Concealed plugs and rotten trunnions: David Tanner and his problems with gunfounding in the American War of Independence
Abstract
In the early 1770s the British Board of Ordnance decided that all new iron guns must be cast solid and bored out, rather than cast round a core. As a result when war broke out shortly after with the American colonists, the Ordnance had to work with a number of founders with no previous experience of either casting guns or dealing with the Board. One of these new founders was David Tanner of Tintern who had a very poor record of casting. Over a number of years his letters reveal the difficulties an iron founder had in attaining the high standard which the government expected for their cannon, the excuses he made and his attempts to have the
guns accepted. However in the wake of the defeat in the War and the financial crisis that followed, the Board was reorganized with the military officers in stronger control of the supply and proof of new guns and Tanner was forced to find an alternative market for his rejected guns.
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