How to Build a Battleships Main Guns - Is a Bigger Battery Better?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 23 кві 2024
- Claim your 30-day free trial for MagellanTV here: sponsr.is/magellantv_drachinifel
Hear the voices of those who were actually there in 'Remembering Pearl Harbor', 'The Last Voices of WW1' and many others.
Today we take a look at some of the basics on how a battleship gun in constructed and what variations you might see in so doing.
Sources:
www.amazon.co.uk/Naval-Ordnan...
Text Book of Gunnery - 1902 - Ordnance Office
Popular Science Monthly - Volume 91
Brasseys Naval Annual - Various
Naval History books, use code 'DRACH' for 25% off - www.usni.org/press/books?f%5B...
Free naval photos and channel posters - www.drachinifel.co.uk
Want to support the channel? - / drachinifel
Want to talk about ships? / discord
'Legionnaire' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au
Claim your 30-day free trial for MagellanTV here: sponsr.is/magellantv_drachinifel
Hear the voices of those who were actually there in 'Remembering Pearl Harbor', 'The Last Voices of WW1' and many others.
Also - Pinned post for Q&A :)
Its always nice to see the construction techniques of guns through history. What was the largest gun planned for ship use that was planned but not necessarily built or used?
What are some never built ship designs that you think had the most potential to be good designs? I understand this may be difficult to answer since you can only hypothesize so much, but I was curious if this was something you've ever put some deep thought into.
I believe I asked this already, however, I don't believe it has been answered yet. What was , in your opinion, the first modern naval gun? Also, could we possibly get a Wednesday special about it's development and influence? Thanks Drach
Is there any truth to the idea Nimitz criticized the Japanese for not attacking the PH fuel storage facilities, and if true, why did he not realize that naval bunker oil isn’t that flammable or that the fuel was stored in reinforced concrete tanks, making the fuel storage far harder for the Japanese to damage with available munitions than the “missed opportunity” narrative claims?
Hi Drach. I don't know if my armchair general stance makes sense but here it goes: I find it confusing that land based and ship based artillery isn't shared. I know that the germans had 9.4 inch railway guns that were taken from their pre dreadnoughts. Would it be feasable to mount 155 mm NATO guns into a ship to make the modern version of a treaty era light cruiser?
For the second voyage of HMS Beagle, famous for its influence on geologist Charles Darwin ideas, captain FitzRoy equipped the ship with brass guns at his own expense so they wouldn't interfere with magnetic instruments. His purchase of brass guns from Rio de Janeiro in 1832 shows that they were still relatively popular even at that date.
Brass, not bronze?
Brass is cheaper and less malleable than bronze due to the high zinc content, the malleability is what made bronze so forgiving and the choice for quality artillery.
You beat me to the fact!
@@gasperpoklukar8372 well, it is not clear. Those two words were used interchangeably for quite some time, even after they became oficially what we know today. Expressions like "red brass" or "white bronze" were common, meaning modern bronze and arsenic bronze, respectivelly
Only after 1900 we can say for sure, if they say brass is made of copper and zinc. Bronze in the other hand is still meaning every tipe of bronze, be it alloyed with tin, lead or arsenic.
After lead and arsenic became oficially banned from household utensils and building materials (70's, I believe) it became mandatory to describe what was in the bronze, if was not tin.
That is why we should never eat or drink from antique bronze utensils; you could be ingesting lead.
One can think about how many thousands of guns, stemming from some centuries of European warfare, eventually wound up in South America. Historically the Iberian powers dumped everything in excess/obsolete there. That's how Portuguese pieces from the XV century were still guarding minor coastal fortifications into the late 1800s. Or how a Spanish piece from 1640 was captured amongst the Paraguayan guns in the siege of Uruguaiana (1865)
Now I know everything I need to build my own naval guns. I'm off to the shed!
There is a guy on UA-cam that fast his own cannon, however yt? Gave him strikes because he was building fyre arms
Have you considered hoe a shed would re-enter the atmosphere?
