"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 weapons enthusiasts led by the mechanical team leader Zhan Wuya gathered together. The atmosphere was extremely lively, and everyone was discussing enthusiastically which one to go on.
Plant artillery.
"Now, let me introduce the participants first." Zhan Wuya introduced everyone who participated in the meeting. Not to mention the main backbone of the mechanical team, such as Wang Luobin, Jiang Ye, Xiao Bailang, etc., there were also some
People who don't know much about mechanics but are weapons enthusiasts include Zhang Bolin who talks about "cannons, more cannons" and calls himself "artillery general" many times, Wang Ruixiang who likes to wield axes, and people who serve as
Li Yunxing, who has experience in mechanical crossbow structural design and on-site construction guidance, Bai Yu, who majors in weapons design and engineering design, and armored force command... and finally, 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 consider whether it is better to build a 12-pound mountain grenade or a 92-pound infantry gun. Let's discuss it from a practical perspective and manufacturing level." Zhan Wuya set the tone of the discussion.
Judging from the mechanical processing capabilities possessed by the time travellers, the processing level is higher than that of every civilization in the world. Now that steel has been refined, there is no big technical problem in manufacturing a simple steel rifled breech-loading cannon.
Of course, there is a bottleneck in the spring that is difficult to solve when extracting the cannon, but there is no problem in setting up the cannon.
Even the industrial level in the mid-19th century was enough to produce 15-inch cannons. Steel was not even needed. Many super-caliber coastal cannons were cast iron cannons. The time traveler did not have an armored cruiser to fight against, so there was no need to build such a perverted monster.
.
What are the needs of the time-travelers? According to the recommendations of the staff group, it is mainly to equip naval ships and forts with artillery.
"Of course it's a rifled breech-loaded gun! It has so many advantages." Li Yunxing was the first to speak.
According to ordinary people's thinking, the farther the range of artillery is, the better. This raises a problem. The range of modern artillery is getting farther and farther. It is built on the basis of modern sighting and fire control systems. The inconvenience of time travelers
It is impossible to achieve beyond the industrial level of the late 19th century. Even if it can be achieved with equipment brought from the time and space of the 21st century, it will be temporary.
The effective range of a 24-pound muzzleloader gun will not exceed 900 meters. When 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 instructions in the 18th and 19th centuries were clear.
The maximum shooting distance of the 24-pound long gun is 400 yards. Compared with the more 32-pound large-caliber short guns on battleships, its effective range is already large enough. In actual combat, the distance between warships of both sides is often 100 meters.
within.
The artillery of the 17th century will certainly not exceed this level. The purpose of the time traveler's naval breech-mounted rifled gun is not high power and long range, but focuses on rapid fire and weight reduction. Even if the range is increased due to the rifle, it should still 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 based on the fire control level of the traverser. The excessive range is completely useless.
A waste.
Since the range requirements are not high, the barrel of the artillery can be shortened to save its weight and manufacturing costs.
Another benefit of using a breech-loading rifled gun is that the rifled gun uses pointed bullets instead of round bullets. Not only is the pointed bullet flying in the air more stable than the round bullet, but its shape relationship-it is elongated.
, can be developed backwards, and the weight can be adjusted for the same caliber. For pointed bullets and round bullets of the same weight, the caliber of the former is only about 70% of the latter. As for the cross-section machine, it is only 49%. This means that,
If the muzzle velocity of the two is the same, then the impact kinetic energy of the pointed projectile is concentrated on half of the cross-sectional area, and the unit energy density is twice that of the round projectile. Considering the low resistance of the pointed cone projectile, for the same weight of the projectile, the pointed projectile
The armor-piercing power is more than three times that of round bullets.
This means that the effective range of a 12-pound pointed bullet (about 70mm in diameter) for a breech-loaded rifled gun will be much higher than that of a 12-pound round bullet using the same propellant and charge.
The power is equivalent to that of a 24-pound round bullet!
The 70mm breech-mounted rifled gun has a magnification of 16 to 18. It is a very small gun in the past and modern times. It weighs only about 400 to 500 kilograms and can be mounted on a 300-ton sailboat.
The device can also be installed on a 150-ton small boat. This means that this medium-sized sailing ship equipped with a 70mm rear-mounted gun is completely comparable to the first-class battleships of the British Navy during the heyday of sailing battleships.
Considering that its rate of fire is much greater than that of the 24-pound forward-loaded 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 and defeated by the Japanese.
In other words, in the early 17th century, it was enough to develop and produce such a small breech-loading cannon. It already had an overwhelming advantage against any naval pirates at that time.
