Designed by artillery lieutenant Edmund Zalinski based on one Meldford’s 1884 design, manufactured c.1894-98 for Fort Winfield, San Francisco.
Steam pressure launching a 15″ fin-stabilized fused shell filled with dynamite. The longer barrel provided enough time for the projectile to reach maximum acceleration, since the point of steam-powered launchers like this was to allow for the use of the new unstable dynamite as an explosive load without the sudden acceleration gunpowder entices, which would invariably detonate it.
Steam pressure launching a 15″ fin-stabilized fused shell filled with dynamite. The longer barrel provided enough time for the projectile to reach maximum acceleration, since the point of steam-powered launchers like this was to allow for the use of the new unstable dynamite as an explosive load without the sudden acceleration gunpowder entices, which would invariably detonate it.
There were some of these mounted experimentally on ships, USS Vesuvius if memory serves, discontinued as range was not great and they tended to be inconsistent at any range, frequently shooting short due to not being able to reklease the pressure quickly enough
ReplyDeleteUSS Vesuvius was used during the Spanish-American War for shelling forts and harbors.
DeleteThe Spanish were totally confused as to where the shells were coming from, due to no 'flash' which was the traditional way to detect where the firing ship was.
And rang was apparently quite good. Just accuracy sucked.