Is your name Geoff, or Derek?
@@dougjb7848 nope.
@@ndenise3460YT is the worst.
As an engineer, I must compliment you on taking a very complex subject and presenting it simply enough that my wife actually listened. A very thorough and comprehensive look at a critical aspect of naval warfare.
Dear Drach, would you please do a video on the electrical systems of war ships in general and their history?
::featuring special guest: USS South Dakota.::
I love this video concept. It's a highly understudied part of naval history.
This would definitely be an interesting watch.
Absolutely this.
The electrical engineer in me would adore something like this
Drach, whenever you ask the question "should I do a video on the finer points of........", I can 100% guarante the answer is always yes, YES, A THOUSAND TIMES YES! Congratulations on you new arrival and great video as always.
Lol, I was about to make a very similar post.
"Should I do a video on th-" YES PLZ
Yes. Just yes.
Don't bother to ask, Drach. Just do. 🙂 Thank you!
Yes! Please do. 👍
I like big guns I can not lie. You other sailors can't deny. When a ship sails by with itty bitty guns its not a threat. You wanna be rough you pull up in a tough. Cuz they notice when the barrels are thicc!
We gonna need a bigger gun
I knight thee Son of Sir Mix-a-Lot O.G. hahahahha good one!
My rangefinder don't want none unless you got gun hon!
Well..this comment made my day 😂👍 thank you.😎🍸
Feed the guns, tuppence a day. Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a day.
For those who haven't worked with cast iron before, to say it "explodes" when it fails would be a bit of an understatement. Cast iron is so extremely brittle that it doesn't bend at all, it fragments into very small pieces and chunks. A gun of that size would be like a bomb going off if it ever failed - and it would do so without warning. An extremely painful and gruesome death is about the only result for anyone near it. It makes sense that even though brass in such large quantities would be exceptionally expensive, they would be willing to use it.
My only experience comes from what may be cast iron or cast steel, unsure as the term seems to be a bit interchangeable at a laymans level, but i have experienced the aftermath of an engine block dissasembling itself when at high rpm the bearing on the big end of the conrod decided to slip over the other half of it and then lock the conrod in place, causing the rod to break and smash through the side and bottom... Engine bay had dents and a few schrapnel holes, as did the oil sump. Amusingly, this one old toyota engine refused to straight up die from this, and still semi happily ran on the remaining 3 cylinders and minimal if any oil, well enough that i could drive it off the trailer, about 100mtrs to my shed and then into the shed for a replacement engine haha
@@Colt45hatchback My metallury is very rusty, excuse the pun, but isn't steel up to about 0.8% carbon. Cast Iron is 3 or 4% carbon. Melts at a lower temperature and flows very easily. Very strong in compression but useless in tension. OK in engine blocks but some crankshafts were also cast iron.
Great job, I am a Machinist and have been for decades... We still use some of these techniques to this day to produce very high pressure hydrologic and air cylinders for the military.
I tested this stuff and passivated and O2 cleaned, also did CNG hydrogen compression with Cryo, had time in forges, foundries, and presses as a pre and teen, had mechine shop in my auto and wood shop, this is Machanic PORN for me.
I love the "smell of a" machine shop, foundry, forg, or refinery? WD 40 is my aftershave smell of chioce.
the liners of the 16" 50's on the Iowas, actually unwind, getting slightly longer with every shot fired. They start out flush with the muzzle, but gradually they get longer as the rifling is slightly unwound from the inertia of spinning a 2700 pound shell.
good way to know when it's time to reline the barrel
I assume this is common for battleship guns. As I understand none of the main guns was relined after they was reactivated for the Korean war.
Granted they was doing shore bombardment so you used reduces charge unless range demanded it and the HE shells was lighter than the AP ones.
It was also titanium powder I think added to the gunpowder who drastically reduced barrel wear on large guns.
