THE ERA OF ARTILLERY (continued)

RIFLING

Rifling, by imparting a spin to the projectile as it travels along the spiral grooves in the bore, permits the use of a long projectile and ensures its flight point first, with great increase in accuracy. The longer projectile, being both heavier and more streamlined than round shot of the same caliber, also has a greater striking energy.

Though Benjamin Robins was probably the first to give sound reasons, the fact that rifling was helpful had been known a long time. A 1542 barrel at England, has six fine spiral grooves in the bore. Straight grooving had been applied to small arms as early as 1480, and during the 1500's straight grooving of musket bores was extensively practiced, Probably, rifling evolved from the early observation of the feathers on an arrow—and from the practical results of cutting channels in a musket, originally to reduce fouling, then because it was found to improve accuracy of the shot. Rifled small-arm efficiency was clearly shown at Kings Mountain during the American Revolution.

In spite of earlier experiments, however, it was not until the 1840's that attempts to rifle cannon could be called successful. In 1846, Major Cavelli in Italy and Baron Wahrendorff in Sweden independently produced rifled iron breech-loading cannon. The Cavelli gun had two spiral grooves into which fitted the 1/4-inch projecting lugs of a long projectile (fig. 12a). Other attempts at what might be called rifling were Lancaster's elliptical-bore gun and the later development of a spiraling hexagonal-bore by Joseph Whitworth (fig. 12b). The English Whitworth was used by Confederate artillery. It was an efficient piece, though subject to easy fouling that made it dangerous.

FIGURE 12—DEVELOPMENT OF RIFLE PROJECTILES (1840-1900). a— Cavelli type. b—Whitworth. c—James. d—Hotchkiss. e—Parrott. f—Copper rotating band type. (Not to scale.)

Then, in 1855, Britain's Sir William Armstrong designed a rifled breech-loader that included so many improvements as to be revolutionary. This gun was rifled with a large number of grooves and fired lead-coated projectiles. Much of its success, however, was due to the built-up construction: hoops were shrunk on over the tube, with the fibers of the metal running in the directions most suitable for strength. Several United States muzzle-loading rifles of built-up construction were produced about the same time as the Armstrong and included the Chambers (1849), the Treadwell (1855), and the well-known Parrott of 1861 (figs. 12e and 13).

The German Krupp rifle had an especially successful breech mechanism. It was not a built-up gun, but depended on superior crucible steel for its strength. Cast-steel had been tried as a gunmetal during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but metallurgical knowledge of the early days could not produce sound castings. Steel was also used in other mid-nineteenth century rifles, such as the United States Wiard gun and the British Blakely, with its swollen, cast-iron breech hoop. Fort Pulaski National Monument, near Savannah, Ga., has a fine example of a 24-pounder Blakely used by the Confederates in the 1862 defense of the fort.

The United States began intensive experimentation with rifled cannon late in the 1850's, and a few rifled pieces were made by the South Boston Iron Foundry and also by the West Point Foundry at Cold Spring, N. Y. The first appearance of rifles in any quantity, however, was near the outset of the 1861 hostilities, when the Federal artillery was equipped with 300 wrought-iron 3-inch guns (fig. 14e). This "12-pounder," which fired a 10-pound projectile, was made by wrapping sheets of boiler iron around a mandrel. The cylinder thus formed was heated and passed through the rolls for welding, then cooled, bored, turned, and rifled. It remained in service until about 1900. Another rifle giving good results was the cast-iron 4-1/2-inch siege gun. This piece was cast solid, then bored, turned, and rifled. Uncertainty of strength, a characteristic of cast iron, caused its later abandonment.

The United States rifle that was most effective in siege work was the invention of Robert P. Parrott. His cast-iron guns (fig. 13), many of which are seen today in the battlefield parks, are easily recognized by the heavy wrought-iron jacket reinforcing the breech. The jacket was made by coiling a bar over the mandrel in a spiral, then hammering the coils into a welded cylinder. The cylinder was bored and shrunk on the gun. Parrotts were founded in 10-, 20-, 30-, 60-, 100-, 200-, and 300-pounder calibers, one foundry making 1,700 of them during the Civil War.

FIGURE 13—PARROTT 10-POUNDER RIFLE (1864).

All nations, of course, had large stocks of smoothbores on hand, and various methods were devised to make rifles out of them. The U. S. Ordnance Board, for instance, believed the conversion simply involved cutting grooves in the bore, right at the forts or arsenals where the guns were. In 1860, half of the United States artillery was scheduled for conversion. As a result, a number of old smoothbores were rebored to fire rifle projectiles of the various patents which preceded the modern copper rotating band (fig. 12c, d, f). Under the James patent (fig. 12c) the weight of metal thrown by a cannon was virtually doubled; converted 24-, 32- and 42-pounders fired elongated shot classed respectively as 48-, 64-, and 84-pound projectiles. After the siege of Fort Pulaski, Federal Gen. Q. A. Gillmore praised the 84-pounder and declared "no better piece for breaching can be desired," but experience soon proved the heavier projectiles caused increased pressures which converted guns could not withstand for long.

The early United States rifles had a muzzle velocity about the same as the smoothbore, but whereas the round shot of the smoothbore lost speed so rapidly that at 2,000 yards its striking velocity was only about a third of the muzzle velocity, the more streamlined rifle projectile lost speed very slowly. But the rifle had to be served more carefully than the smoothbore. Rifling grooves were cleaned with a moist sponge, and sometimes oiled with another sponge. Lead-coated projectiles like the James, which tended to foul the grooves of the piece, made it necessary to scrape the rifle grooves after every half dozen shots, although guns using brass-banded projectiles did not require the extra operation. With all muzzle-loading rifles, the projectile had to be pushed close home to the powder charge; otherwise, the blast would not fully expand its rotating band, the projectile would not take the grooves, and would "tumble" after leaving the gun, to the utter loss of range and accuracy. Incidentally, gunners had to "run out" (push the gun into firing position) both smoothbore and rifled muzzle-loaders carefully. A sudden stop might make the shot start forward as much as 2 feet.

When the U. S. Ordnance Board recommended the conversion to rifles, it also recommended that all large caliber iron guns be manufactured on the method perfected by Capt. T. J. Rodman, which involved casting the gun around a water-cooled core. The inner walls of the gun thus solidified first, were compressed by the contraction of the outer metal as it cooled down more slowly, and had much greater strength to resist explosion of the charge. The Rodman smoothbore, founded in 8-, 10-, 15-, and 20-inch calibers, was the best cast-iron ordinance of its time (fig. 14f). The 20-inch gun, produced in 1864, fired a 1,080-pound shot. The 15-incher was retained in service through the rest of the century, and these monsters are still to be seen at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine; on the ramparts of Fort Jefferson, in the national monument of that name, in the Dry Tortugas Islands; and at Forts Moultrie, Foote, and Massachusetts—all areas administered by the National Park Service.

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