The copper sheeting that Paul Revere made at his rolling mill in Canton was not his first time working with the material. In addition to making nails, hinges, and other hardware out of copper, he also manufactured bells from brass and cannons from bronze. While both are alloys of copper, brass (usually around 67% copper, 33% zinc) is light, malleable, and easily cast, making it ideal for things like musical instruments and church bells where small variations can drastically change the sound. Bronze, a much stronger alloy, is a combination of copper, tin, and varying amounts of other metals. The bronze that Revere and his contemporaries would use to make cannons and other artillery was usually 85% copper, 5% tin, 5% zinc, and 5% lead.
Revere’s first exposure to the process of making cannons likely came in 1776. At the onset of the Revolution there were almost no artillery makers on the continent, and the war effort required more cannons than could be captured from the British; the Massachusetts Board of War hired a French engineer named Louis de Maresquelle and requested that Paul Revere be brought in to advise them on the casting of cannons. It is not entirely clear why they picked Revere at this time, as in 1776 he had yet to cast a cannon or any large object out of copper or its alloys. It is possible that as both an artillery captain and an expert metallurgist Revere was viewed as having unique insight into the potential complications in the process. Regardless, in his short time working on the project Revere learned a significant amount about the manufacturing of cannons from Louis.
Revere would use this knowledge in 1794 when he started producing cannons at his copper foundry in Boston. He mastered this new trade quickly and soon had multiple state and federal contracts.
This effort was significantly aided by the fact that his good friend Henry Knox was the United States first Secretary of War under George Washington. As copper and bronze are lighter than iron and do not rust or corrode when exposed to salt water, Revere’s products were particularly popular with the fledgling U.S. Navy. Revere’s second federal level contract was to make ten carronades for the USS Constitution. (Carronades were shorter and wider than the standard navy “long guns”, meant to fire a larger projectile a shorter distance.)
Revere would also end up making nails and other copper parts, as well as the ships bell, for the famed frigate. It is likely that the successful completion of all these contracts that lead the Navy to turn to Revere when it needed to line her hull with copper sheeting.
Once The Revere Copper Company’s rolling mill was well established in Canton, Revere moved his bell and cannon foundry to the site, finding the shore of the Neponset River to be a better place to run a large scale industrial operation than the North End of Boston. An important part of making cannons was testing them; the federal government would not purchase any artillery unless it had first undergone rigorous testing. Revere needed a wide open space for this in case things went awry. He chose an area on the edge of town along the post road called Cobb’s Corner, which today is a bustling shopping center. The legacy of Revere’s military work continues to the modern age, with Revere Copper Products Inc., now out of Rome, NY, still holding some government contracts today.
