"When the British defeated Tipu Sultan in 1799, they were astonished by the quality of his cannons. Nearly 927 cannons were captured after the fall of Srirangapatnam in 1799. Out of these, nearly 400 brass cannons were manufactured in Tipu's foundries (one located at Bangalore and two in Seringapatna). His cannons were cast by the 'cast-on' construction in which the inner core was held in position using iron chaplets. Water powered boring machines were used in Tipu's arsenals and this produced perfect finish to his guns ". Although some French technicians were employed by Tipu Sultan, as noted by Francis Buchanan, the foundries of Tipu Sultan were operated by the Indian engineers. Most of the cannons that were captured by the British were melted and reused (i.e. recast) as British cannons. Therefore, we have lost valuable evidences of how the wonderful cannons of Tipu Sultan looked like, but for few surviving models. For example, at the Rotunda museum in Woolwich in England is displayed a wonderful cannon of Tipu Sultan seized during the British capture of Srirangapatnam'. His remarkable cannons reveal iconic tiger motifs (on the muzzle, trunnion ends, cascable and tiger stripes) apart from inscriptions providing the date of manufacture and the engineer responsible for the manufacture of the cannon. Several of Tipu Sultan's cannons are still preserved in the museum at Srirangapatnam and they need to be studied."
Tipu Sultan

January 1, 1970