ORDNANCE. 



101 



about 1430. It is said that the Chinese made cannon 

 of wood wrapped with silken bands. The early British 

 cannon were cylinders made of iron bars held in place 

 by hoops. Next large brass cannon were made firing 

 stone projectiles weighing as much as 1000 pounds. 

 Such cannon were used by Mahomet II. at the siege 

 of Constantinople in 1449. These were followed in 

 1490 by small guns of brass and wrought-iron throw- 

 ing cast-iron balls. One of these wrought-iron guns 

 has been recovered from the wreck of the Mary Rose 

 which went down during an engagement in 1545. 

 These guns were composed of an interior tube 

 of wrought-iron with a weld-joint in the direction 

 of its length hooped with a number of wrought-iron 

 rings, of 3-in. square section, put on when hot and 

 allowed to shrink. They were loaded by removing the 

 breech, as shown, putting in the charge and then 

 blocking in the brerrli-piwe against a heavy check se- 

 curely fastened to the deck. From the same vessel 

 cast-brass guns were recovered, one containing an iron 

 ball. Cast-iron guns were introduced about 1558. 

 The development of the gun from this time on re- 

 mained practically in a state of stagnation till the be- 

 ginning of this century, the guns then being but little 

 superior to those in use at the beginning of the sev- 

 enteenth century. 

 The guns mounted on the vessels of the United 



Luug Gun. 



States during the war of 1812 were of three different 

 types, all smooth-bore and muzzle-loading. The long 

 gun was very thick and with a small bore compared 

 with what was at that time an enormous length. The 



Carruuade. 



long guns most in use were 6-, 9-, 12-, 18- and 24- 

 pounders. The carronade was a short, light gun with 

 a very large bore in comparison with its weight and 

 length, and fired a heavier ball for a much shorter dis- 

 tance than a long gun of the same weight. The 

 Columbiad was a smooth-bore gun about intermediate 

 between the _carronade and the long gun. Guns of 

 the same calibre but of different types by no means 

 correspond in power, but roughly a long 12-, a Colum- 

 biad 18-, and a 32-pounder carronade are equivalent. 

 These guns were mounted in two types of vessels, 

 one with an open or uncovered gun-deck carrying gen- 

 erally long bow-chasers in parts forward and carronades 

 along the sides. The other was the frigate type, with 

 one covered deck and one open deck above, with guns 

 mounted on both decks. The lower or main deck 

 generally mounted long guns ; the upper deck, carron- 

 ades with two long bow-chasers. These puns were 

 well fitted and the guns' crews were well drilled, and 

 accidents to the guns were few, though the British 

 carronades often upset in action, due to overcharging. 

 While we had in this war heavier and better-fitted 

 Runs, the actual construction of our guns was not so 

 good as that of the enemy's, and there were cases of 

 failure leading to cracked muzzles or bursting. Our 

 .shot were deficient iu density and so were less in weight 

 Vot. IV. o 



for the same calibre, the difference often being as 

 much as 7 per cent. 



The practice of firing shells from smooth-bore guns 

 is said to have been suggested by the French General 

 Paixhans as early as 1819, and introduced into the 

 French navy in 1824. The introduction of shell fire 

 with its great destructive effect upon vessels led to the 

 introduction of armor, and the race between the gun 

 and armor was begun and is still in progress with the 

 gun well in the lead. (See IRONCLADS.) The prob- 

 lems that had to be met and solved in the working of 

 metals for guns and armor have undoubtedly had a 

 marked influence upon the development of every kind 

 of metal work. 



About 1840 the 8-in. shell gun came into general 

 use in the United StateSj where it was called the Paix- 

 hans gun. This gun, which was practically the smooth- 

 bore muzzle-loader of that date, employed in the same 

 gun a smaller charge with the shell than with the shot ; 

 for example the 32-pounder using 6 Ib. charges with 

 shell and 10 Ib. charges with shot. Dahlgren modified 

 the Paixhans type of gun by casting the gun of a con- 

 siderably greater thickness than it retained in its final 

 shape, and turning down the excess of metal to bring 

 it to its proper dimensions. These guns externally are 

 formed of fair lines without angles or projections, the 

 thickness decreasing from the breech to the muzzle in 

 proportion to the pressures of 

 the powder gases in the interior. 

 The chamber is conical, round- 

 _^ ed at the bottom, and the vent 

 Q is inclined to the axis. Dahl- 

 gren guns were bujlt of 9-, 10-, 

 11-, and 15-in. calibre, but the 

 charges were kept very low. 

 During the civil war the charge 

 of the 15-in. was usually 35 Ibs. , 

 while at present charges of 100 Ibs. are fired from 

 this gun, with a 450 Ib. shot, giving a muzzle velocity 

 of about 1600 feet per second with very moderate 

 pressures in the bore. 



Rodman about 1849 suggested casting guns hollow 

 and cooling them from the inside, and his system was 

 adopted for large calibres jn 1859, instead of the Dahl- 

 gren system of casting solid. His idea was to produce 

 an initial compression changing gradually to tension 

 from the interior to the exterior. 



The adoption of the Rodman system followed the 

 trial in 1849 of two 8-in. Columbiads cast at the same 

 time from the same iron, one being cast solid and the 

 other on the Rodman plan. The former burst at the 

 85th round and the latter after 251 rounds, and in 

 later trials of other guns 1500 rounds were withstood 

 without bursting. There are now a number of smooth- 

 bore Rodmans available for land service, ranging from 

 8 to 20 inches in calibre. The 15-in. gun, firing a 

 projectile of 450 Ibs. with 130 Ibs. of powder, has a 

 range at 20 elevation of 3} miles, and will pierce 10 

 inches of iron armor at 1000 yards. 



Beginning in 1841, Prof. Daniel Treadwell, of Har- 

 vard, built a number of guns, joining end to end, by 

 I welding a number of short rings or nollow cylinders. 

 The rings were first a ring of steel about one-third the 

 whole thickness, over which a bar of iron was wound 

 spirally. The breech was closed by a screw plug. His 

 guns were tested by both the army and navy, the 

 smaller calibres with very satisfactory results. 



France introduced the first heavy rifled cast-iron 

 muzzle-loader during the Crimean war. Rifling was 

 first developed in small-arms. Barrels were grooved at 

 Vienna to afford lodgment for the residue produced in 

 firing and so diminish the friction in ramming home 

 the ball, and by accidentally making these grooves in- 

 clined it was found that increased accuracy was given. 

 About 1850 the rifle-uiusket came into use as a mili- 

 tary weapon. Breech-loading small-arms have been 

 rapidly developed in this country, such as the guns of 

 Colt, Hall, Sharps, Burnside, Chaynard, and Spencer. 