I remember watching a video from New Jersey about a giant gun circumciser
Wrong they are NOT “wound” so they cannot unwind. They twist and deform plastically.
@timkohchi2048 thanks for the unnecessary clarification
There is an amusing story about one of the M-class submarines having the muzzle of its 12-inch gun blown off during firing trails - the muzzle end remained attached to the rest of the gun by the wire winding, which unravelled as the muzzle part sank to the seabed, leaving the submarine anchored in place by its own gun.
"Sir, there's a problem with the anchors"
"Why do you use the plural, seaman?"
"That's the problem, sir now we've got two of them!"
This is Poseidon's idea of a combination exchange program and practical joke.
My Grandfather was an engineer and said he was involved in making the guns for Nelson and Rodney; said they used deep wells full of whale oil to cool the vertically-lowered heated steel barrels.
Fabulous
I think, think my grandad may have been involved making these. He worked on a very long lathe in a Sheffield steel works connected with making big guns.
Tom Scott (The Older One) from the Battleship Texas has a very detailed video on the process of building Texas' 14 inchers. He deep dives into every single hoop and ring used as well as the assembly order. Very interesting!
Thanks for mentioning Tom Scott. You beat me to it. 😊 His videos are great!
I never leave home without my Drachinifel
What do you do on days when he doesn't post?
@@sharkman2857 Cry.
You can see how expensive and specialised the gun making machinery was. So when a lot of it was scrapped after WW1, it was hard to reconstitute it in the run up to WW2, at least in Britain. For example, the 70 foot deep pits needed to assemble the guns and to cool them with oil (rape seed oil if I recall correctly) and the 70 foot long lathes and boring bars had to be recreated before any gun making could occur. Armour manufacture was similarly affected, which is why the belt armour for Duke of York was ordered from Czechoslovakia (and was got out by rail just before the Germans took over in Prague).
Why was so much gun making machinery scrapped in the interwar years? Was it because of the treaties and construction holiday?
@@nathanredder7325 Exactly. After the 1922 Washington treaty, there were (except for Rodney and Nelson) to be no new battleships built world-wide, and therefore no new big gun orders for at least 10 years. With the possibility of further disarmament after that. The principal big gun makers Vickers and Armstrongs shared Rodney and Nelson’s guns between them. These firms later merged, but even between them could not afford to have factories, workers and plant sitting idle for 10 years or more. They preserved some capacity but, for example, many of the deep pits used to temper, cool and assemble the big naval rifles were filled in and the premises repurposed. See ‘The Battleship Builders’ by Johnston & Buxton. Seaforth Publishing, 2013 - ISBN 978-1-59114-027-6, a most informative book.
As someone with a background in engineering and physics, this has been one of my favorite videos you have released. Thank you for doing more in depth peices like this.
Q&A. How did the manufacturers of wire wound guns anchor the ends of the wire??
I wonder if it's almost like a spring where the first winding is essentially a band
Weld the end into place as an anchor
The last time I was this early, HMS Captain was still afloat
The last time I was this early, guns were being cast in bronze
The last time I was this early, guns still fired stone balls.
Last time I was this early rome had a large navy
You've just kept me fascinated for a whole 39 minutes, on a subject I had zero expectations about. Superb material. Cheers.
31:54 we totally need a picture of said slinky 🙂.
that *is* a picture of said slinky
Brilliant.
Bravo.
My favorite type of video is when you focus on a particular technology and it's evolution.
31:52 "the world's biggest and messiest slinky"
And yes....please go into the finer details. Annealing, Quenching.
Any video you make is good for me! It’s interesting… and hear me out, I’m 58. I’m probably at least a couple of decades older than you, and although I’ve been something of a WW2 historian since I was around six years old, I have learned so much through your channel. For instance, until I became a “fan,” I never really understood the practicalities and/or conventions of warship guns. I never considered the tonnage or spatial budget necessary to construct a battleship or battle cruiser, so I often wistfully thought, “I wish the US would’ve made 18 inch guns.” It hadn’t occurred to me that that the weight of these and their barbettes were impractical for a ship that a) had to transit the Panama Canal, and b) needed the requisite speed to keep up with the fast carriers.
