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General Observations on the Ottoman Military Industry, 1774–1839: Problems of Organization and Standardization

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Science between Europe and Asia

Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science ((BSPS,volume 275))

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the gradual implementation of the Gribeauval system in the Ottoman artillery. From 1767 onwards, French General Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval (1715–1789) succeeded in standardizing the caliber, carriages and the equipment of the artillery. The new technique of boring out the gun barrel from the solid yielded much closer tolerances in casting the metal, permitting greater range with less powder charges. The reduction of the powder load by half made possible to cast the barrel thinner and lighter, for it did not have to withstand a heavy powder charge anymore. As the risk of cracking and bursting barrels decreased, gunners doubled the rate of fire, paving the way for the Napoleonic battles. The parts of cannon were made durable, identical and hence interchangeable owing to the existence of industrial plants.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    J. A. Lynn. “Nations in Arms 1763–1815,” in G. Parker, ed., Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare: The Triumph of the West. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, p. 192; B. P. Hughes, Firepower: Weapons Effectiveness on the Battlefield, 1630–1850. New York: Sarpedon, 1997, p. 94.

  2. 2.

    C. Duffy, The Military Experience in the Age of Reason. London-New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987, p. 232; Hughes, Firepower, pp. 41, 105–106.

  3. 3.

    B. de Tott, Memoirs of Baron de Tott (reprint of the English ed. 1785). New York: Arno Press Inc., 1973, pp. 78–81.

  4. 4.

    M. Kaçar, “The Development in the Attitude of the Ottoman State Towards Science and Education and the Establishment of the Engineering Schools (Mühendishanes)”, in E. İhsanoğlu, A. Djebbar, and F. Günergun, eds., Proceedings of the International Congress of History of Science (Liège, 20–26 July 1997) volume VI, Science, Technology and Industry in the Ottoman World. Belgium: Brepols Publisher, 2000, pp. 81–90.

  5. 5.

    Ottoman Archives of the Turkish Prime Ministry (Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi, BOA), Cevdet Askeriye Kataloğu (C.AS.) 13589 (23 July 1793). Çap means caliber but actually denotes the weight of the shot in kıyye. I use the equations kantar = 100 lodra = 54 kg; lodra = 176 dirhem = 0.54 kg; kıyye/vukıyye = 1.2828 kg = 400 dirhems = 2.83 English pound; dirhem = 3.207 g; karış (span) = 22 cm, see Ágoston, Guns for the Sultans: Military Power and the Weapons Industry in the Ottoman Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 242–247.

  6. 6.

    BOA, C.AS. 39493 (15 April 1805).

  7. 7.

    Probably, Hüseyin Rıfkı Tamani (d. 1807) who served as the director of the Imperial Engineering School in 1806–1817, and played a crucial role in the reforms of Muhammad Ali Pasha of Egypt after that date, see M. Kaçar. Osmanlı Devleti’nde Bilim ve Eğitim Anlayışındaki Değişmeler ve Mühendishanelerin Kuruluşu. Unpublished Ph.D dissertation, İstanbul Üniversitesi, 1996, pp. 138–139; F. Günergun. “Osmanlı Ölçü ve Tartılarının Eski Fransız ve Metre Sistemlerindeki Eşdeğerleri: İlk Karşılaştırmalar ve Çevirme Cetvelleri,” Osmanlı Bilimi Araştırmaları II, 1998, pp. 23–68.

  8. 8.

    BOA, C.AS. 39493.

  9. 9.

    BOA, C.AS. 39493; BOA, Cevdet Bahriye Kataloğu (C.BH.) 4726 (1807) also includes the 3-çap caliber in the naval artillery.

  10. 10.

    C.BH. 4726 (13 January 1807); the Russian Black Sea fleet was founded to protect the Black Sea coasts from a possible Ottoman attack which put the priority on increasing the aggregate firepower of the fleet. Thus, Russian ships were also encumbered by heavy ordnance, J. L. McKnight, Admiral Ushakov and the Ionian Republic. The Genesis of Russia’s First Balkan Satellite, University of Wisconsin, unpublished Ph.D dissertation, 1965, p. 26; N. Saul, Russia and the Mediterranean 1797–1807, The University of Chicago Press, 1970, pp. 88–89.

  11. 11.

