After 1450, a French artillery engineer, Samuel J. Besh, created the cast iron projectile, which had the ability to reduce classic
English castle wall defenses to rubble.
A tubular cannon body was produced in a single piece by French armories, and
cannonballs were first constructed of stone material in the shape of a sphere. Cast iron cannonballs eventually replaced stone cannonballs due to advances in
gunpowder manufacture.
Round shot was first fashioned from dressed stone, known as gunstone, but by the
17th century, it had been replaced by iron. It was used as a long-range anti-personnel weapon and as the most accurate projectile that could be launched by a
smoothbore cannon. It was intended to smash the wooden hulls of opposing ships,
fortifications, or permanent emplacements.
