Credit: © The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.10769

    Turkish cannon

    Date
    1715
    Creator
    James Pound (1669 - 1724, British) , Astronomer
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (drawing): 152mm
    width (drawing): 268mm
    Subject
    Description
    Plan view of a 12-foot brass cannon manufactured in Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey) for naval service. Shown with a cannon ball and dimensional scale.

    Inscribed in ink: ‘The Demention of a Piece of Brass Canon; Six of which were cast at Constantinople in the Year 1715, & were put aboard a Turks man of War wth. Fivety other Guns, and design’d for Service at Sea against the Venetians. Length of the Canon twelve feet...Weight of the Canon 11: 13: 0: 16...Diameter of the Bore one foot & nyne Inches...Weight of the Stone Shot...0: 3: 0: 18...Powder for Service 118lb.’

    The cannon was described to a meeting of the Royal Society on 3 November 1715: ‘Mr. Pound shewed the Society a Draft of a Canon used by the Turks in the present war...’. This original figure was removed from its original source, apparently by Martin Folkes FRS (1690-1754) for copying and not returned. It is loosely inserted into Folkes’s manuscript volume, now MS/706. This book was later purchased by the Society and the drawing therefore recovered.

    James Pound was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1699.
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Asia
          > Turkey
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