By now, I think I like the 15 inch guns ships like Valiant had as much as the 16” 50 cal. guns of the Iowas, knowing that while not having the range of Yamato’s guns, either could certainly put holes in her just the same. Only now do I get the balancing budget of propulsion vs. armor. vs. armament.
*you might appreciate this: several years ago I bought a cabin cruiser and fully intended to name her “Warspite.” Unfortunately, my girlfriend at the time hated that idea, and so I had to settle for “Rhiannon” (yes, like the Fleetwood Mac song). A decade on and she is gone as well as the boat, but I remain undaunted. If I ever get another boat, not only will she be awarded the name of the great battleship, I intend to fly the white ensign from her mast.
If I ever purchase a screw steamer and refurbish her, rest assured that the Kaiser's naval jack will be fluttering proudly from the stern. If we pass each other by, I will make sure to get on the radio and say, "There appears to be nothing wrong with your bloody ship today!"
I don’t think you can legally fly the White Ensign on any ship that isn’t a King’s Ship. It is reserved in Admiralty Law for the Royal Navy. By all means name her Warspite, though.
@@genreynolds6685 I was gonna ask if that was legal. Something told me the Royal Navy had some rule or other about that.
@@mhmt1453they do tend to be rather firm about it. You should manage a red ensign however if that was acceptable.
What a great video! As a former tank gunnery instructor, I found this utterly fascinating, many thanks!
The size and sheer numbers of Naval Guns pumped out during the American Civil War is pretty amazing. As far as non Naval guns a machinist friend of mine built in his shop a 12lb Whitworth. That thing is super cool and super accurate.
'America' is two continents, not one country. Do you mean U .S.? U.S. has never had a Civil War. Do you mean the war between U.S. and C.S.A.?
@davidharner5865 thou art overthinking this, and if there was nay a "American Civil War", explain why that name comes up for thine conflict....
@@Shinzon23 he's either a Troll or being willfully stupid
You are aware that many people believe incorrectly that they live in a Capitalist Democracy named America, correct? I Am NOT overthinking, words have meanings.@Shinzon23
@@Shinzon23postscript: you would make a better impression if you were to text in grammatical English!
Never thought that all the stuff i had to learn as a technical designer would help me in understanding gun construction.
There is a documentary about the Annapolis navy yard and the gun factory. The gun's on the Iowa class were the biggest they could make. To go bigger they would have to build a whole new gun works it is impressive to see .
“Bigger is always better” That’s why I use a 120mm CIWS battery to defend my aircraft carriers from incoming hypersonic threats.
Edit:
I spelled CIWS wrong :(
Ahh yes a Close Weapon In System :p
@@Hirosjimmawell to be fair, if the weapon is in your system then it's probably pretty close by
I'm all here for a metallurgy video!
At 23.30 you mention excess gun barrels would often be ordered for possible future use, these being kept in stock ashore. Back in the very early eighties, before it closed, I did some wok in the Woolwich Arsenal MOD site. I was told they still had several very large naval gun barrels stored away in one the numerous wharehouses. Thse would never have been used as the type of ship they would have been fitted to had long since gone. I should imagine that no one in authourity was bothered to organise the neccessary paperwork and allocate the funds to dispose of them, so they just lay there gathering dust until the site was eventually cleared a few years later.
Hopefully these ended up in the museums in Portsmouth. Thanks for the story.
Tensile stress causes barrels to crack. Adding residual compressive stress will cancel those tensile stress. The reason for press fitting sleeves over the barrel was to add compressive stress at the barrel bore.
