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War Dept. Document No. 2042, American Coast

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War Dept. Document No. 2042, American Coast Ordnance Department Document No. 2042 AMERICAN COAST ARTILLERY MATERIEL PREPARED IN TilE OFFICE OF TilE CHIEF OF ORDNANCE June, 1922 WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1923 ORDNANCE DEPARTMENT Document No. 2042 Office of the Chief of Ordnance l. ADDITIONAL COPIES OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON, D. C. AT $1.00 PER COpy PURCHASER AGREES NOT TO RESELL OR DISTRIBUTE THIS COpy FOR PROFlf.-PUB. RES. 57, APPROVED MAY Il, 1922 ,VAR DEP ART!IENT, 'VASHINGTON, June, 19;813. The following publication, entitled "American Coast Artillery l\lateriel," is published for the information and guidance of all students of the Ordnance. training schools, and other similar edu- cational organizations. The contents should not be republished without authority of the Chief of Ordnance, 'Var Department, 'Vash- ington, D. C. By ORDEROF THE SECRETA~Y OF tV AR. JOHN J. PERSHING, General of the Armies, Ohief of Staff. OFFICIAL: ROBERT C. DAVIS, . Acting The Adjutant General. (III) PREFACE. This treatise on coast artillery is supposed to deal primarily with American artillery and to include such data, description, etc., as can be given in one volume of reasonaole size and ~till cover the hjstory of development, the design and manufacture of a modern great seacoast gun and carriage, and detailed descriptions of existing seacoast weapons to the satisfaction of the casual student of the subject. Since America is relatively a new country, it is of course necessary to deal with artillery of any and every country in attempting to trace the history of the development of ammunition, guns, and carriages. Careful survey of Part I will reveal that the history of the devel- opment of artillery in the years 1400 to 1850 is not a history. of the development of the science or art of artillery, but simply a history of the development of the craftman's ability to cast or forge objects of greater and greater weight or more complicated design as to shape. The gun of 1850 is merely the gun -of 1400 multiplied one hundred times or more in weight .. The real development in artillery has taken place since 1850 and is coincident with the great and rapid development in every line of mechanical invention. A discussion of America1l; coast artillery hence .does gi ve a fair idea of the steps in the development 'of such artillery of all nations, because coast artillery has acquired its pronounced individual char- acteristics during this short period of rapid development. Before 1850 the same gun, carriage, and ammunition might be and were used indiscriminately on ships of war, in coast fortifications, or in the field- for siege purposes. The o~ject of this treatise is to present to the student of coast artillery both a mental picture of the development of artillery in general from the thirteenth century, when it seems to have made its first appearance, through the various centuries as simply artillery, und through the past century when it has become sufficiently distinct to be termed seacoast artillery. In addition, it is desired to present as complete as practicable a description or outline of the procedure in determining the requirements of a modern high-power seacoast weapon, the various steps in design, and the important p~oblems)in- volved in the manufacture. A third part is devoted to a detailed description of each distinct type of mechanism found on all of the (IVi v seacoast weapons now in 'u.se in our various fortifications. It is the policy in discussing guns, carriages, and mechanisms to discuss each type in detail but once; that is, if a certain type of elevating mecha- nism is used on a number of carriages it will be discussed in detail but once. Thereafter merely a refel'encewill be given to the detailed discussion. There is no type of manufacture in America that involves the same . severity of requirements as that required in the development, design, and manufacture of our modern seacoast weapons. It is to be hoped that the.day will come when the Ordnance Departments of the Army and Navy will be recognized and will take their place as the pace makers in the art of machine design and will set the standards for the mechanical engineering world. In no other industry is it re- quired to machine parts weighing as much as 100 tons to a degr~e of accuracy represented by a tolerance of only a few thousandths of an inch; nor is there an industry which deals with problems involv- ing pressures so great as 40,000 pounds per square inch; or with the equally difficult problem of providing for the transmission during a very small fraction of a second of millions of foot-pounds of energy through parts which must continue to operate day after day with absolute accuracy into foundations embedded in the earth. 