROFESSOR IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 



Communicated, February, 1856. 



The importance of constructing cannon of a size larger tlian any now in iise, to 

 every nation that may be called upon to encounter the trials of war, is one of those 

 facts acknowledged alike by the soldier and the civilian ; and to obtain such instru- 

 ments, capable of thromng j)rojectiles larger and heavier, and to greater distances 

 than have hitherto been attained, is now occupying the attention of the scientific 

 engineers and projectors of Europe more than any other question open to them. 

 The present age has ■witnessed a remarkable increase in the size of all the great 

 instruments of human industry. Ships within twenty years have been doubled in 

 their dimensions, and steam-engines are now constructed which compare with those 

 of the last age as giants compare with common men. But although the want is 

 fully acknowledged, and attempts have been made in hundreds of fonns, no one has 

 succeeded in producing a cannon essentially more powerful than those used in the 

 days of Napoleon and Wellington. 



I propose, in this paper, to search for the causes of these failures, to examine the 

 action of the forces, both active and passive, which are called into operation in 

 throwing shot and shells by gunpowder, and, at last, shall endeavor to show that oui* 

 present cannon do not approach the size and power of those that may be constructed. • 



VOL. VI. NEW SERIES. 1 



