1 76 Experiments with Cannon, &c. 



Those who are engaged in these researches may, per- 

 haps, derive some advantage from the hints, however 

 cursory they may be, of a person who has long been in 

 a habit of observing ; and who has had many opportun- 

 ities of making interesting experiments. 



When I was called to take the direction of the mili- 

 tary affairs of the late Elector Palatine, Duke of Bava- 

 ria, the army was destitute of a well-organized train of 

 field artillery ; and there was no Cannon Foundry in Ba- 

 varia that was in a condition to be used. The ar- 

 senal at Munich was filled with cannon, but by far 

 the greater part of them were perfectly useless, being 

 very ancient, and too heavy and unwieldy to be moved. 

 There was a very good Cannon Foundry at Manheim, 

 the capital of the Elector's dominions upon the Rhine; 

 but the distance between Munich and Manheim is so 

 great that it would have cost more to have sent the Ba- 

 varian guns to Manheim to be refounded, and to have 

 brought them back by land carriage, than was required 

 to defray the expence of establishing a new manufactory 

 for the construction of artillery in Bavaria. 



A Foundry was accordingly established at Munich, 

 and neither pains nor expence were spared to make it as 

 perfect as possible ; and a most excellent machine was 

 erected for boring cannon ; with work-shops adjoining 

 to it for the construction of gun-carriages and ammu- 

 nition waggons. 



With these advantages, and with a set of good work- 

 men at my command in all the different branches of 

 mechanics that are concerned in the construction of ar- 

 tillery, it will readily be believed, by those who know 

 how much my attention had been employed on that 

 subject, that I did not neglect to avail myself of so 



