Front Pintle Parrott Barbette

[dominick]

I started this project in February and finally completed it this week.  The barrel is 12" long and the bore size is 75 caliber.

[Cannoneer]

That looks sweet, Dom.

[Triple D]

Very impressive!  I wish I could see it in person.

[Artilleryman]

Very nice!

[shooter2]

Dom,
          Lovely work, particularly the carriage.  Any details about the rivets and how you applied them?
 
shooter2

[Mike H.]

You do very nice work, Dom!

[BUGEYE]

I'm not into mortars and cannons but the title of the thread intrigued me.  so I came and looked and that is definitely a work of art.  being a klutz, I really admire people who can create something like this.

[seacoastartillery]

     Dominick,  that looks like a winner to us and is very similar to the canon we make, but it's actually much closer to the one we saw on our first trip to Fort Pulaski near Savannah, Georgia.  It's the most prominent seacoast rifle on the terraplein.  We like this cannon a lot because it looks so 'clean'.  Not many things sticking out from it!  The following pic is a scan from an old chemical photo from 2003 on a hazy day in Georgia.

The 100 Pdr. Parrott Rifle, M1861 on an 1859 Iron, Seacoast, Front-Pintle, Barrbette, Carriage





     We like it a lot, Dom, but we have a question for you.  Is your tube a 'drilled from solid type" or a Rodman process, "Water Core" type.  As you most probably know, Parrott's, West Point Foundry made about half of their 500+  6.4" Rifles by the Water Core process.  Even on their solid cast tubes, they cut the bore, prior to reaming with a long, finely made 'coring' or 'trepanning tool'.  It took just 24 hours to get that core out of the tube with that special tool and some special, screw-actuated wedges at the bottom of the bore to break the core piece off.  A team of two mules was then hitched to a large screw eye at the core's end and then, "YEE HAAH!!" they pulled it out!  The same material removal process on the 6.4" Double-Banded Brooke Rifle took the Confederate foundry workers at the Tredegar Foundry in Richmond, 900 hours to do the very same thing by drilling and drilling bigger and boring and boring bigger and bigger and bigger until it was finally to size except for reaming.

What an ideal Christmas gift for someone special on your list!

Tracy and Mike

[dominick]

 
Thanks for the compliments, and a Kewpie!  Thank you.
 
 
 

Dom,
          Lovely work, particularly the carriage.  Any details about the rivets and how you applied them?
 
shooter2

I use steel rivets and weld them in from the back side.
 
 
 

     Dominick,  that looks like a winner to us and is very similar to the canon we make, but it's actually much closer to the one we saw on our first trip to Fort Pulaski near Savannah, Georgia.  It's the most prominent seacoast rifle on the terraplein.  We like this cannon a lot because it looks so 'clean'.  Not many things sticking out from it!  The following pic is a scan from an old chemical photo from 2003 on a hazy day in Georgia.

The 100 Pdr. Parrott Rifle, M1861 on an 1859 Iron, Seacoast, Front-Pintle, Barrbette, Carriage





     We like it a lot, Dom, but we have a question for you.  Is your tube a 'drilled from solid type" or a Rodman process, "Water Core" type.  As you most probably know, Parrott's, West Point Foundry made about half of their 500+  6.4" Rifles by the Water Core process.  Even on their solid cast tubes, they cut the bore, prior to reaming with a long, finely made 'coring' or 'trepanning tool'.  It took just 24 hours to get that core out of the tube with that special tool and some special, screw-actuated wedges at the bottom of the bore to break the core piece off.  A team of two mules was then hitched to a large screw eye at the core's end and then, "YEE HAAH!!" they pulled it out!  The same material removal process on the 6.4" Double-Banded Brooke Rifle took the Confederate foundry workers at the Tredegar Foundry in Richmond, 900 hours to do the very same thing by drilling and drilling bigger and boring and boring bigger and bigger and bigger until it was finally to size except for reaming.

What an ideal Christmas gift for someone special on your list!

