Technology

Draken wrote:Only issue with Gatling could be alloy for barrels. Gatling need high melting point alloy.

I don't know of any such difficulty with the original Gatling Guns. I should think revolvers would need high-temp barrels more than Gatling style rotating cannon -- one of the reasons for multiple barrels is so that no one barrel overheats.

Weird Harold wrote:

Draken wrote:Only issue with Gatling could be alloy for barrels. Gatling need high melting point alloy.

I don't know of any such difficulty with the original Gatling Guns. I should think revolvers would need high-temp barrels more than Gatling style rotating cannon -- one of the reasons for multiple barrels is so that no one barrel overheats.

A virtual ale to WH.
The rotation of barrels allowed sufficient time for cooling.
It was with the modern electric gatling that an additional cooling system was designed. Richard Jordan Gatling intended this device to reduced the amount of dead soldiers by reducing the amount of combatants needed. The gun was based on Gatling’s seed planter. His inventions: a screw propeller and a wheat drill (a planting device) in 1839, a hemp break machine in 1850, a steam plow (steam tractor) in 1857, the Gatling gun in 1861, a marine steam ram in 1862, and a motor-driven plow (diesel tractor) (patent 1900).

TN4994 wrote:A virtual ale to WH.
The rotation of barrels allowed sufficient time for cooling.
It was with the modern electric gatling that an additional cooling system was designed.

Actually, Draken deserves a virtual ale also; modern Gatlings fire so much faster than the original that even with additional cooling they can get white hot with extended firing. Charis is unlikely to need such high firing rates in the near future. One Round Per Second is still going to be orders of magnitude faster than NoG cannon can fire.

Weird Harold wrote:

TN4994 wrote:A virtual ale to WH.
The rotation of barrels allowed sufficient time for cooling.
It was with the modern electric gatling that an additional cooling system was designed.

Actually, Draken deserves a virtual ale also; modern Gatlings fire so much faster than the original that even with additional cooling they can get white hot with extended firing. Charis is unlikely to need such high firing rates in the near future. One Round Per Second is still going to be orders of magnitude faster than NoG cannon can fire.

Name like Draken, he gets a virtual mug of grog.

Weird Harold wrote:

TN4994 wrote:A virtual ale to WH.
The rotation of barrels allowed sufficient time for cooling.
It was with the modern electric gatling that an additional cooling system was designed.

Actually, Draken deserves a virtual ale also; modern Gatlings fire so much faster than the original that even with additional cooling they can get white hot with extended firing. Charis is unlikely to need such high firing rates in the near future. One Round Per Second is still going to be orders of magnitude faster than NoG cannon can fire.

Except you are not firing a cannon, you are firing a repeating rifle. With gilded metal (copper jacketed) projectiles (to prevent lead fouling) you should be able to get above 20 rounds per second (1200 rounds per minute) without any heating problems. (With lead projectiles 6 rounds per second would be problematic as the temperature of the barrel will approach the softening temperature of the lead quite rapidly).
The upper limit would be more likely an issue of the black powder cartridges cooking off prematurely when loaded rather than the steel barrel suffering damage. We already have textev of the Charisian barrel steels being tougher than the metal working files of the CoGA foundries.

AirTech wrote:Except you are not firing a cannon, you are firing a repeating rifle.

Don't have to be; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotchkiss_gun

which describes the Hotchkiss 5 barrel 3pdr (~47mm) rotary cannon. Not the same mechanism as a gatling but no reason to suppose the gatling mechanism wouldn't work with that kind of cartridge.

I'm sure Charis could build something like that.

They might prefer, given nitrocellulose propellants, to go with something more like the QF 6 pounder 10 cwt gun; 18 rounds per minute. Not going to be walking a stream of tracer on to the target, but light enough (half a ton) to provide additional close-in firepower to ironclads.

(The prospect of a five-barrelled six pounder gatling, with direct steam drive and open-loop water cooling and a very sturdy pintle mount and some sort of pneumatic or hydraulic slewing assistance, is, alas, merely a source of amusing mental scenes. It'd do a great job of convincing the opposition that they were fighting demons, which would alas! substitute the tactical for the strategic.)

AirTech wrote:Except you are not firing a cannon, you are firing a repeating rifle. With gilded metal (copper jacketed) projectiles (to prevent lead fouling) you should be able to get above 20 rounds per second (1200 rounds per minute) without any heating problems. (With lead projectiles 6 rounds per second would be problematic as the temperature of the barrel will approach the softening temperature of the lead quite rapidly).

The point here is that even at the very slow rate (for a rotating cannon) of 1RPS such a weapon would outgun a NoG cannon 10:1 or better. And even with black powder propellant and unclad lead projectiles, 1RPS is very slow, at a more realistic 10RPS it would outgun a NoG cannon 100:1.

100:1 advantage seems to me to be ample justification for developing a Naval Rotary Cannon -- similar to the Gatling or Hotchkiss -- even if the result would be too big and cumbersome for land forces on the attack.

I think we are more likely to see a Gatling gun before we see a Gatling cannon - the need against the Harchong army would appear to be much higher.

fallsfromtrees wrote:I think we are more likely to see a Gatling gun before we see a Gatling cannon - the need against the Harchong army would appear to be much higher.

If it was up to me... I'd standardize on the 3pdr Hotchkiss mechanism; it's rugged and simple and allows for single shots. The naval version gets longer barrels and longer cases and pneumatic drive and a variety of ammo; since even the hand-cranked version could get up to 80 rpm, it should be possible to get something like 120 or 150 out of the air drive. A nice mix of HE, incendiary, and AP ought to discourage any small craft out to a couple thousand yards.

The Army version is hand cranked, drop fed, short-barrelled, fires short-cased ammo, and is basically a grenade launcher. It goes on a light field gun carriage, it has a gun shield, and needs to be dug in for a lot of applications (anything defensive!) but it gets some direct-fire fire support right forward where it can suppress mass wave assaults in a way that substitutes troops for ammo. Since Charis finds it much easier to have ammo than troops, this is a good trade.

fallsfromtrees wrote:I think we are more likely to see a Gatling gun before we see a Gatling cannon - the need against the Harchong army would appear to be much higher.

Why would the Charisian Navy be used against the Harchong Army? A Gatling, of Civil War Vintage, is a cumbersome piece of crew-served field artillery, or a naval close in, anti-small craft/boarders weapon.

It's suitable for the Navy or for fixed defenses, but not what the Army needs; the Army needs something like a BAR, or AK-47 (in battle rifle caliber) -- which are automatic weapons that are also within Charis' tech capability.