video; " A Naval Gun in the Making"

[cyanidekid]

came across this on the tube.
it doesn't seem to be dated in this edit, but given the caliber (looks like 15"/45?) and the fact the film was made at all, im thinking its post WW1when the details of the process were no longer top secret. maybe early '20's?
fascinating despite annoying lack of annotation, and the intertitles are wrong in places. trepanning starts at 8 min(ish, one hell of a slugger bit there!) so its a "box tool" type thing rough turning the breech immediately after that title. the "hydraulically expanding" is actually forging over mandrel I think.

enjoy, happy Saturday.

 

[cyanidekid]

just a bump. this is worth a watch. cheers

 

[johnoder]

just a bump. this is worth a watch. cheers

Maybe I remeber right - but USA used similar designation - the 45 being 45 times 15 to describe tube length - in this case 45 times 15 being 675 inches or 56 feet and 3" - quite the "long tom"

 

[cyanidekid]

Maybe I remeber right - but USA used similar designation - the 45 being 45 times 15 to describe tube length - in this case 45 times 15 being 675 inches or 56 feet and 3" - quite the "long tom"

yes, exactly, tho I think its probably a "close enough" spec, not sure anyone is quibbling over the 3" part there!

 

[old_dave]

Very interesting, thank you. I think the wire winding of barrels was a British thing.

I keep hoping that some day some one will uncover detailed film footage of the cutting of the interrupted screw threads of the breech mechanism on the battleship guns as done at the Naval Gun Factory, Washington Navy Yard.

David

 

[4GSR]

Very interesting, thank you. I think the wire winding of barrels was a British thing.
.........................

No. The US did the same back in the 1800's thru the very early 1900's. I recall reading about it in a book that someone published about the US arsenals and what things were built. Ken

 

[cyanidekid]

I think the steel of the time was not trusted to have the inter-granular strength radially to resist splitting as had happened on cast and wrought iron cannon for a few centuries. high strength steel wire was a new "miracle material" as John A. Roebling had established in 1855 by building the Niagara Falls Suspension bridge (well before the Brooklyn Bridge).

 

[john.k]

There is another gun barrel utube ,I think of Armstrongs,and they are using a rod of (est) 3/8" dia to wrap the barrel,and then shrink the wound barrel into a jacket. It is a smaller gun ,maybe a field gun.

 

[cyanidekid]

Does anyone have more solid information on how and when the practice of "wire wrapping" barrels started? im thinking it is really a holdover from the period ( 1850-1885?) wrought iron barrels and steel wire overlapped.
the wrought barrels were particularly prone to radial splits due to columnar structure, and high quality steel (other than Japanese blades!) was at first only widely available as wire. this was the case in part because the drawing process both refined the microstructure of the wire, and acted as a "proof load" if there were any significant flaws, the wire would break while being drawn.

 

[Jim Christie]

I didn't go back to review them in detail but here are 2 older threads on large gun making

Birth of a Big Gun (1908)

remarkable Birth of a Big Gun (198) - YouTube

www.practicalmachinist.com

Atlantikwall~~~~~ Adolfkanon

Essen 1934 a busy year for Krupp Metal Works--in addition to forging 15 inch (380 mm) guns for battleships Bismark and Tirpitz-- Krupp forged 11 16 inch (406 mm) guns for a battleship series labeled "H-Class" ---none of which were built in 1942 the 406 guns were deployed as part of...

www.practicalmachinist.com

I seem to recall some much older threads by Asquith about Armstrong Whitworth or Vickers.
There may be more on Graces Guide if you try some searches there.

Search results for "Naval Guns" - Graces Guide

www.gracesguide.co.uk

W. G. Armstrong and Co - Graces Guide

www.gracesguide.co.uk

Search results for "Vickers Naval Guns " - Graces Guide

www.gracesguide.co.uk

Coventry Ordnance Works - Graces Guide

www.gracesguide.co.uk

Jim

 

[john.k]

I believe Armstrong patented the wrapping process as part of his breech loading gun patents..........Incidentally ,the Armstrong gun is always claimed to be a great advance in modern potted histories ,when in fact it was a considerble failure,and the British went back to muzzle loading guns for another 20 years.