mountain howitzer vent

[1swampthing]

My bronze mountain howitzer(full scale) has the vent drilled at what I would guess to be an approximatly 15 or 20 degree angle toward the back of the barrel. I was told that this was  correct for this gun. Since occasionally the body of the friction primer will fly out the barrel as much as 20+ feet why would this have ever been correct due to the hazzard of hitting someone behind the gun with a fairly high speed projectile instead of drilling the vent straight up and down where you could possibly still have a primer come down on someones head but at much less velocity(merely falling).

[flagman1776]

delete

[Cannoneer]

I find it highly doubtful that the designers of artillery through history, were giving a great deal of thought to the dangers posed to gunners by solids being blown out the vents of their creations. This may not be due to any lack of insight (or worse yet cruelty) on their part, because it's very possible that they simply assumed that gun crews would figure out where to position themselves when operating their pieces, so as to almost completely avoid those perils.
Ok, I'm having a little fun, but even as late as the time frame of our Civil War; if someone could show me any evidence of Dahlgren, Parrott, Griffen, Brooke, Rodman etc., concerning themselves with this hazardous phenomena, then I'd be grateful to hear about it (also very surprised). The first instance that I know of any gun designer including a feature to protect against this occurence, is the screw on shield that Joseph Whitworth used on some of his breech loading cannon; and that shield was meant to protect against friction primers being blown straight back out of inline vents.

[GGaskill]

If you study the drill, it would seem that the men are disposed in places where vent debris is unlikely.

[Artilleryman]

My drawings show the vent on an angle, but unless you were directly behind the piece I don't think you would ever have to worry about injuries from a friction primer as a falling friction primer doesn't have enough energy to hurt you.  Besides if you were directly behind the gun you would have to worry more about the recoil.

[gulfcoastblackpowder]

I think the point of being directly behind the gun is right on point, but also consider that these guns were designed to be fired in battle by trained crews.  They weren't designed for demonstrations to gawking public, or to miniaturization, which makes it more likely for someone to forget that they should position themselves safely.

[Red Leg]

The Mountain Howitzer vent axis could be angled back towards the breech because it was designed in the pre-friction primer era. It came about at the time of the use of quills and loose powder as primers touched off by linstocks and port fires.