Author Topic: Interesting old book--post Civil War Artillery to mid-1890's  (Read 2790 times)

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Offline GGaskill

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Interesting old book--post Civil War Artillery to mid-1890's
« on: September 23, 2010, 01:22:40 PM »

Fields of Thunder Museum

I found this while looking for more details on the M1890 3.6 inch mortar.

Modern Guns and Mortars Adopted in the United States Land Service, Their Carriages, Projectiles, Fuzes and Sights

This is presented as a pdf and can be saved thus or as a text file.

However, the only text saved when saved as a text file is the Google intro page.   :-\
GG
“If you're not a liberal at 20, you have no heart; if you're not a conservative at 40, you have no brain.”
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Offline Artilleryman

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Re: Interesting old book--post Civil War Artillery to mid-1890's
« Reply #1 on: September 23, 2010, 06:25:42 PM »
Thanks for posting this link.
Norm Gibson, 1st SC Vol., ACWSA

Offline Cannoneer

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Re: Interesting old book--post Civil War Artillery to mid-1890's
« Reply #2 on: September 23, 2010, 09:53:36 PM »
I found this while looking for more details on the M1890 3.6 inch mortar.


Are you doing research for the sake of research, or do you have something more metallic in mind?

RIP John. While on vacation July 4th 2013 in northern Wisconsin, he was ATVing with family and pulled ahead of everyone and took off at break-neck speed without a helmet. He lost control.....hit a tree....and the tree won.  He died instantly.

The one thing that you can almost always rely on research leading to, is more research.

Offline GGaskill

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Re: Interesting old book--post Civil War Artillery to mid-1890's
« Reply #3 on: September 23, 2010, 10:51:35 PM »
I would like to make one (probably beer can bore) but have no detailed plans.  There is one in a local museum of sorts that doesn't appear to be open to the public.  I have emailed them twice but no replies.
GG
“If you're not a liberal at 20, you have no heart; if you're not a conservative at 40, you have no brain.”
--Winston Churchill

Offline dominick

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Re: Interesting old book--post Civil War Artillery to mid-1890's
« Reply #4 on: September 24, 2010, 02:49:00 AM »
Thanks for the book George.  The mortar looks more like a Howitzer with those sights on the barrel.  :)  Did they aim it line of sight and then set the elevation?

Offline GGaskill

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Re: Interesting old book--post Civil War Artillery to mid-1890's
« Reply #5 on: September 24, 2010, 12:01:06 PM »
Did they aim it line of sight and then set the elevation?

I don't know.  One of the things I was trying to determine was how the elevation mechanism worked and what the maximum elevation was.  The various images make it difficult to determine.

The picture at the head of the thread came from the Fields of Thunder website and I found another image of the mortar elevated there today.
GG
“If you're not a liberal at 20, you have no heart; if you're not a conservative at 40, you have no brain.”
--Winston Churchill

Offline Cannoneer

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Re: Interesting old book--post Civil War Artillery to mid-1890's
« Reply #6 on: September 24, 2010, 07:47:11 PM »
I would like to make one (probably beer can bore) but have no detailed plans.  There is one in a local museum of sorts that doesn't appear to be open to the public.  I have emailed them twice but no replies.

Sounds interesting George, I've admired the profile of that small breech-loading mortar for some time now.
Did you know that this rare model (supposedly only 76 were manufactured) was only ever used as a training tool? In all probability they were intended to train the crews of large seacoast mortars in the execution of indirect fire, in order to save the expense of firing large shells.




RIP John. While on vacation July 4th 2013 in northern Wisconsin, he was ATVing with family and pulled ahead of everyone and took off at break-neck speed without a helmet. He lost control.....hit a tree....and the tree won.  He died instantly.

The one thing that you can almost always rely on research leading to, is more research.

Offline GGaskill

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Re: Interesting old book--post Civil War Artillery to mid-1890's
« Reply #7 on: September 24, 2010, 08:26:37 PM »
In all probability they were intended to train the crews of large seacoast mortars in the execution of indirect fire, in order to save the expense of firing large shells.

