Caliber/mm/Monme

[bluelake]

I heard from Brian that the thread was accidentally deleted, so I will re-post it (to the best of my memory).

 

As I am doing firearms research, I thought a chart that showed a conversion between caliber, millimeters and monme (돈 in Korean) would be helpful. The weight calculation of lead roundballs came from an online program, which I am having trouble re-finding. The monme were based upon 3.75g/ea. I could not get the columns to stay in alignment, so I put asterisks between values. Please feel free to correct any mistakes I have made.

 

Caliber Millimeter Grams 돈/Monme

0.32* 8.13* 3.1959* 0.85

0.36* 9.14* 4.5504* 1.21

0.38* 9.65* 5.3518* 1.43

0.4* 10.16* 6.242* 1.66

0.45* 11.43* 8.8876* 2.37

0.5* 12.7* 12.1915* 3.25

0.54* 13.72* 15.3578* 4.1

0.57* 14.48* 18.0622* 4.82

0.6* 15.24* 21.0669* 5.62

0.62* 15.75* 23.2446* 6.2

0.65* 16.51* 26.7847* 7.14

0.7* 17.78* 33.4534* 8.92

0.72* 18.29* 36.4036* 9.71

0.75* 19.05* 41.1463* 10.97

0.8* 20.32* 49.9363* 13.32

0.9* 22.86* 71.1007* 18.96

1* 25.4* 97.5319* 26.01

[Brian]

Thomas,

Since phpBB doesn't allow html and tables, it might be easier to do the table in word or whatever, and then do a screen cap..crop it, and post the table as a pic?

That is if everyone agrees the figures are accurate.

 

Brian

[bluelake]

Good idea, Brian! I'll put up a screen capture and if there are any mistakes, I'll re-do it.

 

 

Thomas

[watsonmil]

Dear Thomas & Brian,

I have gone over Thomas's chart, .... and if I may make a single contribution, .... it would be that in the interests of the connoisseurs of the Tanegashima, .... it is somewhat too accurate. As far as classifying calibers as they pertain to the Tanegashima, .... .32 inch thru .39 inch by Tanegashima fanciers would be classed as 1 monme. It would be unheard of to say my gun is 1.21 monme for example. The Japanese with their measurement in monme tend to round off the fractions to the nearest whole number. It is unique in the firearms world for this inaccuracy in calibrating guns, ... but never-the-less since there were NO TRUE caliberation in the manufacturing process, ... the Japanese took certain liberties with their measurements of ball diameter terminolgy. So long as the student of the tanegashima realizes this inaccuracy, ... no harm can be done by the chart. The chart is technically correct, .... but the student must realize and understand the rounding up/down in describing the caliber of any given Japanese matchlock.

... Ron Watson

[bluelake]

Ron,

 

The reason I did that was because, in my original thread, someone (I forget who) took exception to my not extending the numbers out to two places. I re-did them and figured people could do their own rounding. Attached are the pre-rounded numbers.

 

 

Thomas

[Nobody]

Before arguing the expressions of numbers, I suggest that you should clearly define the purpose of the table.

 

- Conversion table for different units?, or

- Nominal value?, other than actual value?, or

- Classification of calibers in momme expression?

[bluelake]

Before arguing the expressions of numbers, I suggest that you should clearly define the purpose of the table.

 

- Conversion table for different units?, or

- Nominal value?, other than actual value?, or

- Classification of calibers in momme expression?

 

It's probably a combination of #1 & #3. As mentioned, I'm doing firearms research (as part of my Ph.D. dissertation), and the Tanegashima-style muskets (鳥銃) are an important part of that research, as their introduction to Korea in the late 16th century changed the way Koreans conducted warfare. Although I am still looking for direct evidence that Koreans used monme (돈) to classify 鳥銃, it is quite likely, as that unit was used in differentiating arrows (together with length, which was expressed in 寸)*. Because of that, I am trying to become more familiar with monme in relationship to caliber (which I am used to) and also millimeters (which Koreans currently use in reference to the bore of historical longarms). Since it was a question to me, I figured others might also like a simple way to convert between systems.

 

 

Thomas

 

* In Korea, arrows are measured using fractions of 돈 (monme) along with whole numbers.