Florent-Jean de Vallière

He significantly improved the method used for founding cannons, superseding the technique developed by Jean-Jacques Keller.

The back part occasionally included an inscription showing the weight of the cannonball (for example a "4" for a 4-pounder), followed by the Latin inscription "Nec pluribus impar," a motto of King Louis XIV and translated literally as "not unequal to many," but ascribed various meanings including "alone against all," "none his equal," or "capable of anything" among many others.

The location and date of manufacture were inscribed (in the example "Strasbourg, 1745") at the bottom of the gun, and finally the name and title of the founder (in the example "Fondu par Jean Maritz, Commissaire des Fontes").

George Washington wrote about the guns in a letter to General William Heath on 2 May 1777: "I was this morning favored with yours containing the pleasing accounts of the late arrivals at Portsmouth and Boston.

It is my intent to have all the arms that were not immediately wanted by the Eastern States, to be removed to Springfield, as a much safer place than Portsmouth ….

"Hiss son, Joseph Florent de Vallière (1717–1776), who became Commander of the Battalions and Schools of the Artillery in 1747, persisted in implementing his father's system.