Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 145 Cannon Casting ([-])

"The first meeting of the artillery production leadership group begins now!"

In the simple but spacious office of the machinery factory, a blackboard was erected, and weapon enthusiasts, headed by the machinery team leader Zhan Wuya, gathered together.The atmosphere was extremely enthusiastic, and everyone was discussing which type of artillery to use.

"Now, let me introduce the participants first." Zhan Wuya introduced all the participants in the meeting. The main backbone of the mechanical team, such as Wang Luobin, Jiang Ye, Xiao Bailang, etc. Needless to say, there are also some They don't know much about mechanics, but they are weapon lovers. This includes Zhang Bolin, who has repeatedly called himself "Admiral of Artillery" who talks about "cannons, more cannons", Wang Ruixiang who likes to wield axes, and someone who is a Li Yunxing, who has experienced mechanical crossbow structure design and on-site construction guidance, Bai Yu, who majored in weapon design and engineering design, and majored in armored force command... Finally, there is Lin Shenhe, who has a lot of practical experience.

The purpose of this meeting is not to arrange production, but to determine the technical route, so it should be called "Technical Route Seminar".

"Let's not think about whether it is better to build a 12-pound mountain grenade or a 92-pound infantry gun. Let's discuss it from a practical point of view and manufacturing level." Zhan Wuya set the tone for the discussion.

In terms of the mechanical processing capabilities possessed by the traversers, the processing level surpasses every civilization in this world.Now that steel has been smelted, there are no major technical problems in the manufacture of simple steel rifled breech-loading guns.Of course, there is a spring bottleneck in the tube retreating cannon, which is not easy to solve, but there is no problem in setting up the retreating cannon.

Even the industrial level of the mid 19th century was sufficient to produce 15 inch caliber guns without even needing steel, many super caliber coastal guns were cast iron guns.Travelers don't have ironclad cruisers to fight against, so there is no need to create such a perverted monster.

What are the needs of travelers?According to the suggestion of the staff group, it is mainly to equip the naval ships and forts with artillery.

"Of course it's a rifled breech gun! It has too many advantages." Li Yunxing was the first to speak.

According to ordinary people's thinking, the longer the range of artillery, the better. Here comes a problem. The range of modern artillery is getting farther and farther, which is based on modern sighting and fire control systems.A time-traveler would be unattainable on an industrial level no more than the late 19th century.Even if it is achieved with equipment pulled from the time and space of the 21st century, it will be temporary.

A 24-pound front-loading heavy gun has an effective range of no more than 900 meters. If such a gun is installed on a battleship, the effective range will be reduced by at least half due to stability.The British Royal Navy's shooting instruction in the 18th and 19th centuries clearly stipulated that the maximum shooting distance of the 24-pound long gun was 400 yards.Compared with more 32-pound large-caliber short guns on battleships, its effective range is already large enough.In actual combat, the distance between the two warships bombarding each other is often within 100 meters.

The artillery of the 17th century will certainly not surpass this level.The purpose of the traverser's naval breech-loading rifle gun is not high power and long range, but rapid fire and weight reduction.Even if the range is increased due to the rifle, it should be controlled within 2000 meters.Beyond this range, there may be some value on land, but hitting point-like targets moving on the sea becomes meaningless in terms of the traverser's fire control level, and an excessively large range is completely a waste.

Since the requirements on the range are not high, the barrel of the artillery can be shortened to save its weight and manufacturing cost.

Another advantage of using breech-loading rifled guns is that the rifled guns use pointed bullets instead of round bullets.The pointed bullet is not only more stable in the air than the round bullet, but also its shape relationship - it is elongated, can develop backward, and can adjust the weight under the same caliber.For pointed bullets and round bullets of the same weight, the caliber of the former is only about 70% of that of the latter.As far as the cross-section machine is concerned, it is only 49%.That is to say, if both have the same muzzle velocity, then the impact kinetic energy of the pointed bullet is concentrated on half of the cross-sectional area, and the unit energy density is twice that of the round bullet.Considering the low resistance of the pointed cone projectile, the armor-piercing power of the pointed projectile reaches more than three times that of the round projectile for the same weight of the projectile.

This also means that a 12-pound pointed bullet (caliber about 70mm) of a breech-loading rifle gun, under the premise of using the same propellant and charge, its effective range will be much higher than that of a 12-pound round bullet. Armor is as powerful as a 24-pound round cannon!

The 70mm rear-loading rifle gun has a multiple diameter of 16-18. It is a very small artillery in the past and modern times. It weighs only about 400-500 kg. It can be installed on a 300-ton sailboat. The device can also be installed on a 150-ton boat.This means that this medium-sized sailing ship equipped with 70mm rear-loading guns is completely opposed to the British Navy's first-class battleships in the heyday of sailing warships.

Considering that its firing speed is much higher than that of the 24-pound front-loading cannon, coupled with its advantage in effective range, the result is that the large sailing battleship is not only helpless against it, but is also likely to be raped by the Japanese.

