[LT] Price of Lead

[Icelander]

Low-Tech gives the price of lead ammunition three times, once for lead bullets for slings, once for lead bullets for mechanical artillery and once for lead shot for cannon or firearms.

The problem is that each of these prices is different.

For slings, lead bullets cost $0.1 for a 0.05 lbs. bullet. That means that the price of lead is slightly less than $2/lb, because there must be some labour cost involved in casting the bullets.

For mechanical artillery, lead bullets cost $1.6/lb. Not totally inconsistent with the above. Could even work.

However, for cannon and firearms, lead bullets cost $20/lb. That is dramatically higher than a bullet meant to be used in a ballista or sling. Granted, there is less tolerance for error in shape, but that can be solved with a simple mold.

Is the added labour cost so very high? But casting bullets is not labour intensive and it does not require much specialised knowledge. It is difficult to imagine that it would cost nearly ten times the material costs merely to cast the bullets.

Also, the idea that iron projectiles would cost as much as lead ones is odd. Lead was historically less expensive than iron and it was certainly much easier to work. It doesn't make sense that a cast iron round shot would cost as much as a lead one.

My tentative idea of historical pricing is that lead would cost slightly more per pound than stone, but working it would be easier than with stone. Lead should definitely cost less to work than iron.

[Diomedes]

For cannon and firearms, that $20/lb. includes the cost of powder, wadding, flints, etc.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Diomedes

For cannon and firearms, that $20/lb. includes the cost of powder, wadding, flints, etc.

It does?

This is not at all clear from the text. Powder costs are listed seperately, for one thing.

[Diomedes]

Originally Posted by Icelander

It does?

This is not at all clear from the text. Powder costs are listed seperately, for one thing.

Not from an ammunition standpoint. Powder is listed as $20/lb, but none of the guns list how much powder they take per shot. The implication is that the weight of shot listed in the tables includes ball and powder.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Diomedes

Not from an ammunition standpoint. Powder is listed as $20/lb, but none of the guns list how much powder they take per shot. The implication is that the weight of shot listed in the tables includes ball and powder.

Very good.

I suppose that accounts for the difference, then.

[Polydamas]

The "Cost of Ammunition" box on p. 87 of Low Tech is clear to me though I see how it could be misunderstood. Its a figure you multiply the WPS by to get CPS; its not the cost of the lead, iron, or stone shot because they don't give that for most weapons (and because you may also need wadding, a patch, extra-expensive priming powder etc. depending on the gun).

[SuedodeuS]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Very good.

I suppose that accounts for the difference, then.

Not really, unfortunately. If we assume the weight of a round consist of powder+shot, the fact that the powder is $20/lb and the round is $20/lb means the shot needs to similarly be $20/lb. If we give the wadding an actual weight, this means either the wadding is expensive (clothing-grade cloth, for instance) or the lead costs even more.

I suspect the LT authors simply went with the approximation of having the entire round made of powder for pricing. If you want more accurate pricing, you'll need to figure out how much of each round is powder, and how much is shot. This is easy for 3-lb+ cannon (1/3rd is powder, 2/3rds weight) and ship's guns (subtract nominative weight from actual round weight), but the rest will require a bit more work. I'd probably use $2/lb for the shot.