Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval
Lieutenant General Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval was a French artillery officer and engineer who revolutionised the French cannon, creating a new production system that allowed for lighter, more uniform guns without sacrificing range.
His Gribeauval system superseded the de Vallière system. These guns proved essential to French military victories during the Napoleonic Wars. Gribeauval is credited as the earliest known advocate for the interchangeability of gun parts. He is thus one of the principal influences on the later development of interchangeable manufacture.
Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval
Part of the Gribeauval system: cannons of 12-, 8-, and 4-pounders
Canon de 12 Gribeauval, An 2 de la Republique (1793–1794)
Artillery are ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and led to heavy, fairly immobile siege engines. As technology improved, lighter, more mobile field artillery cannons developed for battlefield use. This development continues today; modern self-propelled artillery vehicles are highly mobile weapons of great versatility generally providing the largest share of an army's total firepower.
US Artillerymen fire-off an artillery round with the newly fielded M777 Lightweight 155-millimeter Howitzer
French soldiers in the Franco-Prussian War 1870–71
British 64 Pounder Rifled Muzzle-Loaded (RML) Gun on a Moncrieff disappearing mount, at Scaur Hill Fort, Bermuda. This is a part of a fixed battery, meant to protect against over-land attack and to serve as coastal artillery.
7-person gun crew firing a US M777 Light Towed Howitzer, War in Afghanistan, 2009