Tracy and Mike

The photo on your website was one of the photos I used for reference.  I noticed there is a difference between the chassis rear wheel supports on several of the front pintle Barbette designs.  Some have a section of I-beam and short vertical wheel struts as in your photo and others have no I-beam and longer vertical struts.  Was this a design change on newer models?  After I built the model, I found a photo of a front pintle barbette in Warren Ripley's book.  Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War, page 206.  The Parrott in his photo does not have the reinforced edge and also has less rivets.  Is this the 1859 upper carriage?  I wished I had saw this photo before I started building the carriage, I could have gotten the rivet detail closer.   
 
I made the barrel from 1026 DOM tubing with a pressed and welded breech plug.  The front pintle Parrott Barbette model will be downsized and available in 36 caliber this fall with more emphasis on historical accuracy and detail.  The barrel on this new downsized model will also be bored from solid stock.
 
Dom
 

[seacoastartillery]

 

       
 The photo on your website was one of the photos I used for reference.  I noticed there is a difference between the chassis rear wheel supports on several of the front pintle Barbette designs.  Some have a section of I-beam and short vertical wheel struts as in your photo and others have no I-beam and longer vertical struts.  Was this a design change on newer models? After I built the model, I found a photo of a front pintle barbette in Warren Ripley's book.  Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War, page 206.  The Parrott in his photo does not have the reinforced edge and also has less rivets.  Is this the 1859 upper carriage?  I wished I had saw this photo before I started building the carriage, I could have gotten the rivet detail closer.
 
 I made the barrel from 1026 DOM tubing with a pressed and welded breech plug.  The front pintle Parrott Barbette model will be downsized and available in 36 caliber this fall with more emphasis on historical accuracy and detail.  The barrel on this new downsized model will also be bored from solid stock.
 
 Dom 

 
      Dom, we have found in our travels all over the United States, including the major arsenals and their museums and archives, that there is no strictly followed, chronological drawing adherence as it relates to what models were available at a specific time during the Civil War. Some Model 1859 carriages are supported by I-beam supports like the one above, including several in historical photos we have seen and some follow the drawings we have found which are dated 1862 and 1868, having a Chassis supported by long or short forks depending on the fortification type.  Some, such as seacoast rifles or guns placed in Barbette mounts, as the one in Fort Pulaski is, needed longer forks to get the tube up and over the parapet.  Some, like the ones in the Brady Battery at Yorktown in 1862, were made for use in embrasured fortifications where the tube and carriage was much lower. 
 
      As the text indicates, this was a temporary water battery, (Brady) mounting five 100 Pdr. Parrott Rifles and one 200 Pdr. Parrott.  This battery contained guns en barbette and also embrasured guns, with different Chassis construction accommodating each situation.  The photo of which you speak is of an upper carriage that can only be termed, an "expedient" carriage.  We have never seen an actual carriage without reinforcing strips around the edges, which are actually 90 deg. angle irons, creating a flange all around the interior sides.  This was either a field expedient or an arsenal expedient due to an abundance of 'rush' orders.  This is not the 1859 carriage, because the 1859 upper carriage had the reinforced edge just as the 1862 drawing and the 1868 drawing displays.
 
    There are a few photos below which will hopefully clarify some of this info.
 
 Tracy & Mike

The lower nature of this mount is evident on this Chassis in Federal Battery Brady at Yorktown in 1862.  Lower forks are obviously required here. 




This rear Chassis fork view is from our website an shows the relative height of those forks used in embrasured guns.  Some are a bit longer, but not really long such as Barbette mounts require.




This photo is from a copy of an 1868 drawing we found at Waterveliet Arsenal in 2004.  The lower forks of the 1862 drawing are retained and this drawing displays many more dimensioned details than any other we have seen or purchased.




The date on the above engineering drawing.

[dominick]

M & T,  Your info is very helpful.  Thank you!  Dom

[Tod0987]

Dom It's a beaut!
 
How's the recoil on the chassis?

[dominick]

Dom It's a beaut!
 
How's the recoil on the chassis?

With a blank charge it went not quite half way.  I didn't fire it with a ball.