In other words, in the early 17th century, as long as the development and production of such a small breech gun was completely sufficient.In the face of any naval pirates at the time, they already had an overwhelming advantage.

"Then why don't we just imitate the 92 infantry gun?" After listening to the explanation of the benefits of the rifled rear-loading gun, someone said, "The 92 infantry gun has a 75mm caliber and a maximum range of 2800 meters, which just meets the performance mentioned above. And the 92 The weight of the gun is only 210 kg, which is smaller than the estimated 500 kg."

"The problem with the 92 infantry gun is that the multiple diameter is too small, only 6, which causes its muzzle velocity to be too small. As a naval gun, the straighter the trajectory, the better. The 92 infantry gun is very good for the army."

Wang Luobin suggested that this kind of naval gun can adopt the structure of Armstrong gun, which is a relatively mature and reliable breech-loading gun with relatively simple technology.Compared with the previous breech-loading guns and front-loading rifled guns, it is characterized by the introduction of threaded breech blocks and obturators for breech-loading guns.The Armstronggun with the breech removed is very close to a muzzle gun with the breech pierced.The casting process of the barrel is also similar.

The disadvantage of Armstrong is that it adopts the early type of latching design, which has a very complicated structure, low stability and high failure rate.Naturally, traversers will not blindly imitate, they can use threaded bolts, and the technical level is not too high. Basically, if they can make screws, they should be able to make them.

"To put it simply," Xiao Bailang poured a basin of cold water down, "Who knows how to make cannons? I think everyone has read a few books, right? Needless to say, 92 infantry cannons are all ready-made seamless The tube is done, where can I find such a thick seamless tube now?"

"Naturally, casting guns is the main thing. After all, there are no large-scale forging machines. If you want to use the deep drilling method, you need to manufacture special equipment." Lin Shenhe said, "I have cast guns in the United States, but they are all smoothbore guns. "

Bai Yu said: "Actually, what I worry about is not whether the cannon can be built, but the problem of ammunition. I agree with all the explanations about the benefits of breech-loading guns. But one thing seems to be unclear-the shells of breech-loading guns , This is much more difficult to manufacture than the breech-loading gun itself. It’s just that the solid armor-piercing projectile is okay. If it is a grenade or shrapnel, how should it be made? How to solve the problem of using metal extension technology to manufacture the pointed projectile body? And the fuze of the projectile, It's all a problem."

Jiang Ye said: "There is nothing wrong with the manufacture of the projectile body, and our equipment can make it."

"It's just that it can be manufactured, it doesn't mean it can be mass-produced. A bullet production line has more than 30 special equipment, and more shells are needed. The industrial capacity is obviously not enough for such a production line."

"That's right," Zhan Wuya admitted, "and the material may not pass the test." Regardless of whether the projectile body is cold-drawn or hot-drawn, it must have a special round bar material and special equipment for manufacturing.It's not that the industrial sector can't do it, but that it needs a whole set of industrial systems to support it, otherwise the cost will be unimaginably high.

"No, the old-fashioned pointed bullets are not so complicated," Lin Shenhe said, "The body of the early breech-loading artillery shells was cast iron, covered with lead, and used a simple impact fuze. The yao package is used as a propellant, without a cartridge, and there is no primer. When launching, it is also ignited with an igniter. Most of the shells produced before 1890 belong to this category. This kind of shells cannot be used in 92 infantry guns. They are used in No problems with Armstrong guns."

The reason why rifled gun shells need lead is to embed the shell body into the rifling. If cast iron or steel is too hard, it will seriously wear the rifling.So even modern shells have a steel body (smaller diameter than the inside diameter of the rifling) and a copper band (slightly larger diameter to fit into the rifling).

Wang Luobin said: "But there are some problems with the lead coating. I remember that when the Armstrong gun was decommissioned after being equipped for a short period of time, one of the reasons why the British Empire went back to the front-loading rifled gun was that when the Armstrong gun fired, due to the hot-plated lead and iron. The adhesion between them is not good, and the torn lead fragments will be scattered in the short distance in front of the muzzle and cause damage to your own soldiers."

"I don't think this is a particularly serious problem," Lin Shenhe said, "I think the people in the mechanical department can figure out a way to solve it."

"In addition, I personally think that smoothbore guns can also be made." Lin Shenhe said.

The smoothbore cannon has a simple process and does not require too much material. If steel is not enough, cast iron can be used directly. Early breech-loading rifled guns, such as the Armstrong gun, were found to be almost identical to smoothbore guns in casting.Except for Lin Shenhe, no one had any experience in casting cannons. It would be a good choice to practice with relatively simple smoothbore cannons and be familiar with the craft of cannon casting.

"I suggest that the commercial department include smoothbore guns in the list of export commodities. The Portuguese have now become Ming's arms dealers, and they cannot make money from it!"

Note: All the comments about casting rifled guns in the 17th century in this chapter are from SANJYSAN on the SB forum, and the description about Armstrong guns is provided by Wang Luobin himself

(End of this chapter)