Winans Steam Gun

[Barrycdog]

Southern Confederacy, May 14, 1861 -- page 3

Engraving captioned "The Winans Steam-Gun, recently captured near the Relay House, by Major-General Butler's Command.--From a sketch by our special artist.--See page 2."

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper - 1861-05-18 - p1 - Winans Steam Gun
Expired Image Removed

Resembles a tank doesn't it.

 

[Patrick H]

Okay... how does it work?

 

[Barrycdog]

According to hysterical reports in the popular press of the time, the steam gun could fire 300 shots a minute and was deadly and accurate at ranges up to and beyond a mile. Within months, however, the scientific press panned the gun and, although the patent owner apparently tried to sell it to various state and national governments, North and South, it slipped away in the receding tide of history.

http://www.civilwarnews.com/reviews/2012br/jan/engine-lamb-bw010412.html

 

[Barrycdog]

The steam power used to actuate the gun did not directly propel the projectile but caused the barrel to spin. The rotating barrel loaded from a gravity-fed magazine, stopped momentarily to fire the round, and rapidly returned to be reloaded.

To be entirely accurate, the gun was, as Lamb notes, a "centrifugal gun" as it used centrifugal force to fire its projectiles, which could vary in diameter and weight according to the barrel diameter used.

The gun's distinctive futuristic-looking conical shield, with a slot for the barrel to fire through, was intended to protect the crew from enemy fire.

 

[Patrick H]

Centrifugal force? Somewhat like throwing a clay target on a skeet shooting course?

 

[ErnieMac]

Winans was not the inventor of the gun, that honor belonged to William Joslin and Charles S. Dickinson of Ohio, nor was he involved with Dickinson's attempt to transport the gun to Harper's Ferry for sale to the Confederacy. The gun had been seized from Dickinson in the aftermath of the Pratt Street Riot and taken to a shop owned by Winans to have it prepared for use against Federal troops if they attempted to pass through the city. Winans name became associated with the gun at this time. As a result of his involvement with the gun and his strong states' rights stance as a member of the Maryland Legislature, Winans was arrested on orders of General Benjamin Butler and incarcerated in Fort McHenry for two days before being released on orders of President Lincoln.

 

[Barrycdog]

The image above is a period engraving of the barrel assembly of the Steam Gun. Steel shot, approximately the sixe of a 2 ounce ball bearing were fed into a chute that dropped them into the vertical tube (B) in the illustration above. They rolled down into the barrel and were stopped by the spring loaded gate lettered I above. As the barrel assembly rotated horizontally, the gate would remain closed until the barrel had revolved to the firing position. At that point the rod lettered D would rise momentarily, pushing up on the gate assembly allowing a shot to pass out. This barrel assembly was located in the tub shaped struture in the image at the top of this page. An operator {in the image at the top of the page }dropping shot into the chute leading to the barrel. The tub shaped assembly was a shield to protect the operator from the machinery of the gun. A slit in the shield lined up with the slit in armored, snow-plow shaped cover that gave the gun its fearsome appearance. Unfortunately, the details of the drive train of the gun were not detailed in period sources because they were not considered to be unique!

http://www.2ndmdinfantryus.org/winans.html

 

[ErnieMac]

http://www.2ndmdinfantryus.org/winans.html

The Mythbusters episode mentioned in the link (Episode 93, December 5, 2007) demonstrated that a replica of the gun could successfully fire 5 rounds a second to a distance of 700 yards, but the rounds were not effective beyond point blank range. Even with improvements I can't see it being effective in the field, trying to fire up the boilers under attack or operating in close proximity to your own troops seems problematic. Defending a fortified position could have been a different story.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBu...sode_93_.E2.80.93_.22Confederate_Steam_Gun.22

 

[rebelatsea]

In the desperate months following the fall of France, all sorts of wierd and wonderful weapons were invented and tried, including one which was a relation of the steam gun. It was intended to fire mills bombs ( hand grenades), propelld by high pressure steam, from tubes pointing vertically, the intention being that the thing would explode at or near a strafing aircraft. Trial mountings in armed trawlers and small warships in the channel only proved how good the crew were at soccer, if the chief engineer was miserly with his steam, whereupon the grenade plopped out of the tube and rolled about on deck, panicked attempts being made to kick it overboard before it went off.