    C.AS. 27365 (12 May 1806). For the typology of the Ottoman artillery see Ágoston, pp. 61–95 and S. Aydüz, Tophane-i Amire ve Top Döküm Teknolojisi, Ankara: TTK, 2006, pp. 339–413. By this period kolomborne was no more a light gun, but meant a howitzer firing both round shell and bombshell. A document from 1805/06 describes it as a 7-span long gun firing marble balls of 14 kıyye, used by regular gunners, rather than the bombardiers, see C.AS. 37588. In 1809/10 the army at the front ran short of bombshells of 9-, and 7-çaps fired by kolombornes and howitzers, respectively, see C.AS. 9929. Howitzers were sent to Aleppo instead of the demanded kolombornes in the 1830s, see BOA Hatt-ı Hümayun Katalog˘u (HATT) 365/20197.

  12. 12.

    C.AS. 8064 (1806/07).

  13. 13.

    Prussian Captain Baron Karl Vincke-Olbendorf and Captain Kockowski served as advisors for reforming the artillery beginning by late 1837, see A. Levy, The Military Policy of Sultan Mahmud II, 1808–1839, unpublished Ph.D dissertation, Harvard University, 1968, pp. 523, 560, 615.

  14. 14.

    HATT 1244/48317A (nd.); Supreme Council of Judicial Ordinances agreed with the Council of the Sublime Porte on the importance of the quick-fire guns especially in operations in the rugged terrain, see HATT 1244/48317 (nd.). These documents should be dated after March 1838 – the date of the establishment of the latter council.

  15. 15.

    G. Yıldız, Neferin Adı Yok: Zorunlu Askerlig˘e Geçiş Sürecinde Osmanlı Devletinde Siyaset, Ordu ve Toplum (1826–1839). İstanbul: Kitabevi, 2009, p.428, fn.132; HATT 307/18172.

  16. 16.

    Ottoman mortars were greatly diversified in calibers as late as 1797 through 1803: 36- and 22-çap in 1795/96 (C.AS. 1846); 65-, 36-, 22-, 14-çap in 1796/97 (HATT 224/12515.B); 80-, 45-, 32-, 18-, 14-çap in 1798/99 (C.AS. 23443); 65-, 45-, 25-, 22-çap in 1801/02 (C.AS. 45421); 65-, 34-, 32-, 22-, 14-, 7-çap in 1802/03 (C.AS. 27730).

  17. 17.

    Şemdanizade (Fındıklılı Süleyman Efendi). Mür’i’t-Tevarih. M. Aktepe, ed., İstanbul: İstanbul Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Yayınları, 1976–1981, vol. II.B, p. 62.

  18. 18.

    C.AS. 9223 (1786/87).

  19. 19.

    C.AS. 52554 (19 April 1804) and HATT 1387/55156 (1789/90).

  20. 20.

    Ágoston, p. 186. Various output figures are 324 in 1788–92, 182 in 1796/97, 197 in 1797–98, see table 6.5, p. 184; the proportion of light guns in this period is 82.9% in 1769–1770, 74.5% in 1771–1772, 58.4% in 1776–1779, 17.3% in 1784–1785, see table 6.6, p. 186.

  21. 21.

    C.AS. 44626 (9 June 1805).

  22. 22.

    BOA, Baş Muhasebe Defterleri (D.BŞM.) 6547/57 (1782/83) contains one such paper cut in the shape of the muzzle of a 16-span long iron gun using stone ball. I am indebted to Cengiz Fedakar for bringing this document to my attention. C.AS. 31042 (30 June 1836) requires the commander of the fortress of Chios to measure the diameter of the mortars of 120-, 80-, 45-çaps with a piece of rope and send the ropes to the Tophane, the Imperial Gun Foundry at Istanbul.

  23. 23.

    Günergun, “Osmanlı Ölçü ve Tartılarının”, pp. 36–39.

  24. 24.

    C.AS. 8064 (1806/07) two howitzers of 7-çap weighed 478 kg and 616 kg, respectively, and two mortars of 14 kıyye weighed 453 kg each.

  25. 25.

    The minimum/maximum weight of 3-çap 13-span guns cast at the Tophane in 1769–1770 were 954 kg and 1 029 kg respectively, see Ágoston, table 58, p. 236.

  26. 26.

    HATT 14553 (1793/94), first published by T. Işıksal, “III. Selim’in Türk Topçuluğuna dair bir Hatt-ı Hümayunu,” İstanbul Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, 8, 11–12 (1955): 179–184.

