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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 ...
The Hughes breech-loading cannon 38.1mm gun was designed in 1861 and used by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. It was manufactured by the Street & Hungerford Company. It was a breech-loading cannon; the breech of the cannon is uniquely like a bolt-action but has no firing pin in its bolt.
A rifled breech loader (RBL) is an artillery piece which, unlike the smoothbore cannon and rifled muzzle loader which preceded it, has rifling in the barrel and is loaded from the breech at the rear of the gun.
The above diagram shows the typical gun crew of a Civil War cannon. Each cannoneer was numbered and played an important role in the firing sequence when the order "Commence fire" was given: [43] Gunner: Gave the order "Load" to load the cannon and sighted it at the target. Number One: Sponged the barrel clean and rammed the round to the breech.
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.
Cannon operation is described by the 1771 Encyclopædia Britannica. Each cannon would be manned by two gunners, six soldiers, and four officers of the artillery. The right gunner was to prime the piece and load it with powder, while the left gunner would fetch the powder from the magazine and keep ready to fire the cannon at the officer's ...
His disputes with the government lasted long after the Civil War had ended. [1] In 1855, Joslyn designed a breech-loading carbine. After successful tests, the U.S. Army ordered 50 of these rifles in 1857 in .54 caliber. The Army quickly lost interest in the rifle, but in 1858 the U.S. Navy ordered 500 of these in .58 caliber.
Any large, smoothbore, muzzle-loading gun—used before the advent of breech-loading, rifled guns—may be referred to as a cannon, though once standardised names were assigned to different-sized cannon, the term specifically referred to a gun designed to fire a 42-pound (19 kg) shot, as distinct from a demi-cannon – 32 pounds (15 kg ...