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- A Practical Course of Artillery by H.A. White 1857
A Practical Course of Artillery by H.A. White 1857
Manuscript.
Blank notebook, 20 cm. 273 (numbered in manuscript) pages of manuscript entries including 30 pages of drawings in pencil and ink.
Price: $750
This is an illustrated manuscript covering the basics of mid-19th century artillery from a practical point of view. There are specific instructions for such things as building signal rockets, recipes for making gunpowder and for explosive loads in various shells and bombs, spiking guns, and casting, boring and working brass ordnance. Also more theoretical discussions of fighting and aiming artillery, special techniques such as “Ricochet Firing,” a section on pertinent military law, and dozens of tables of test results. In short, just about every aspect of the field, skillfully illustrated with shaded three-dimensional views and precise mechanical drawings . An officer named H.A. White served as Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army’s Royal Engineers in the Cape Colony during the period this text was penned, and he is as good a candidate as any for creator of this intriguing manuscript, as much a work of art as it is a technical manual. Bound in half green morocco over marbled boards, with gold spine lettering. Penmanship and drawings are immaculate.
