Dear Digby
I will have a look if I can find some titles on balistics. Robins is the most obvious published about 1750. I am not back with my books for a couple of weeks.

Certainly this standard of debate seems to be typical for France when there was any form of change. We had this with AnXI and Gibeauval, Gribeauval and Vallee then the changes to rifled guns just to mention a few. The Salon politics where the facts do not get in the way.

Alas nearly all historians have swallowed as true how poor the AnXI system was. It was the first designed system of artillery for France. The Gribeauval System introduced field guns but adopted garrison and siege guns that were little changed to those under Valliere. Hence the number of wheels. Most English speaking people still think that Gribeauval guns were used at Waterloo. Only a few 12-pdrs at best but even these were not on Gribeauval Carriages, See the extent carriage at Fort Nelson.

Yes, if you want to go through the pain of translation then we wlll of course publish it as it is an important piece of work. It was written as a responce to the very partizan work of Du Coudray. We know it better as De Scheel Treatise on Artillery translated in 1800. This was a translation of Du Coudray of 1772 and technology. gunpowder and ballistics had changed in the meantime. You did not need to used a third weight charge, such heavy barrels etc.. for the same results. As shown by the AnXI system, M1810 Saxon, M1805 Russian and British Blomfield Systems that used lighter barrels and in many cases shorter guns.

Coupled with this a change in the deployment and use of the artillery. The original Gribeauval system made no provision for horse artillery. We have the attempts with Manson and his Wurst Wagons with 8-pdrs and the 4-pdr being too heavy for its calibre compared to the oponents using 6-pdrs.

Stephen