Blast Furnace Iron Smelting and Cannon Casting

Timeline

1. 1501–1505Mercogliano (Kingdom of Naples) · MercoglianoBlast furnace workshops in the Kingdom of Naples poured molten pig iron into cannon molds to make monolithic cast-iron barrels; heavier than bronze cannon but quickly mass-producible, they were used for fortress defense and city-state naval defense, marking an early European transition from bronze to cast iron in artillery materials.
2. 1505–1510Capital—Xuanda Frontier Armory Bureau · CapitalThe Ming Armory Bureau used traditional blast furnace smelting and casting techniques to produce iron hand cannons, general's cannon, and copies of falconets, improving trunnions, powder chambers, and banding structures; frontier garrison defenses and canal escorts were heavily equipped with cast-iron cannon, forming an infantry-artillery combined defensive system with matchlocks.