Yes I watched the video too
I read an article several years ago going into great detail on how U.S. Navy guns were made, which mentioned an alternative to creating the inward pressure called "auto-frettage. From Wikipedia:
"...a bored monoblock tube is filled with hydraulic fluid at pressures higher than the finished gun will experience during firing. Upon release of hydraulic pressure, the internal diameter of the monoblock tube will have been increased by approximately 6%. The outer portion of the finished monoblock rebounds to approximately its original diameter and exerts compressive forces on the inner portion similar to the separate cylinders of a built-up gun."
It also mentioned that sometimes grit was added between the tubes of a built-up gun to give them more of a grip on each other when they were being shrunk together.
The shrinking process for assembling built-up gun was particularly interesting: a hole was dug in the ground deep enough for the gun, the tubes were lowered into it standing up, first the inside one, then the next one (still hot) over it. Then a hollow ring suspended on wires with spray jets on the inside and oil hoses attached to it was used to spray oil over the outside tube from bottom to top, so that the breach ends of the tubes would shrink together first and so on up the gun to the muzzle ends. For a 16 inch 50 caliber battleship gun the hole would have to have been about 70 feet deep - the height of a 7 story building!
I believe I read the article on the NavWeaps site, but unfortunately I wasn't able to find it again to post a link to it here.
Also, cast cannons had a method to increase residual compressive stress at the bore surface, they did this by circulating water in the bore so that solidified first. This progressive solidification outward helped reduce tensile stress at the bore.
That you've managed to get 34 upvotes by quoting the content almost verbatim is bewildering...
@@andersjjensenpeople are inpatient
Watervliet Arsenal (July 14, 1813 - Present) is the place where "The Big Gun Shop," for manufacturing missions. This gun shop once produced 16-inch guns and many other weapons for the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. were forged in a huge vertical forge. They still make the nations cannon barrels for such as the US Army's M-109/M777 howitzers.
Drach,
Having worked in foundry with ductile and gray iron, I appreciate your talent in making a difficult subject made easy. Very well done.
One of your best videos… I had a number of questions over the years about how these large devices were manufactured, and you gave a complete history of the development of big guns. Very nicely done.
I would definitly love a video that goes more in depth on battleships armour design and what kind of advantages and disadvantages certain armour designs offered. Would be interesting to see some experimental armour scemes be covered as well if there are any.
I've been hoping on more engineering video's ever since the naval boilers video, and I've really enjoyed the armor one too.
So yeah, please do a deep dive, those are my favourites on this channel!
I am just starting this vid but I can already tell it's going to be a blast!
My father worked in a Philadelphia defense plant from about 1943-‘45. He machined 16 inch 50 caliber gun barrels at Midvale Steel. I should say my dad’s job involved machining the outer surface of the and rough boring of the inner diameter in preparation for fitting of the rifled sleeve. He said that other than mounting of the rough forging and initial machining for the (Huge!) steady rest, the work was fairly routine and not very taxing. Unless - the engineers had fiddled with the metallurgy again. Then he would get very busy with a lot of help from the engineers trying out different cutting tools, feeds and speeds.
My twin brother & I were only a couple years old, and what I remember the most was when he came home from the graveyard shift, he always had a package of Campfire Marshmallows in his shirt pocket. We’d hug & kiss him, then grab the marshmallows, take them back to our room and eat them in bed. We were really bummed out when he left that job toward the end of WWII.
I installed a micro film machine at the old Midvale Philly.plant back in 1973. They closed in 1976. My dad worked for the Frankford Arsenal before WW2. think they made most of the small rounds used in WW2. PHILLY was a large military supplier. phila, naval yard, Camden ship & Hog Island ship, Frankford Arsenal, Midvale steel and the two.large Budd company all toll probably employed close to 75,000:workers during WW2. unfortunately all closed up.
The battle for Dybbøl Banke in 1864 (although except for Rolf Krake‘s tries to change the outcome exclusively a land battle) showed the differences between classic muzzle loading guns and rifled breeches loading guns. Suddenly the range of the muzzle loaders wasn’t enough and the rifled guns fired over a body of water, previously thought to be to wide to shot over it.
