Cannons

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

1 hour ago, Frosty said:

and possible American E. coast cities like New York

My God!?!?!?! 

that would take some serious amounts of propellant to clear the Atlantic Ocean!!! 

Unless it’s like an icbm a they were to fire it into the atmosphere and then it would come back down on the US east coast but even then that would be a feat of engineering!!!!! 

could you imagine the sheer amount of powder that would take! 

[George N. M.]

The need for Atomic Annie passed when nuclear warheads were miniaturized enough that they could fit in regular field artillery weapons, e.g. 155mm.

One of my more arcane areas of knowledge and training is that I am a certified Nuclear and Chemical Targeting Officer.  One of those areas of which I am VERY glad I never had to use except in exercises.

I've climbed around on Anzio Annie and the USN railway guns and walked around Atomic Annies at Ft. Sill, OK and the Nuclear Energy Museum in Albuquerque.

GNM 

[Frosty]

Yes Billy, Allied bombers rendered them inoperable before the London Gun was finished but a NYC gun was in the works. Yes, projectiles were fired out of the atmosphere on ballistic trajectories. The NYC gun was to be suborbital but never reached the testing phase. 

Much as I hate citing WIKI this is a fair writeup with plenty of rabbit holes to explore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-3_cannon

The Bull Gun was a multiple charge gun to put satellites in orbit. I don't recall what happened to the concept, lack of backers probably but he did some BIG things, I don't recall. Ahhh, Gerald Bull died in 1990. An Artillery engineer, virtually every piece of artillery in the world fires Bull Rounds. The projectile having a propellant charge that doesn't provide significant thrust it just fills the vacuum behind the round which improved range and accuracy significantly. We used to watch the avalanche crew shoot avalanche hazards on Turnagain arm with their 105 howitzer and you could watch the projectiles to impact by the bright red flare on the back of it. Bull Rounds.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Frosty]

Any Tankers out there probably know who this guy is and this is one of the best tellings of his story I know of. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5t42dA6xCM&t=210s

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Gazz]

I once had a "consulting" job to build a cannon for a local high tech company.  They were getting government money to develop steerable artillery projectiles and wanted a way to test the electronic components in live fire situations for their ability to withstand the g forces.  The cannon was built from a steel heavy wall tube that I acquired from the town dump which had a large ball welded into one end that had the appearance of a cascabel as seen on muzzle loading guns which made an excellent start for the project.  I bored some 1" cross holes and drove in some 1" steel rods to further secure the breech plug and also used a steel liner that would accept a beer can for a projectile.  I also made a steel pipe sleeve which the trunnions were welded to and positioned this to make it a bit breech heavy.  I proof tested the tube by digging a hole in my back yard where I could position it at 45 degree angle with it all being below grade in case it let go.  I poured 1lb of 2f powder in and rammed a large wad of fresh grass clippings for wadding and then packed the rest of the bore with sand.  I put a long fuse in, lit it and positioned myself about 50' back and waited.  A most impressive blast with lots of smoke which launched the barrel about 15' into the air and landing about 20' behind the hole where it made a nice dent in my lawn.  It had survived!  I was relieved that the police did not show up which was kind of surprising as I live in a moderately populated part of town with neighbors 100 yards on either side.  When the tube was finished I gave it to my engineer contact at the company who built a carriage for it from an old snowblower.  The motor was gone but the handle bars made it easy to move around and point or aim.  While he was doing that I machined a couple of two piece aluminum projectiles that would hold the electronic packages and off we went to the SIG range to shoot it.  We were only able to find one projectile buried in the berm and believe the other overshot and was lost in the woods behind.  A day or two later I got a call from the engineer who said that the electronics package survived perfectly.  Before I was paid for my work, the company was raided by every government agency you could think of, INS, ATF, FBI, IRS and probably some others and all their records and pc's seized.  The owner of the company was a naturalized US citizen from China and was "swatted" by a competitor or so the story goes.  Eventually all seized materials were returned as no crime was committed and I got paid about a year later!

I had found two of the heavy steel tubes at the dump and while doing the first build I made sure I bought enough stuff to finish the second one for me which is partially built.  I did manage to acquire a pair of nice pair of heavy duty wood spoke wheels with an axle and a large old chestnut beam for the trail.  Still lots of work to do on it but I should be able to finish it before I croak.  It will be sort of like a Confederate mountain howitzer when done.

I forgot to mention that I do have a small 1" bore all steel cannon in a naval type carriage that is a real crowd pleaser at various outdoor gatherings.  It's louder than its size would suggest.

[Frosty]

MAN, that must've been good steel, filling the bore with sand like that should've caused it to explode! 

I used to shoot pop cans of ice or plaster of Paris from a home built cannon using oxy acet as propellant. The one I built for the 4th of July at the hatchery in Prince William Sound fired cans close to 1/4 mile. Empty cans or those filled with water got turned into chaff. .

Frosty The Lucky.

[Gazz]

One of the first things I shot from the cannon was a full soda can.  It turned it inside out quite neatly but a bit ragged around the edges.

I remember reading in an old Dixie Gun Works catalog where they tested one of their barrels.  I think it was about 10-12" long and threaded on each end for breech plugs with a vent or fuse hole drilled midway.  They filled it with black powder screwd both plugs in and touched it off with a fuse.  All the fire and gas came out the touch hole is what they said happened.  

[Frosty]

YIKES, you won't catch me proofing any firearm like that! I only double charged when I proofed my old marble gun. 2 times the 3x power and 2 marbles. The duplex charge was impressive when I proofed it with a double load though.

I made my own shot by carrying a pot of molten lead to the top of our 2 story barn shaped garage and slowly pouring it into a pan of water on the ground. It wasn't properly metered or high enough for the lead to form proper spheres but they were close enough. Made interesting patterns at 30' and was a true scatter gun farther out. 

I stopped using fuse to fire it and made a simple bridge in the cut end of an old extension cord and used jumpers and the car battery. A fresh 9v transistor radio battery worked fine too. For a few shots. 

I'm SURE Deb is happy I stopped doing that sort of fun years ago. <sigh>

Frosty The Lucky.