Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The American forces also lacked effective support fire, as the single Gatling Gun Detachment had been sent to support the troops assaulting San Juan heights. General Lawton's artillery support consisted of a single battery of four 3.2-inch (81 mm) Model 1885 field guns—light breech-loading rifled cannon using black-powder ammunition. [10]
Shotgun shells at the time used black powder as a propellant, and so the Model 1887 shotgun was designed and chambered for less powerful black powder shotshells. Both 10 and 12-gauge models were offered in the Model 1887; 12-gauge variants used a 2 5/8" shell, 10-gauge variants fired a 2 7/8" shell.
The function of the breech mechanism is to close the breech, and thereby hold the cartridge case in place. The breechblock is the main part of the mechanism. It closes the breech and is hinged so that it can be swung open for loading. It is moved by an operating lever.
Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during the late 19th century. Cannons vary in gauge, effective range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees, depending on their intended use on the ...
Breech-loading provides the advantage of reduced reloading time because it is far quicker to load the projectile and propellant into the chamber of a gun or cannon than to reach all the way over to the front end to load ammunition and then push them back down a long tube – especially when the projectile fits tightly and the tube has spiral ...
Antique firearms can be divided into two basic types: muzzle-loading and cartridge firing. Muzzleloading antique firearms are not generally owned with the intent of firing them (although original muzzleloaders can be safely fired, after having them thoroughly inspected), but instead are usually owned as display pieces or for their historic value.
The British 10-inch calibre originated with the Committee on Ordnance in 1879 when it ordered a new 10.4-inch gun together with the new 9.2-inch [4] as part of its transition from muzzle-loading to breech-loading guns. The proposed 10.4-inch gun eventually went into service in 1885 as a 10-inch gun firing a 500-pound projectile.
The 3.2-inch gun M1897 (81 mm), with its predecessors the M1885 and M1890, was the U.S. Army's first steel, rifled, breech loading field gun.It was the Army's primary field artillery piece in the Spanish–American War, Philippine–American War, and Boxer Rebellion from 1898 to 1902.