'Vhen it is remembered that the modern high-power seacoast weapon will weigh a total of 1,000,000.pounds, must operate with such a speed as to permit the firing of one projectile weighing 2,400 pounds or more to a distance of 35 miles with such a degree of accuracy as to strike with telling effect a modern battleship, some littleapprecia- . tion of the problems of design and manufacture can be secured. It is hoped that this presentation on the basis of the general devel- opment and history of artillery, the determination of requirements, the design and manufacture of a modern seacoast weapon, and the detailed description of all distinct types of mechanisms will serve the purpose of giving to the early as well as the advanced student such a comprehension of the problems of development, design, and manufacture of seacoast artillery as will enable him to render more efficient service in any branch of the Army having to do with any type of artillery. ' The information contained herein has been secured from the sources listed in the bibliography, from inspection of the material discussed, and from consultation with engineers responsible for vari- ous requirements and designs or familiar with them. Paragraphs 37 to GO were prepared by Doctor (Colonel) Storm, of the Ammuni- tion Division, and have been previously published in No. 10, Volume II, of Army Ordnance. II. 'V. :MILLER, Lieuterwnt Oolonel, O. R. O. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PART I. Page. History of the development of artillery '____ 1 PART II. The design and manufacture of a great seacoast 'veapon_______________ 144, PART III. Detailed descriptions of American seacoast guns and mounts__________ 221 PART IV. Table of miscellaneous data ..;._________________________________ 488 (VII) PART 1. - HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPl\fENT OF ARTILLERY. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 1. It is intended in this history of the development of artil- lery and ammunition to point out, at least briefly, the various steps that have led from the invention of discovery of gunpowder to the present state of perfection in ammunition, guns, and carriages. It may.be well to mention in advance a conclusion to which one seems certain to come in the extended study of this development. All indi- cations are that practically each step in the development was forced by circumstances and actually became a recognized advance in the art many. years, sometimes centuries, after the time when it might have been adopted to the advantage of all ~oncerned. For example, hand rifles had been perfected to the point of rather efficient use for sporting purposes as early as 1800. No soldier nor those responsible for i~suing them to soldiers would have thought of using an Army musket for hunting game if he could secure a rifle. In spite of the known fact that only one in each 450 bullets fired from an Army musket would find its mark in war, it was used in our wars of 1812, 1845, and even in the great Civil 'Val' of 1860-1864. The rifle had been introduced into the French ArmY' in 1800, but Napoleon with- drew it, probably because of the great amount of time required for loading, and it was not again used by them until 1870. The British . • did not adopt it until about 1860. And during all of this time it was the weapon par excellence for sporting purposes. Since this is an example of the general tendency in the development of the Rrt or science of artillery one should not he surprised at' even the present backwardness of it in any particular respect. These comments are entered as illustrations of. tendencies and not as a criticism of any organization or jndividuals. It is probable that we will always have our spurts of development just after a great conflict which points out tragically our backwardness in any branch of the science. This , is certainly true at the end of the 'Vorld 'Val'. 2. It has been particularly difficult to trace the earliest develop- ment in ammunition and likewise the corresponding development in artillery. There are numerous reference in many more or less (1) 2 modern books to apparent records of the invention or discovery of gunpowder in the fourth to the sixth centuries A. D., and to the use of this substance in some sort of guns, pots, or mortars in the sieges of such cities' as ~fecca, Constantinople, etc., during these same centuries. The' first siege of I~feccaoccurred in 683 A. D., and at that time the sacred Black Stone was broken by fire. References can be found to the fact that in this siege the mixture familiarly known as "'Vildfire" was' used by the besiegers and that these balls of pitch, naphtha, and sulphur were hurled over the walls by some sort of mechanical projecting engine.
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