Shipmate, I really like when you come over to America. I had gone to "A" School in Virginia Beach and there were a couple of chaps from the Royal Navy. Those guys were awesome! The way they carried themselves was impressive. We actually learned from them as well as the school Instructor. So, I will always have a fondness for anything from Britain and the Royal Navy in particular.
Well, this was an incredibly enlightening video. Thank you!
I would really love to see a video on how the overall loading process of big guns evolved after breechloading started to happen. Few details were available in this video already but only for the last 5mins. Want more! Metallurgy videos also will never fail to catch my attention
"Should I do a video on the finer points of: (fill in the blank)" Please do and the sooner the better. Congrats on the new arrival. Bravo Zulu!
Bigger guns are always better. It's how I win every argument with my boss at work. My arms are bigger, so I win. Doesn't matter that she is 57 years old.😂😂😂
😂😂😂😂😂😂
Equal rights and lefts!
Checks out
No ,it doesn't @@MrGoesBoom
@@snigie1For most people, the left is smaller than the right.
Build better gums with Drac Brand Toothpaste
I'm sorry, that wasn't toothpaste sir, as Drach only offers a line of "severe hemorrhoid ceam" and "Donkey Dong Anal Lube"
Build better Gnus with Drac brand Ungulate breeding program.
As a rule, I never trust British toothpaste...
@@johnserrano9689a
Thank you. I had zero idea how these guns were actually built and assembled prior to this video.
I know it's outside your wheelhouse Drach, but it would be incredible if you could make some content on the history of machine tools, you are uniquely qualified for it!
All machine tools start with the lathe. Not the metal working lathes we know today but more akin to a woodturners lathe. Clickspring has a video on just what the first precision lathe may have been like. I would love to see a video on just how the multiple step and possibly multiple lead interrupted threads of the naval rifles like the 16"50 on the Iowa's for example where cut.
There is a factory near my home in Pocatello, Idaho that used to make battleship guns. It was recently bought and renovated for another business.
I know the Pocatello naval gun factory relined naval battleship rifles. Then tested them. Did they forge them in Pocatello?
Well, this is extremely useful for my life's goal to re build the hms hood.
34:01 I was going to go to bed but now I need to get the slide rule out and determine the relative properties of traditional vs wire wound guns. Thanks for the homework Drach!
It's worth visiting a museum ship to appreciate how big those gun barrels are.
Much as I'd love for Drach to suffer through the agony that is solid state metallurgy (as a Chemist I have strong feelings in this regard and I still hold one of my professors advice: "Stay away from the witchcraft that is metallurgy - there are no rules, no sense and no joy to be found")
But I'd really love to see a video talking about the History of autoloading naval guns, cause if imagine that some pretty weird ideas floated around there
Drach, you could give a dissertation on the chemical process of drying paint, and I would watch it! Love your descriptions and detail, keep it up. ❤
Fascinating stuffas always! When heating steel for an interference 'press fit', the general rule is it contracts .001" for every 1" of thickness when cooling. Which means these huge sleeve fits need to be machined to *extremely* precise tolerances.
Thank you so much for this one Mr. Drach. I've been hoping for you to do this topic for a long time, particularly including info. on the re-lining of guns. Your skills as a teacher and presenter are second to none.
Even for us old hands in naval gunnery, an exceptionally useful tutorial, Drach. Thank you.
I would like to hear about the forging process in more detail! I love it when you go into metallurgy stuff, since that's so far outside my experience that it's all new to me.
I've listened to you talk for so many hours, and I could listen for so many more.
Excellent, well-detailed explanation of the overall process. I have seen many era-specific films of the manufacturing process, but they tend to focus on the pressing and hammering portions of the process. I have seen operational footage which demonstrates the different breach lock aproaches, and it is easy to see the difficulties of using sliding locks with large guns in them. I was aware of the sleaving process, but I thank you for providing insight into the winding process, of which, I was not aware.
