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French-Speaking Members Please!

Signet

Signet

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I've purchased ANCRE's French Naval Artillery 1640-1850 in English. Unfortunately, the copies of documents are in French (which they of course would be). The problem is my French is limited to Oue and Non. There is one table in particular that lists many dimensions for gun carriages as of 1699 that I would LOVE to be able to use. I'll work out the dimensions (no doubt in French feet), but would anyone be willing to translate the text in each of the columns? They are written in script, of course, and Google Translate doesn't do script (yet?). The picture below is in high resolution, so click on it to see everything bigger. I've also rotated it so the desired columns to be translated are horizontal.

Whoops, just tried uploading the file, and it reduced it to 1079x1400. I'll crop it to only show the columns to take up less space.
1776739766320.png
Hmmm. That's not full resolution either. Maybe good enough? I could have sworn I've seen higher res photos when you click on them.

Anyhow, if anyone could translate for me, I'd appreciate it. I get that the first line is weight of the ball in pounds, the second is caliber diameter. After that.....?
 
Signet said:
I've purchased ANCRE's French Naval Artillery 1640-1850 in English. Unfortunately, the copies of documents are in French (which they of course would be). The problem is my French is limited to Oue and Non. There is one table in particular that lists many dimensions for gun carriages as of 1699 that I would LOVE to be able to use. I'll work out the dimensions (no doubt in French feet), but would anyone be willing to translate the text in each of the columns? They are written in script, of course, and Google Translate doesn't do script (yet?). The picture below is in high resolution, so click on it to see everything bigger. I've also rotated it so the desired columns to be translated are horizontal.

Whoops, just tried uploading the file, and it reduced it to 1079x1400. I'll crop it to only show the columns to take up less space.
View attachment 593676
Hmmm. That's not full resolution either. Maybe good enough? I could have sworn I've seen higher res photos when you click on them.

Anyhow, if anyone could translate for me, I'd appreciate it. I get that the first line is weight of the ball in pounds, the second is caliber diameter. After that.....?
Click to expand...
Hi Signet
I can help you on this

- cannon balls weight in pounds
- cannon diameter in inches and (can't read that last word)
- cannon balls diameter in inches and ??
- cannon length in feet, inches and ??
- thickness of the bottom of the cannon carriage in inches and ???
- length of the bottom of the cannon carriage in feet, inches and ???
- width of the bottom of the cannon carriage in feet, inches and ???
- thickness of the (?? can't read) in inches and ???
- length of the (?? can't read) in feet, inches and ???
- width at front of the gun carriage in inches and ??
- width at back of the gun carriage in inches and ??
- front axle diameter in inches
- rear axle diameter in inches
- thickness of the front wheels in inches
- thickness of the rear wheels in inches
- diameter of the front wheels in inches
- diameter of the rear wheels in inches

cheers
 
Gun carriage proportion table for every gun used by the navy / fleet

- cannon balls weight in pounds
- cannon diameter in inches and lines
- cannon balls diameter in inches and lines
- cannon length in feet, inches and lines
- thickness of the bottom of the cannon carriage in inches and lines
- length of the bottom of the cannon carriage in feet, inches and lines
- width of the bottom of the cannon carriage in feet, inches and lines
- thickness of the ("flasque") sidepiece in inches and lines
- length of the ("flasque") sidepiece in feet, inches and lines
- width at front of the gun carriage in inches and lines
- width at back of the gun carriage in inches and lines
- front axle diameter in inches and lines
- rear axle diameter in inches and lines
- thickness of the front wheels in inches and lines
- thickness of the rear wheels in inches and lines
- diameter of the front wheels in inches and lines
- diameter of the rear wheels in inches and lines
 
Last edited:
In " Précis des pratiques de l'art naval" by J.- B.-A. Baron (1813), the LINES or LIGNES are used as dimension of length when comparing french foots to englisn foots. Per ex. 1 english foot egal 11 in. 3 lines and 1/6 of line of french foot or 306 mil. Of meter.

Michel
 
Last edited:
Thanks so much, guys! Responses like this is one of the things that's so great about an International forum! I believe one LINE is 1/12 of an inch. If I'm wrong, please correct me.
 
Whoops, I think one got missed. There are 18 columns with captions, but only 17 translations. One towards the middle, I think, but can't make it out.
 
