File:Triumphs and wonders of the 19th century, the true mirror of a phenomenal era, a volume of original, entertaining and instructive historic and descriptive writings, showing the many and marvellous (14780352691).jpg

Identifier: triumphswonderso01boyd (find matches)
Title: Triumphs and wonders of the 19th century, the true mirror of a phenomenal era, a volume of original, entertaining and instructive historic and descriptive writings, showing the many and marvellous achievements which distinguish an hundred years of material, intellectual, social and moral progress ..
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: Boyd, James Penny, 1836-1910
Subjects: Progress Inventions
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa., A. J. Holman & Co
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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nd lived, not only to win the day, but tobring undying glory to the English flag. What a contrast the latest sea-fightof the century presents in the power of modern ordnance as compared withthe puny guns of Nelsons time ! Our battleship Oregon, at a range of nearlyfive miles, with one 1100-pound shell, drove the Colon, an armored cruiser, notonly shoreward, but to surrender, stranding, and wreck. The largest naval guns in the year 1800 were the long 32 and 42-pounders,smooth-bore muzzle-loaders, with a range of about 1200 yards. Carronades— short pieces with a heavy shot but limited range — found favor also,especially with British sailors, eager for that close-quarter fighting in whichthe Smasher—as General Melville called his carronade — would be mosteffective in shattering timbers and in sending clouds of splinters among thefoe. The projectiles were spherical shot, canister, and grape, the diabolicalshriek of the shell being yet unheard. Both gun and shot were of cast metal,
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72 TRIUMPHS AND WONDERS OF THE XIX™ CENTURY and the mount was a wooden carriage on low trucks. The training, or hori-zontal angle of the gun, was effected by rope tackles, and the amount of ele-vation of its muzzle depended upon the position of a quoin, or woodenwedge, thrust beneath the breech. The recoil was limited by rope breech-ing, passing through the eascabel, — a knob behind the breech, — and securedto ring-bolts in the ships side. The gun was harnessed, as a horse is, in theshafts. Aiming was largely a perfunctory process, since the gun had no sights andthe shot had excessive windage, its calibre being from one fifth to one thirdinch less than the bore, making its outward passage a series of rebounds andits final direction a matter of chance. Windage, however, was essential tofacilitate muzzle-loading and to provide for the expanded diameter of red-hotshot. It is true that in 1801 a proposition to use sights was made to LordKelson. He, however, rejected it with the word

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