Yes, on the armor / steel vid.
As for this one - great stuff. The illustrations with all the nomenclature for the various bits and pieces were super helpful. Reading those terms without a visual - screw box liner, locking ring, etc, made it hard for me at least to visualize where, exactly, those were. Now I know. Thx.
Forging is amazing. Went to a supplier who forged billets. Final product was about 4 feet by 3 feet but they had to start with a much larger casting. The final billet was about 1/3 the size of the original by volume. I couldn't believe how much reduction occured. Basically forging removes most of the voids and dislocations.
happy to listen while i snooze to Drachnifel as i trust your narrative and sometimes it is a priceless tutorial about my special interest with full attention. Subscribed and those gun barrels: never knew some composite ones were supported by miles of wire: there's the picture evidence. Many thanks Sir!
Thank you so much for this detailed yet digestible explanation of both methods of making 19th-20 century large naval guns.
My good Drachinifel, would you please consider that in-depth look at how Battleship guns are made?
Also, per the below, electrical systems, maybe another video for propulsion and steam (coal era), along with armor, although detailed armor may have been done? If not, your previous video on armor is apparently equivalent to this one!
Nothing is better with my morning coffee than finding a NEW Drach vid on my computer!
I nominate this as Drach's most interesting video yet -- AWESOME!
Drach, thank you for this video! A great explanation. I’d love to see more about the evolution of mountings.
@21:39 GTMO's 'Ole Droopy' was caused by USS Monongahela burning to the water line. Not from internal heat/forces.
I've been hoping for this one. Yes! A deeper dive would be appreciated.
Can we look forward to you commandeering Mrs Drach's kitchen for the steel hardening / tempering experiments?
Not if he doesn't want to pay for new worktops he won't..mm😉
@@Jpdt19 So no Bessemer process simulation in the oven?
I would be interested in a more in depth dive into sousing, recoil systems, mounting arrangements, etc. I find fascinating some of the clockwork breach mechanisms. Thanks for the great content. I love battleships!
YES on the deeper video, but I have a request -
Welin breech manufacturing. While I am familiar with the manufacturing techniques, and the specialty lathes, I'd LOVE a Drachinfel video with your narration and unique insights. and if you could find footage of it being done, I'd be very thankful.
The British 13,5" and 15" guns were among the best, if not the best, heavy naval guns - and wirewound.
Thank u so much for making this video I been looking specifically for this video and couldn't find any good ones. U made the best video on this topic hands down. I really appreciate how you describe things I'm detail while still getting to the point. I learned so much thanks alot for this video
Fascinating stuff, but I'm also eager to see the video on propeller development.
Wow. I never knew about the wire-wound guns. Very cool!
An excellent explanation of gun construction. I learnt a great deal. Thank you.
.A great refresher as it has been a few years since I was in gunnery school!
I would love to see more information about the process of machining guns to required tolerances and the huge machine tools required.
Regarding wired vs hooped barrels, I can imagine that wire guns are easier to build and have more room for error in the manufacturing process. Wire is pretty easy to make, and if the winding process fails somehow, you can just unwind it and try again.
On the other hand, hoops I expect would ultimately have greater potential for raw strength and durability assuming you can make the hoops to acceptable quality.
I started typing this before you went into further detail, and I'm pretty satisfied with myself that my assessment is fairly close to that of a far more knowledgeable person's!
If I were making the decision between the two I think I'd go with wired guns, because any surplus wire or rejected batches can be repurposed into many other applications, whereas failed or unused hoops just have to be recycled.
It would be wonderful to have a discussion on steels and hardness treating....thank you, Paul in Florida
Yes I'd love to know more about all this stuff! Metallurgy is so neat! What kind of preventative maintenance cycles did these guns have? Some PMs frequently, some only every so many years or firings. I know from experience how the navy loathes sailors relaxing while their systems aren't in use. What other duties did these sailors have when not in battle?