"Then we can just imitate the 92 infantry gun?" After hearing the explanation of the benefits of the rifled breech-loading gun, someone said, "The 92 infantry gun has a 75mm caliber and a maximum range of 2800 meters, which is exactly in line with the performance mentioned above. And the 92
The weight of the gun is only 210 kilograms, which is smaller than the estimated 500 kilograms."
"The problem with the 92 Infantry Cannon is that the magnification is too small, only 6, which causes its muzzle velocity to be too small. As a naval gun, the straighter the ballistic trajectory is, the better. The 92 Infantry Cannon is very good for the army."
Wang Luobin suggested that this kind of naval gun can adopt the structure of an armstrong gun. It is a relatively mature and reliable breech-loaded gun with a relatively simple craftsmanship. Compared with the previous various breech-loaded guns and front-loaded rifled guns, its characteristics are
A threaded breech block and blocking device were introduced for the breech-loading gun. After removing the breech gun, the armstronggun is very similar to a muzzle-loading gun with the breech opened. The casting process of the barrel is also similar.
The disadvantage of armstrong is that it adopts an early type of locking design, which has a very complex structure, low stability, and high failure rate. Of course, traversers will not blindly imitate it. They can use threaded gun bolts, and the technical level is not too high. Basically, it can be done
It should be done as soon as the screws are taken out.
"To put it simply," Xiao Bailang poured a basin of cold water on it, "Who knows how to make a cannon? I think everyone has only read a few books, right? Needless to say, the 92 infantry cannon is all ready-made and seamless.
If the pipe is made well, where can I find such a thick seamless pipe now?”
"Of course the main focus is on casting cannons. After all, there are no large-scale forging machines. If you want to use deep drilling, you have to make special equipment." Lin Shenhe said, "I have cast cannons in the United States, but they were all smoothbore cannons.
"
Bai Yu said: "Actually, what I'm worried about is not whether the cannon can be built, but the issue of ammunition. I agree with all the previous explanations of the benefits of the breech-loading cannon. But one thing seems not to be made clear - the shells of the breech-loading cannon.
, this is much more difficult to make than the breech-loading gun itself. It’s just a solid armor-piercing projectile. If it is a grenade, how to make a shrapnel shell? How to solve the problem of using metal extension process to manufacture the pointed shell body? There is also the fuse of the shell.
They are all problems.”
Jiang Ye said: "There is no problem in manufacturing the artillery shell body. Our equipment can make it."
"It's just that it can be made, but it doesn't mean it can be manufactured in batches. A bullet production line has more than 30 special equipment, and artillery shells require more. The industrial capacity obviously cannot support such a production line."
"That's right," Zhan Wuya admitted, "and the materials may not necessarily pass the test." Whether the projectile is cold-drawn or hot-drawn, it requires special round bar material and special manufacturing equipment. This is not to say that the industry
The department cannot do it, but it requires 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 early breech-loaded projectiles were made of cast iron, coated with lead on the outside, and used a simple impact fuse. The bullets were filled with black powder and were packed with black powder.
As a propellant, it does not have a cartridge or a primer. It is also ignited with an igniter when it is fired. Most of the artillery shells produced before 1890 belong to this category. This kind of artillery shell cannot be used in the 92 infantry gun and is used in the armstrong gun.
No problem at all.”
The reason why rifled artillery shells need to be coated with lead is to embed the shell into the rifling. Cast iron or steel that is too hard will seriously wear the rifling. Therefore, even modern artillery shells are made of steel body (the diameter is smaller than the inner diameter of the rifling) and copper shells.
Belt (slightly larger diameter, can be embedded in rifling).
Wang Luobin said: "But there are some problems with lead coating. I remember that the armstrong gun was decommissioned after a short period of equipment. One of the reasons why the British Empire went back to the route of front-loaded rifled guns was that when the armstrong gun fired, due to the hot-dip lead and iron
The adhesion between them is not good, and the torn off lead fragments will be scattered at a short distance in front of the muzzle, causing damage to our own soldiers."
"I don't think this is a particularly serious problem," Lin Shenhe said. "I think people in the mechanical department can come up with ways to solve it."
"In addition, I personally think that smoothbore cannons can also be made." Lin Shenhe said.
The smoothbore cannon has a simple process and does not require much material. If the steel is not enough, cast iron can be used directly. The casting process of early breech-loading rifled cannons such as armstrong cannons and smoothbore cannons are almost the same. Who else except Lin Shenhe
None of them have experience in cannon casting. It is a good choice to practice with a relatively simple smoothbore cannon and become familiar with the cannon casting process.
"I suggest that the commercial department include smoothbore cannons in the export catalog. The Portuguese have now become the arms dealers of the Ming Dynasty, and they cannot let them earn this money!"