Fish&Chip said:
In " Précis des pratiques de l'art naval" by J.- B.-A. Baron (1813), the LINES or LIGNES are used as dimension of length when comparing french foots to englisn foots. Per ex. 1 english foot egal 11 in. 3 lines and 1/6 of line of french foot or 306 mil. Of meter.

Michel
Click to expand...
I did not know this term line
Good to learn
 
Signet said:
Thanks so much, guys! Responses like this is one of the things that's so great about an International forum! I believe one LINE is 1/12 of an inch. If I'm wrong, please correct me.
Click to expand...
Sorry for this one, I have difficulty with this kind of conversion. Difficulté in terme of compréhension of all this old things.

Michel
 
French measurements conversion:

Pied Français (French foot) = 324.8 mm
Pouce Français (inch) = 27.1 mm
Ligne Française (line) = 2.26 mm (or 1/12th a inch (2.25883))
 
Here is the full translation including the missing column for a total of 18 columns:

- Weight of cannon-balls in pounds.

- Diameter of guns’ caliber in inches and lines.

- Cannon-balls’ diameter in inches and lines.

- Guns’ length in feet, inches and lines.

- Thickness of the gun carriage bottom piece in inches and lines.

- Length of the gun carriage bottom piece in feet, inches and lines.

- Forward width of the gun carriage bottom piece in inches and lines.

- Aft width of the gun carriage bottom piece in inches and lines.

- Thickness of the side pieces in inches and lines.

- Length of the side pieces in feet, inches and lines.

- Gun carriage forward width in inches and lines.

- Gun carriage aft width in inches and lines.

- Size of the forward axle in inches and lines.

- Size of the aft axle in inches and lines.

- Forward wheels thickness in inches and lines.

- Aft wheels thickness in inches and lines.

- Forward wheels height in inches and lines.

- Aft wheels height in inches and lines.
 
Thanks to everyone for their assistance in translating and interpreting this table. I have created a spreadsheet with this information, with titles changed to use standard gun carriage nomenclature, and have converted all dimensions to standard, current English inches (I could do a metric one if anyone wants it). Only the barrel length has been left in feet, which is what we are all accustomed to. I assume they are French feet. Anyhow, here's the table:

Gun Carriage Proportion Table for All French Navy/Fleet Guns, published 1699
Note: All dimensions are in current English inches, unless specified otherwise.
Cannon Ball Weight, poundsCannon BoreCannon Ball DiameterNominal Barrel Length in French FeetSole ThicknessSole LengthCarriage Width at FrontCarriage Width at RearCheek ThicknessCheek LengthCarriage Inside Width at FrontCarriage Inside Width at RearFront Axle DiameterRear Axle DiameterFront Truck ThicknessRear Truck ThicknessFront Truck DiameterRear Truck Diameter
48 7.55 7.2410 5.03 73.02 34.65 38.73 7.24 68.05 20.08 24.25 7.24 6.57 7.24 6.57 21.68 19.72
36 6.97 6.5710 4.60 73.02 31.27 35.53 6.57 68.40 18.12 22.39 6.57 5.20 6.57 5.20 19.72 16.35
24 6.00 5.739.5 4.00 70.62 27.45 30.69 5.73 65.47 15.99 19.23 5.73 5.20 5.73 5.20 17.19 16.35
18 5.46 5.209 3.61 65.83 25.32 28.34 5.20 62.27 14.92 17.94 5.20 4.75 5.20 4.75 16.35 14.92
12 4.84 4.578.5 3.17 62.36 22.65 25.32 4.57 58.99 12.81 15.81 4.75 4.18 4.75 4.18 14.92 13.86
8 4.18 4.008 2.78 55.43 19.54 22.47 4.18 55.70 11.19 14.12 4.18 3.78 4.18 3.78 13.86 12.79
6 3.78 3.607 2.52 51.17 17.41 20.34 3.78 48.68 10.13 12.79 3.78 3.29 3.78 3.29 12.79 11.37
4 3.29 3.156 2.16 43.97 15.63 17.77 3.29 41.75 9.06 11.19 3.29 2.98 3.29 2.98 11.37 10.66
Note Barrel length does not include cascabel. English Feet = French Feet x 1.066

I see that titles don't come across vertical. And as soon as I type something here, it breaks apart. Oh well, it's fairly viewable. Here's another version:

1776797307845.png

I hope someone may find this useful.
 
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