Fascinating! The slinky wire failures look so funny :)
Nothing helps your mood in the morning like waking up to another rum ration with Drach. Speaking of which, an episode on heat treatment of gun and armour steels would be very much appreciated.
They used to build the battleship guns in Pocatello , Idaho here in the USA and then test them out in the local Arco desert. My dad took me on a visit there with a friend when they were redoing the guns for USS New Jersey (BB-63) during the Vietnam War.
That is the type of subject that grabs my attention and sustains my interest. Very informative. Thank you.
Thanks Drach I have been waiting for a video about how Battleships guns were made. This was so informative.
I can only imagine that building ever bigger guns is far more complicated than just repeating what you are doing and just making it bigger, the stressed would have to be finely calculated or as you say, bad things happen.
Does baby Drach need a plushie naval gun to go with her plushie shell?
That was so interesting, I always wondered what was meant by wire round guns! This must have taken a lot of research and work to produce and it is appreciated.
Another fascinating informative video! I particularly enjoyed the mention of the Des Moines class. Some of my favorite warships of all time.
If missles had not replaced guns going into the Cold War, likely all cruisers and battleships would eventually had automatic guns.
That was quite a technical video. I'll have to watch it several more time to understand most of it!
I'd absolutely like a video on hardening, cooling, quenching, etc. This was a great video though. I don't think I'd ever before seen an image of a wire wound gun barrel that had failed. Thanks for all the thorough work and research that goes into these videos.
Amazing. Well told and many thanks!
Would love to know all about annealing, quenching, and all the finer details. Love your videos
I worked for the British MOD as a Design Draughtsman from an n 'Oik' to Chief Design Draughtsman. I was fortunate enough to be put under a chap who had worked at Woolwich Arsenal at London for many years, both before the war and after. It was through him, I ended up 'God'. He lent me his over 2" collection of how they built naval guns. You missed 'auto fretaging'. I'm sorry if I spelt that wrong, but Google doesn't even know what it is. You also missed the testing. An armoured concrete and steel 'mushroom' with a central pit extending into the ground fired up to 16" guns vertically. I often wonder what an A380 pilot might say. They don't like it 'upum'. It was an honour to know Bob D, a Scott.
Thanks so much. Are you able to expand please on 'the mushroom?' What did this involve? 24:54
Great choice of topic - thanks!
During the Vietnam War, the battleship USS New Jersey experimented with a special propellant mix known as the “Swedish Additive.” This compound included titanium dioxide and wax and was designed to enhance the performance of the 16-inch guns. It was later adopted for all four Iowa-class battleships when they were reactivated in the 1980s and basically made the guns have an infinite life (no wear) due to the mix coating the gun barrel as each time it was used. Basically, the round didn't come in contact with the barrel (just the coating) so there was no wear to the liner.
No that’s not really true. While the Swedish Additive did greatly extend the life of the barrel it did not give the gun barrels an infinite life. When the center gun of turret 2 on USS NEW JERSEY was replaced in 1984 the barrel wear had about 60% life remaining. It also had gas wash pockets in the liner which made it unsafe to fire as the liner could have cracked causing a round to get stuck in the barrel. I forget the exact numbers but the elastic life of the barrel was about 5000 rounds and originally the liner life was about 250 rounds in WW2. The Swedish Additive extended the liner life to about 4000+ rounds. Hope that clears things up.
Bob Lian Turret 2 Officer USS New Jersey 1981-1984
Thank you very much!
@@robertlian2009thanks v much for chiming in sir!!
Very, very interesting and informative!
Thank you!
So interesting! Thanks for uploading! I'm glad i've found your channel!
Thanks for posting
Yes to more details on hardening!!
War at Sea -" Long periods of boredom followed by short, sharp actions "......thankyou Lt Reg !