-+---------

The heaviest of Mueller's garrison guns averaged some 172 pounds of
iron for every pound of the shot, while a ship gun weighed only 146,
less than half the iron that went into the sixteenth century cannon.
And for a seafaring nation such as England, these were important
things. Perhaps the opposite table will give a fair idea of the
changes in English ordnance during the eighteenth century. It is based
upon John Mueller's lists of 1756; the "old" ordnance includes cannon
still in use during Mueller's time, while the "new" ordnance is
Mueller's own.

Windage in the English gun of 1750 was about 20 percent greater than
in French pieces. The English ratio of shot to caliber was 20:21;
across the channel it was 26:27. Thus, an English 9-pounder fired a
4.00-inch ball from a 4.20-inch bore; the French 9-pounder ball was
4.18 inches and the bore 4.34.

The English figured greater windage was both convenient and
economical: windage, said they, ought to be just as thick as the metal
in the gunner's ladle; standing shot stuck in the bore and unless it
could be loosened with the ladle, had to be fired away and lost. John
Mueller brushed aside such arguments impatiently. With a proper wad
over the shot, no dust or dirt could get in; and when the muzzle was
lowered, said Mueller, the shot "will roll out of course." Besides,
compared with increased accuracy, the loss of a shot was trifling.
Furthermore, with less room for the shot to bounce around the bore,
the cannon would "not be spoiled so soon." Mueller set the ratio of
shot to caliber as 24:25.

_Calibers and lengths of principal eighteenth century English cannon_

---------+-----------+---------------------+-----------+----------+
Caliber | Field | Ship | Siege | Garrison |
+-----------+----------+----------+-----------+----------+
| Iron | Bronze | Iron | Bronze | Iron |
+-----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+-----+
(pounder)| Old | New | Old| New | Old | New| Old | New | Old| New |
---------+-----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+-----+
1-1/2 | | | | | | | 6'0"| | | |
3 |3'6" |3'3" | |3'6" | 4'6"|3'6"| 7'0"| |4'6"| 4'2"|
4 | | | | | 6'0"| | | | | |
6 |4'6" |4'1" |8'0"|4'4" | 7'0"|4'4"| 8'0"| |6'6"| 5'3"|
9 | |4'8" | |5'0" | 7'0