Product Code Database
The pot-de-fer was a primitive cannon made of iron. It was used by the French in the Hundred Years' War. The name means "iron pot" in French language. In Italy, pots-de-fer were known as vasi or vasii, meaning "pot" or "vase".
The first confirmed usage of a pot-de-fer in Germany was during the Eltz Feud between 1331 and 1337 at a siege of Eltz Castle.Wilfrid Tittmann; Die Eltzer Büchsenpfeile von 1331–1333. In: Waffen- und Kostümkunde, Band 36 (1994), pp. 117–128, Band 37 (1995), pp. 53–64
The pot-de-fer was used by the French in the Hundred Years' War in a raid on Southampton and in battles in Périgord, Cambrai, and Le Quesnoy. They may also have been used against the Scottish by the English.
An early reference to the name in French is as pot de fer a traire garros (an iron jug for throwing arrows).Dana, Charles E., Notes on Cannon - Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 50, No. 199 (May - Aug., 1911), pp. 147-167 Such a 'pot de fer' had a bottle shape, which may have suggested its name.
Scholarly interest and research
The unusual vase-like shape of the cannon, coupled with the depicted arrow projectile, caused many modern historians to doubt the efficiency — or even existence — of the weapon. In order to establish these points, researchers at the Royal Armouries replica and trialled the weapon in 1999. The walls of the chamber were very thick to prevent explosion, leaving a cylindrical caliber which was loaded by a wooden arrow with bronze flights (also reconstructed based on archeological findings), of 135 cm length. Estimating the size of the cannon from the illustrated man standing beside it, the reconstructed cannon was 90 cm long, and 40 cm at its widest point; cast in bronze the reconstruction weighed 410 kilogram. The subsequent trials showed that the gun was not powerful, firing the arrow only 180 m at most; a larger charge of powder resulted only in the destruction of the arrow.
See also
|
|
