January 12th, 1656
Dakshin Bharatiya Empire, Region of Gujarat, Karnavati (Ahmedabad)
In the Palace of Karnavati, Vijay is designing the outline of the projectile with a serious expression on his face, As for why Vijay’s face is so serious? Well, that is because he decided to make these projectiles both with armour-piercing and exploding properties.
Drawing inspiration from multiple weapons of war, it was his own design idea, incorporating his knowledge of fluid mechanics and aerodynamics.
First, for the material, Vijay chose to use high-carbon steel, similar to the inner wall of the barrel. The projectile’s shape is elongated with a pointed tip for penetration, and the base is hollow to contain a more substantial explosive charge. On the outer surface, he added some helical grooves in order to act like a screw when it hits the target, rigidly lodging itself into the target.
As for the weight of the projectiles, Vijay designed them to be anywhere from 0.8 kilograms to 1.3 kilograms. Hence, These projectiles are quite small compared to the cannonballs having a size of six to 12 inches in length and only 1.5 to four inches in thickness.
These projectiles are traditionally propelled by gunpowder in the cannon. But in order for them to explode after piercing the target due to their sharp high carbon steel tip, which lodges itself into the target, Vijay came up with two probable solutions.
Either a miniaturized chemical fuse could be used, where a slow-burning chemical compound ignites upon impact, triggering a Gunpowder fuse for a delayed detonation after penetration.
Or, impact-sensitive black powder could be used, where a smaller amount of impact-sensitive black powder could be used at the base of the projectile, which detonates upon impact. In theory, although this projectile could work, Vijay suspected that there could also be premature explosions with the second option.
This put him into deep thought again, and he resumed tapping on the chair. Both of these options had their own advantages and disadvantages.
If he used the first option, it is indeed safer and more practical, but unfortunately, it would require a chemical compound that is currently not available in the empire. The second option, although theoretically possible, could lead to premature blasting, which could potentially cause harm to their own units.
However, he didn’t dwell on this thought for too long.
"Let’s do it for now. We can upgrade to the chemical fuse option when the chemical industry develops," Vijay thought to himself as he finally decided upon the impact-sensitive black powder detonation method.
Upon finalizing the requirements and the rough outlines of the design, Vijay quickly sent the information through the Arka Dristi Communication Channel for Hey Ram to get ready to research the new cannon and to form a team to start the research as soon as they received the design outline.
Simultaneously, he sent his design drawings through a naval vessel to reach the capital at the fastest speed possible.
Within the same day, two ships departed from Karnavati, one towards Balochistan carrying the new cement mixture, slightly stronger than the previous version, and another going towards Mangaluru Port carrying the design drawings Vijay had made.
January 13th, 1656
Dakshin Bharatiya Empire, Vijayanagar State, Bharatiya Academy of Military Sciences
Hey Ram, who had already received the order from His Majesty yesterday, waited at the entrance of the academy for the arrival of the design outline that His Majesty said he sent through naval channels. He had already gathered a group of scientists to construct this weapon designed by His Majesty, The only thing holding them back was the design outline.
Consequently, Hey Ram also invited the manager of Raya Armory to quickly grasp the manufacturing technology so that the empire could produce these cannons within a few days of its prototype being constructed.
Fortunately, Hey Ram did not have to wait long because, within a few minutes, a convoy of military carriages arrived near the secret location where they were located and handed him a box sealed with a high carbon steel lock. These soldiers left soon after the transaction was complete.
Hey Ram, upon receiving the outline, quickly went inside the academy and read through it. Soon, after carefully studying the data His Majesty had sent him yesterday and superimposing it on the current outline, he formed a vivid image of what His Majesty wanted.
The scientists surrounded him, looking at his face, waiting for his orders.
*Clap**Clap*
"Okay, gentlemen, let’s get started; time is tight."
The blast furnace in the academy soon roared to life, with the large hydraulic bellows pushing ample oxygen into the furnace. The combustion chamber blazed at a high intensity, melting all the impurities in the ores and producing pure wrought iron. Through further processing and several more steps, this wrought iron was then transformed into high-carbon steel.
The scientists, proficient in metalwork, quickly hammered the heated metal into the desired barrel form. Next, the hydraulic boring mill sprang to life, spinning at high speeds as it was put into top gear, quickly carving up the metal inside the soon-to-be barrel, making the inner wall smooth and ready for processing.
*Grrrrr*
With a powerful sound, the hydraulic machine came to life as it was quickly used to create the breach mechanism. Simultaneously, the rifling machine, which only fit into the barrel after some hammering strikes from the scientists, was also utilized to give the barrel a helical groove inside its bore.
While all this was going on, a middle-aged man, working on his own, quickly brought over the metal files and grinders, which were promptly used in shaping and smoothing the final form of the cannon barrel.
With multiple top scientists working together like a precise machine, where the fault tolerances were so tight, the construction of the cannon, after adding some finishing touches, was completed within a week.
It was the second part of the work that made Hey Ram’s face look more serious. The difficulty in making this projectile was harder than the cannon just constructed, which would actually shoot this projectile. Nonetheless, being the top scientists in the Empire, no challenge was too challenging for them.
The tasks were quickly divided; a scientist took charge of stock preparation under Hey Ram’s orders. He cut a piece of the high carbon steel that had been produced and heated it up to a bright yellow colour, approximately 800 to 900 degrees Celsius, which allowed the metal to become malleable and easier to shape.
Another scientist took over the work, and with a combination of tools, this man shaped the molten metal into the desired shape.
With the help of hydraulic machine tools, the rough projectile was smoothed out, given a sharp tip, and consecutively, using a hydraulic grinding tool, a helical groove was added on top of the shell to aid in accuracy, piercing, stability, and speed due to its high rotation.
Hey Ram, who took over the final task, had sweat on his forehead as he quickly added a small amount of finely ground black powder to the face of the projectile cavity so that it could explode upon impact.
His hands were steady, but you could see that he was quite nervous. Finally, as the powder was poured into the cavity, it was like the pressure in his body was quickly released.
*Phew*
He let out a huge sigh of relief as he wiped his sweat. The prototype was finally completed.
The military department that got ahold of the news quickly acted and immediately moved the prototype to the testing grounds to immediately test the canon
At the end of the day, The same day that the prototype was manufactured, the military tested the weapon.
*Boom**Zoop**BOOM*
Updat𝓮d from freewēbnoveℓ.com.
The military leaders who witnessed the test were shocked as they stood in their places, not moving an inch, with their eyes and mouths wide open. Although this weapon did not have as much power as the giant cannon or even as much speed as the culverin, what they saw was unparalleled mobility.
With just a glance, they could conclude that this cannon would not even weigh 200 kilograms, and a strong man could easily carry it by himself. Even if a strongman was not available, two to three normal soldiers could easily manoeuvre it, assemble it, and get it ready to operate within a few minutes.
On top of that, they saw that such a small cannon actually put a hole in the boulder in front of it, and there were cracks in the boulder. This was simply unbelievable.
At the end of the day, the test was successful, and within two weeks of Vijay handing over the task, the Bharatiya Hastha Dhwani Light Armour Piercing Cannon was already being manufactured in various military enterprises of the empire.
P.S. Almost at the final phase of the war