  27. 27.

    My calculation is based on the data given in Ágoston, tables 57, 58, 59, 65 in pp. 236–239; In 1790/91 Seyid Numan Efendi, the official in charge, added two spans to şahis of 9- and 10-span long of 1789/90 which made them heavier and cumbersome. Upon the complaint of the head of the Gunners, the şahis of 1790/91 remained in their previous size, see HATT 16056 (1790/91). However, one span increase in the length of howitzers of 5-span and 6-span in 1790–1791 improved the range considerably without sacrificing the mobility.

  28. 28.

    HATT 14553 (1793–1794); Resmi Mustafa Ağa, the head of the Bombardiers Corps, used copper, tin and iron in casting quick-fire guns, see C.AS. 53877.

  29. 29.

    HATT 116/4668 (1804–1805); HATT 1244/48317A (1838–1839?); for a comparison of various European guns with respect to size and weight see T. Wise and R. Hook, Artillery Equipments of the Napoleonic Wars. China: Osprey Publishing, 2002, p. 15 and P. Haythornthwaite, Weapons and Equipment of the Napoleonic Wars. London: Arms & Armour, 1996, pp. 55–56.

  30. 30.

    M. Kaçar, “Osmanlı Ordusunda Görevli Fransız Subayı Saint-Rémy’nin İstanbul’daki Top Döküm Çalışmaları (1785–87)”, Osmanlı Bilimi Araştırmaları V (1), 2003, pp. 33–50; Saint-Rémy claims for himself the credit of introducing the light guns of 4 pouce (108 mm) in Ottoman artillery, which, before him, was composed of 8, 12, 24, and 32 pouce guns (1 pouce is 27 mm). Their insistence on thickening the priming pan might indicate that the Ottomans used heavier powder charges; the 1787 inventory of Tophane mentioned previously gives the powder charge as half the weight of the ball.

  31. 31.

    Hughes, Firepower, pp. 14–15, 94; Parker, The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West 1500–1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988, p. 151; Black, Eighteenth Century Europe 1700–1789, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999, p. 374; M. Erendil, Topçuluk Tarihi. Ankara: T.C. Genelkurmay Başkanlığı, 1988, pp. 34, 146.

  32. 32.

    C.AS. 5939 (30 March 1787) shows the predominance of the calibers set in the 1805 regulations even earlier. Some of the wagons were sent to the Tophane as samples for the masters.

  33. 33.

    C.AS. 13016 (3 July 1785).

  34. 34.

    C.AS. 27734 (7 December 1789), 100 guns of 1-çap (9-span), 30 guns of 0.5-çap (8-span), 20 guns of 1.5 çap (10-span), 20 guns of 1.5-çap (7-span) were sent to the front; The 1839 regulations also required the construction of the carriages with interchangeable parts, C.AS. 35566.

  35. 35.

    HATT 116/4668 (1804/1805?); each gun carriage would accommodate 20 shots and the required amount of gunpowder. In 1800, the commander of the fortress of Anapa (Caucasus) complained that the quick-fire guns of 1.5-çap (7-span) were so heavy that eight horses would be needed if they were to see action in the Kabartay region. The Sublime Porte sent him in reply that these guns were standard in size and weight, see C.AS. 38226 (15 December 1800).

  36. 36.

    C.AS. 26138 (31 July 1793).

  37. 37.

    C.AS. 28830 (24 January 1793).

  38. 38.

    C.AS. 6048 (1805/06).

  39. 39.

    Kaçar, “Saint-Rémy”, p. 40.

  40. 40.

    C.AS. 13589 (23 July 1793).

  41. 41.

    C.AS. 38303 (7 November 1767).

  42. 42.

    C.AS. 20023 (13 September 1784), copper ores from Sidrekapsi were used in the production of cannon ball, bombshell, bar-shot (plankata) and chain-shot (zincir), the last two being for the navy.

  43. 43.

    C.AS. 31157 (5 May 1805) and C.AS. 8064 (1806/07); The Porte ascribed the sharp decrease in the output and the revenue of the mines to the exhaustion of the richest and the most accessible veins as well as the deforestation the mine regions. Total revenue decreased by half after the mid-century, see HATT 8553 (1789/90).

  44. 44.

    C.AS. 20961 (21 December 1785); HATT 1413/57668 (1790/91).

  45. 45.