There are some similarities between the two Models of 1890, breech loaders that had to be lowered to horizontal to load.  But differences, too.  20 lb shell versus 800 or 1000 lb shell requiring mechanical loading, no hydraulics, etc. 

Would kind of like to make a subscale version of the 12" mortar also.  Need good plans for both.  Should give AOP a call to see if he has anything.
GG
“If you're not a liberal at 20, you have no heart; if you're not a conservative at 40, you have no brain.”
--Winston Churchill

Offline Double D

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Re: Interesting old book--post Civil War Artillery to mid-1890's
« Reply #8 on: September 25, 2010, 07:04:35 PM »
George, that Fields of thunder Museum  is near you have considered calling them and see what they have?

Offline GGaskill

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Re: Interesting old book--post Civil War Artillery to mid-1890's
« Reply #9 on: September 25, 2010, 08:28:50 PM »
I have emailed them a couple of times in the past offering machine shop services and gotten no replies.  I emailed them a couple of days ago asking to be notified of their next events. 

The business license address is a few miles down I-15 from here in south Corona (maybe 25 miles total) but a google maps aerial photo of the address shows someone's house/lot so I don't think that is the actual storage site of the artifacts.

We will see what happens. 
GG
“If you're not a liberal at 20, you have no heart; if you're not a conservative at 40, you have no brain.”
--Winston Churchill

Offline GGaskill

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Re: Interesting old book--post Civil War Artillery to mid-1890's
« Reply #10 on: October 05, 2010, 12:21:52 PM »
As of today (ten days), I have not heard anything from FoT.  Maybe they don't have any events planned for the near future.
GG
“If you're not a liberal at 20, you have no heart; if you're not a conservative at 40, you have no brain.”
--Winston Churchill

Offline GGaskill

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Re: Interesting old book--post Civil War Artillery to mid-1890's
« Reply #11 on: December 02, 2010, 06:42:17 PM »
As of today, still no word from FoT.
GG
“If you're not a liberal at 20, you have no heart; if you're not a conservative at 40, you have no brain.”
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Offline GGaskill

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Re: Interesting old book--post Civil War Artillery to mid-1890's
« Reply #12 on: January 23, 2012, 12:22:10 PM »
More than a year later, no reply.

Also note that the link to the book appears to go to a different presentation than before.
GG
“If you're not a liberal at 20, you have no heart; if you're not a conservative at 40, you have no brain.”
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Offline guardsgunner

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Re: Interesting old book--post Civil War Artillery to mid-1890's
« Reply #13 on: January 23, 2012, 01:23:11 PM »
George,
 Is this mortar rifled?

Offline GGaskill

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Re: Interesting old book--post Civil War Artillery to mid-1890's
« Reply #14 on: January 23, 2012, 01:27:08 PM »
My understanding is that it is rifled.
GG
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Offline cannonmn

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Re: Interesting old book--post Civil War Artillery to mid-1890's
« Reply #15 on: January 24, 2012, 12:28:28 AM »
Thanks for the link, I pasted it in on the CMH forum where at least two members I know own those 3.6" rifled mortars; one of them has a pair. 
 
BTW it wasn't a training device but a tactical weapon, I think it shared projectiles with a 3.6" howitzer.  Some of these were used in Cuba in the Spanish-American War.  My company had a chance to get one about two years ago but would have had to buy a huge collection of other stuff with it and we let it go.  That was probably a mistake, but if we'd bought into that we then wouldn't have been able to get some nice historic stuff that we did get at an auction a few months later.  Can't have it all, but wouldn't it be nice...

Offline KABAR2

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Re: Interesting old book--post Civil War Artillery to mid-1890's
« Reply #16 on: January 25, 2012, 04:19:39 AM »
My understanding is that it is rifled.

Yes they are rifled there is an example on a traffic island up on Long Island I am trying to remember what town...... Always liked that little gun...
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Offline guardsgunner

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Re: Interesting old book--post Civil War Artillery to mid-1890's
« Reply #17 on: January 25, 2012, 09:40:21 AM »
A gentleman fired one of these a few years back at Camp Grayling. It was interesting the the round left the tube at almost a angle before it became stable and took off.
 
 
 
Bob.