Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Three are known to have survived. One surviving 3-inch wrought iron Wiard rifle exists, but it has an unusual band across the trunnions. [8] The Confederate States manufactured an estimated 84 cast iron 3-inch rifles, at least 61 of them at the Tredegar Iron Works; [9] several appear to be imitations of the U.S. Ordnance Department design. [10]
This meant that a smaller gunpowder charge could hurl a rifled projectile farther, but it also meant that the gun barrel was subjected to greater stress. [1] Bronze cannons rarely burst because the metal was more ductile. Cast iron was stronger than bronze, but it was also more brittle. This made cast-iron guns more prone to burst at the breech ...
In the field, the 10- and 20-pounders were used by both armies. The 20-pounder Parrott rifle was the largest field gun used during the war, with the barrel alone weighing over 1,800 pounds (820 kg). The smaller size was much more prevalent; it came in two bore sizes: 2.9 inches (74 mm) and 3.0 inches (76 mm).
Parrott's solution to this puzzle was a cast iron rifled cannon that had a wrought iron reinforcing band wrapped around the breech. [1] When banded guns were manufactured, gravity acted on the bands as they cooled, making an uneven fit around the gun barrel. Parrott overcame the problem by slowly rotating the gun barrel while it was being cooled.
The cannon was designed in response to the need for heavier weaponry as armour on ships of the line improved. [4] Colonel William Dundas, the government's Inspector of Artillery between 1839 and 1852, designed the cannon in 1846. [4] [5] It was cast by the Low Moor Iron Works in Bradford in 1847 and entered service soon after. [4]
A female worker boring out the barrel of a Lee-Enfield rifle during WWI. Gun barrels are usually made of some type of metal or metal alloy.However, during the late Tang dynasty, Chinese inventors discovered gunpowder, and used bamboo, which has a strong, naturally tubular stalk and is cheaper to obtain and process, as the first barrels in gunpowder projectile weapons such as fire lances. [2]
The Williams gun was a Confederate gun that was classified as a 1-lb cannon. It was designed by Captain D.R. Williams, of Covington, Kentucky, who later served as an artillery captain with a battery of his design. It was a breech-loading, rapid-fire cannon that was operated by a hand-crank. The barrel was four feet long and a 1.57-inch caliber.
Brookes can be identified by the presence of at least one band of wrought iron at the breech and a rough-finished, tapering barrel. The barrels were made of cast iron for ease of manufacture, but one or more wrought iron bands was welded around the chamber to reinforce it against the high chamber pressure exerted when the gun fired.