    HATT 129/5367; Koehler was sent along with ten quick-fire guns presumably in June 1799, see C.HRC. 2360; Great Britain sent two ships of ammunition as presents to convince the Sublime Porte to enter a coalition against France. The Porte filed an order for tin and zinc from Britain, BOA, Bab-ı Asafi Amedi Kalemi Dosyaları (A.AMD) 40/67; Hasköy foundry cast bombshells when excess copper was available in Istanbul; The superintendent of the Bombardiers Corps complained from the lack of experts on gun-carriages in the Corps, HATT 1386/55056 (30 June 1795).

  46. 46.

    For the ongoing industrial archaeological project on the Samokocuk mines (Demirköy in Kırklareli) see, G. Danışman, “Ottoman Mining and Metal Working in the Balkans: Its Impact on Fire-Arms Technology in Southeast Europe (fifteenth–seventeenth centuries),” M. el-Gomati et al., eds., release date: May, 2007, publication ID: 701, www.muslimheritage.com/uploads/Ottoman_Mining_Metal_Working.pdf

  47. 47.

    C.AS. 35566 (5 June 1839).

  48. 48.

    HATT 818 (1786/87).

  49. 49.

    HATT 10827 (1795/96).

  50. 50.

    Kaçar, “Saint-Rémy,” p. 40.

  51. 51.

    C.AS. 2088 (23 February 1769).

  52. 52.

    C.AS. 7504 (April–May 1801); C.AS. 48204 (14 December 1799); the projectiles included 10,000 shots of 9-çap and 5-çap each and 60,000 shots of 1.5-çap; in the war with Russia in 1806–1812, the bombshells of 7-kıyye and 9-kıyye fired by the howitzers and the kolonbornes respectively were in high demand, see C.AS. 9929 (1809/10).

  53. 53.

    Hüseyin Ağa’s debt to state accumulated over years: 124,879 kg of shots in 1797–1803 (C.AS. 36668; C.AS. 19635, C.AS. 37090), 767,960 kg of shots in 1804–1811 (C.AS. 20107).

  54. 54.

    C.AS. 48204 (14 December 1799), Hüseyin Ağa was expected to cast 443.000 shots and bullets in various calibers despite the depletion of raw materials in Praveşte works, see C.AS. 20107 (13 February 1810); Sidrekapsi also failed to procure metal in the same year, see C.AS. 9929 (1809/10).

  55. 55.

    C.AS. 44052 (15 April 1797). A quick-fire gun carriage cost 230,5 kuruş (old type carriage cost only 58,5 kuruş) in 1782/83 (C.AS 48516), 149 kuruş in 1788/89 (C.AS 27734), 577 kuruş in 1792–1793 (C.AS 28830). The price for 1795/96 is more realistic than the others since it represents the real costs whereas the others reflect the official prices.

  56. 56.

    C.AS. 26142 (8 November 1793); C.AS. 11697 (27 March 1803).

  57. 57.

    C.AS. 24287 (20 January 1793); for authentic drawings of the Ottoman artillery of this period see K. Beydilli and İ. Şahin, Mahmud Raif Efendi ve Nizam-ı Cedid’e Dair Eseri, Ankara: TTK, 2001; C.AS. 44052 (15 April 1797) mentions the “Habsburg style wagons with wooden rods.” C.AS. 1846 (1795/96) lists gun carriages with the trunnion holes sited on the upper half of the bracket, following the French example (belinden muğlulu) besides others with the trunnion holes sited on the lower half of the bracket, which was the standard application in Europe (dibinden muğlulu).

  58. 58.

    HATT 1533 (August–September 1796).

  59. 59.

    C.AS. 9120 (1784/85); He stated that without quick-fire guns, which were drawn by horses, he could not undertake any offensive against the rebellious Druses in the mountains of Lebanon.

  60. 60.

    C.AS. 1569 (1772).

  61. 61.

    C.AS. 23247 (18 December 1806).

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  1. Department of History, İstanbul Şehir University, İstanbul, Turkey

    Kahraman Şakul

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  1. Dept. History of Science, Istanbul University, Eminönü, Istanbul, 34134, Turkey

    Feza Günergun

  2. School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 110067, India

    Dhruv Raina

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Şakul, K. (2011). General Observations on the Ottoman Military Industry, 1774–1839: Problems of Organization and Standardization. In: Günergun, F., Raina, D. (eds) Science between Europe and Asia. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 275. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9968-6_4

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