Multi shot ordnance

[A.Roads]

The devices & skill wrought by gunsmiths of bygone days always impresses me especially when it comes to the unique inventiveness applied to early multi shot capacity small arms, however occasionally one also encounters such experimentation applied to ordnance pieces as well, below are a few examples that I encountered recently.
Adrian

[seacoastartillery]

     From a gunner's point of view, I don't like that last one much.  How do you suppose the first one, a multi-barreled mortar is loaded?  Are those short chambers to be loaded with a modest charge of powder and the ball set on top?  Do vents communicate the flame from one chamber to the next with one vent to the periphery of the piece to initiate the fusilade?

Tracy

[A.Roads]

Hi Tracy,  the chambers are not short, just blocked with modern "plugs" of some sort - as are all or most of the ordnance pieces at the Tower. The photo below, of more regular mortars, in the same display area, perhaps demontrates this better....
I did not record the ingition method, whether all tubes fired simultaneoulsy or individually.
Adrian
 
 

[Cannoneer]

Thanks for the photos, Adrian. I've seen similar examples of the piece seen in the second pic, and know something of the three chambered "revolver" cannon, but the nine barreled cube mortar is entirely new to me.




This is from ‘The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography’: John Webster Cochran, inventor, was born in Enfield, N.H., May 16, 1814. In 1834 he perfected a revolving breech-loading rifled cannon, constructed upon the principle that afterward made the Colt revolver successful, the cylinder being automatically rotated by the cocking of the hammer. Failing to secure in the United States the capital necessary for its manufacture he visited Paris, France. In, 1835, there he made the acquaintance of the Turkish Ambassador, who became interested in his models and caused Sultan Mahmoud to invite the inventor to Constantinople. Mr. Cochran remained in Turkey for several years and was munificently rewarded by the Sultan for his labors.

[Cannoneer]

kkkfj1,
Thanks for posting the photos of Cochran's cannon in Istanbul. While the pics you posted, and the Les Invalides model don't actually fit the 'National Cyclopaedia' description, this John Cochran model owned by another forum member comes close.

Photographs by cannonmn

[Cannoneer]

I think that your best chance of finding any drawings may be searching U.S. Patents.

[BoomLover]

That Puckle's Gun is quite an invention, especially for such early ordance, 1804? Wow, so, Dom, would this be a future project? LOL BoomLover

[dominick]

That Puckle's Gun is quite an invention, especially for such early ordance, 1804? Wow, so, Dom, would this be a future project? LOL BoomLover

It's been on my build list for about a year.  I already have it designed and the materials selected.  It's actually a rather simple build.  It just finding the time to build it.  The Hotchkiss cannon in larger scale has priority right now.  I think the original was built in 1718.

[Cannoneer]

I think that your best chance of finding any drawings may be searching U.S. Patents.

Thank you very much. I have found something interesting. It seems that he also made many portable firearms with the same mechanism:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=Z80-AAAAEBAJ&pg=PA1&dq=Many-Chambered-Cylinder+Fire-Arms&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=1#v=onepage&q&f=false
And the real guns here: http://www.horstheld.com/0-Cochran.htm
And in this one he seemed to say that this mechanism can be applied to both portable and heavy firearms: http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=bM0-AAAAEBAJ&dq=Many-Chambered-Cylinder+Fire-Arms

Good sleuthing, kkkfj1. Here is a record of a U.S. military evaluation of a Cochran designed repeating musket/rifle tested along with a similar Samuel Colt model (both used revolving chambers), and two other single shot designs by other makers. Evidently the reviewing board didn't think much of Cochran's models.

Public Documents printed by order of The Senate of the United States, September 4, 1837: Document No.15, PP.1-27.

http://books.google.com/books?id=hJFHAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA52&lpg=RA1-PA52&dq=32-pounder+cannon&source=bl&ots=6CxcfsOH18&sig=zmYof0Ytzg-MP1b3OSseV0ocjew&hl=en&ei=_qOdTpH7Me3KiQK4uPDKCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=32-pounder%20cannon&f=false

BTW: The link above opens on correspondence concerned with the poofing of cannon manufactured at Bellona Foundry in Virginia. I personally found this a fascinating read. Document No.16, PP.1-69.

[Cannoneer]

I have a much better image of a tinted engraving showing the same mortar, and it is titled "The Partridges." I think that this type mortar, and similarly arranged multi-barreled cannon date from the late seventeenth, and early eighteenth centuries. 
Sect.II. Of Partridge Mortars, for firing Bombs and Grenadoes together.
http://napoleonic-literature.com/Book_17/011-Chapter_6.htm