两次鸦片战争时期中西火炮射程研究

A Study on the Range of Cannons of Chinese and Western Countries During the Two Opium Wars

两次鸦片战争时期,中西主导型火炮都为前装滑膛加农炮,发射火药都为黑色火药,因此,射程都不可能太远。史料反映出中西不同类型火炮射程不同;最大射程与有效射程差距很大。清军千斤左右的红夷舰炮,有效射程只有三四百米;新铸的红夷岸炮的射程次于西洋火炮,最大射程可达4千米之外。西洋舰炮和岸炮的种类和规格相对统一,射程较清军同种类和同规格火炮要远。重型加农舰炮有效射程大都不超过0.45千米的距离,最大射程可达5千米之外,但在野战中,为保证其杀伤力,其射程不应超过2千米。在两次鸦片战争中,清军火炮射程近,杀伤力小,西洋火炮则与之相反,此乃清军失败的重要原因。文章对清朝火炮射程劣于西洋的原因进行了分析。

During the two Opium Wars the dominant type of cannons of both China and Western countries were muz- zle - loading smooth - bore and could not shoot far away. Historical data reflect that different types of cannons had different ranges ; the maximum range and effective range differed greatly. The Qing cast - iron gun of about 500 kilo- grams had an effective range of only 300 - 400 meters ; a new cast of Red - barbarian cannon＇ s maximum range had 4,000 meters,inferior to that of the British cannons. British coast artillery gun had the same types. Its specification was relatively uniform, and its range was a bit farther than that of the Qing types. The effective range of heavy can- nons did not exceed 500 meters and the maximum range could be up to 5000 meters. In the two wars, the range of the Qing cannons was near and the lethal was small, while the opposite was true of the Western cannons, which ac- counts for the failure of the Chinese army. This paper also analyzes the reasons for such differences from the per- spective of the interaction between weapon technology and social factors.