Small-scale rifled gun?

[Rick in MS]

This is written inside the front cover just before the Title page.




Enjoy,
Rick

[Terry C.]

(sniff)

Thass jus bee-yuteeful!

Ah gots a tear in me old Southern eye...

[Cat Whisperer]

Rick -

Absoulutely fascinating!  When I went through FAOCS at Ft Sill, we asked about the calculations of the trajectory.  Their answer was that it was a bit too complicated for what we needed to know to launch bullets.

Here he goes step by step - I fit it into the picture in my mind of the bullet leaving the bore aligned with the bore and keeping that alignment (more or less) as it travels through the trajectory (howitzers).  Now we see the caluclations of the forces on the bullet throughout the trajectory and how the bullet would somewhat but not completely align with the direction of motion.  More math than what I want to go through for each round, but now I know how the trajectory tables were derived.

We plugged into the formulas the gun and target coordinates, altitudes, wind velocities at each 500 feet, powder temperature, charge, rotation of the earth and which way we combed our hair.  All that to figure azimuth and elevation of the howitzer - fire two spotting rounds, adjust the coordinates and do it again.

Thanks for providing the answer to a question that has been lurking in my mind since 1972!

[Rick in MS]

Yeah, when I was in the Navy and was sent to a school at Ft. Gordon GA. in '84 there were couple of guys in my class who used to do that.  The Army was upgrading all the guns to Paladins or something like that around that time and Wham!  The Army was training a whole lot of Sargents and Specs for brand new jobs.  Each gun had a computer to do what they used to do faster and better.  I had several conversations with those guys on breaks and something that still comes to mind every time I see a big gun was the details they took into account, notably the rotation of the earth.  

What really baffles me about this book is how they were able to derive so much information from such a few measurable variables.  I can see the point of origin, point of impact, amount of powder used, possibly the amount of time it took to get there but that couldn't have been very accurate with instruments available at the time.  It seems as though these guys were like the theoretical physicists of their time sitting around working things out and hoping they can invent a way to prove or disprove it.

Maybe it's in the book somewhere.  Honestly, it has been sitting up in a closet in a zip lock baggy since my wife and mother-in-law found it and showed it to me.  I've never read more than a few pages at a time until now.  I was torn between not wanting to handle it too much and wanting to scan it so I could read it.  I'd kind of forgotten it until I saw the question about the rifling in the parrot and thought "hey, I've got to find that thing".  I hope ya'll enjoy it and pass it on to anyone else who is interested.  This is much better than sitting in our closet or behind locked doors in a library or museum were no one has access.

The URL it is on is mine and it will remain up for as long as I keep it hosted which shouldn't be a problem.  We are about to set up a business off of it.  The link may change a little in the next couple of days as I put together a real interface so it will be much easier to navigate from page to page.

Terry C.  That's just the way I felt the day I saw it for the first time  :wink:

Enjoy,
Rick

[Double D]

Where is Antiques Road Show!!!

I am going to have to go buy a couple dozen ink cartridges and a ream of paper

[Rick in MS]

Printing it out shouldn't break the bank DD.  It's only 58 pages.  60 if you count the inscription before the title page and someones doodling on a blank page at the end that will be included when all the pages are up.

Rick

[Double D]

Yours plus the one Guardsrunner posted over in  New Links is over 700 Pages...

[Cpt Ed]

Rick in MS,

Really a wonderful find.

Perhaps if you are interested in having it privately printed or published in parts, you could contact Mr. C. Peter Jorgensen, Editor of the very fine quarterly publication “THE MUZZLELOADING ARTILLERYMAN”.

Now beware of the knock you are now hearing at your front door for the die-hard, Civil War collectors are wanting to offer you a lot of Yankee $$$$ for your book.

It must be preserved.

By the way Rick, Good luck with your new Forum "Webster Daylilies and Gothic Gardens".

[claypipe]

This is written inside the front cover just before the Title page.




Enjoy,
Rick

I wonder if Davis ever took time to read it.  My Great Granfather was married to Lt. Colonel Richard Taylor's Daughter. Richard's Sister was Davis's first Wife, Sarah Knox Taylor. Sarah and Richard were the children of Zachary Taylor, 12th President of the United States. Which is interesting, because my Great Granfather's Dad was in Snow's Battery B, Maryland Light Artillery, Union and his Wife's Father was Confederate.