Paris, Army Museum And now let's break off with a story about what you can see in Europe from the bus window and see what you can see there if you live there at least a little. Well, let's say, in the same Paris, if you arrive there in the afternoon of the 13th, and leave in the afternoon of July 15th. Why are these days so important? After all, the 14th is Bastille Day, when a military parade is held in Paris and everything works. Macron ordered. "A holiday is a holiday, and the economy is an economy!" So there are shops, cafes, and all museums. Moreover, it is free, which is, of course, very important for a tourist. True, here the Museum of the Middle Ages (Museum of Cluny) for some reason demanded money for admission, but it is cheap there, so this expense can be completely neglected, and not every frequent visitor of the VO website, if he, of course, ends up in Paris, will go there - a place for an amateur. But it is simply impossible for "our man" to miss the Army Museum.
It's easy to get to it. You get on the metro (line 7), although you may have to make several changes, you get off at the Latour-Mobourg station (this was one of Napoleon's commanders), and here he is right in front of you. You can get off at the "Military School", but there it takes longer.
The museum is located in the huge building of the Invalides. It was named so because King Louis XIV in 1670 built it to accommodate disabled soldiers and veterans, where they lived on full government support, however, they worked there in the workshops, doing the work they could for themselves. Therefore, the Invalides had everything: dormitories for sleeping, and dining rooms, and kitchens, and spacious workshops, and even fields for games. There is also a soldier's church and the grave of Napoleon itself. So he was buried, one might say, if not quite among his soldiers, then at least quite close to their place of residence.
The exposition of artillery pieces - and today we will tell you about them - begins right at the entrance and continues inside the square courtyard of the museum, where gun barrels and the guns themselves are placed along its perimeter.
A few words, so, for "general development". The Museum was founded in 1905, when the collections of the Artillery Museum and the Military History Museum were combined into one. Today, the Musée de la Arme has one of the richest collections of military objects in history in the world. It contains about 500,000 pieces of weapons, armor, artillery pieces, jewelry, emblems, paintings and photographs, providing an insight into French military history from the Middle Ages to the end of World War II. It hosts two temporary exhibitions every year and also hosts an extensive cultural program of concerts, lectures, film cycles and other events.
Now we go inside and see there just such a bombard of a terrible appearance, consisting of two parts - a barrel and a charging chamber docked to it. Question: and how were such tools made? Since the casting of large barrels from bronze was not yet mastered, and they did not know how to cast iron, the tools were made forging! This is generally surprising, if you think about it, almost in the same way as the Egyptians making stone blocks for their pyramids, but here for some reason no one calls for the help of star aliens and immigrants from Hyperborea. Although it would be worth it, because this operation was the most difficult. First, iron longitudinal strips were forged, tightly adjacent to each other. Then they were connected to each other on a wooden cylindrical blank using forge welding. That is, this heavy pipe was heated on a furnace. Then it was put on a piece of wood, which, of course, burned and forged. And so many times, until a pipe was made from these very shackled strips. But in order for them to hold stronger and the pressure of the gases would not burst them, another row was put on this pipe. Now from iron rings. Which, in a heated state, were pulled on the pipe and so cooled down, squeezing it when cooling.
For example, the Belgian bombard "Mad Greta", made using this technology in Ghent at the end of the 14th-beginning of the 15th centuries, had an inner layer of 32 longitudinal iron strips, and an outer layer consisting of 41 welded iron rings of variable thickness, fitted close to one another … The caliber of this bombard was about 600 mm, the weight, according to various sources, was from 11 to 16 tons (here for some reason we have conflicting data), the barrel bore length was about 3 meters, and the total was more than 4 meters. The weight of its stone core is precisely determined: 320 kg. The most interesting thing is that initially the charging chambers on such bombards were screw-in, for which holes for levers were provided on them. And quite often several chambers were made for one bombard, obviously in order to increase its rate of fire. But … Firstly, you can imagine what it was like to make a thread for this or some kind of bayonet mounts. And secondly, in fact, this did not increase the rate of fire. The metal from the shot heated up, expanded, and it was already impossible to unscrew the chamber. It was required to wait for the bombard to cool down or to pour it abundantly with water.
Therefore, very soon both bombards and mortars were simply cast from bronze like bells!
All of these weapons look very utilitarian. The craftsmen who made them had no time for decoration. But as soon as the tools learned to cast from copper, bronze or cast iron, the situation immediately changed. Now they began to decorate the trunks, and every master tried to surpass the beauty of the trunks of their weapons of another.
This material is called "artillery excesses" and this is due not only to the pretentiousness of the cannon casting. The fact is that, having learned how to cast barrels from bronze, the masters of the past actually "untied their hands" and got the opportunity to create the most unusual guns not only in shape, but also in their design. Many of the samples of such unusual weapons are shown in the Army Museum on models made of wood and metal, and very beautiful and accurate, made on a fairly large scale, allowing them to be seen well.
For today we are saying goodbye to the Army Museum in Paris. But in the next articles we will continue our story about this unique museum.
