Stephenson's Rocket

 

In 1829, Robert Stephenson’s Rocket locomotive won a competition to power the Liverpool & Manchester Railway. It was engineered and built at Stephenson’s iron works in Newcastle upon Tyne with advice from Robert’s father George. The engine had a maximum speed of 45 kph (28 mph.) The opening ceremony for the L&MR was held at Liverpool on 15 September 1830. Unfortunately, the Liverpool Member of Parliament, William Huskisson, while trying to lobby the Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington, fell out of one of the carriages and was run over by the train and killed. This Blender model is based primarily on the version of the engine in the National Railway Museum, York.

#Rocket #Stephenson #locomotive #engine #train #steam #Blender #Cycles

The Turtle Submarine

 In 1775, American engineer and inventor David Bushnell of Connecticut built the first submarine specially designed for naval combat. The project was championed by the Connecticut governor who persuaded George Washington to provide funding for the construction. Bushnell’s idea was to approach enemy ships from below, drill into the hull with an auger and release an attached barrel filled with black powder. The barrel contained mechanically timed fuse, probably using a flintlock for ignition of the explosive. The Turtle’s hull was heavy oak staves covered in tar to make it water tight. Several attempts were made sink ships in the British blockade of New York harbor: all of them failed.

 On the night of 6 September 1776, Sgt. Ezra Lee set out with 20 minutes of air in the Turtle to sink the British flag-ship, HMS Eagle, in the harbor. After about two hours, Lee was unable to drill into the British ship’s hull. He was probably exhausted and, breathing carbon dioxide somewhat confused, at this point. He released the bomb anyway, which drifted into the East River where it made a tremendous explosion.

 Note on modelling the turtle: There are detailed written descriptions of the Turtle by Bushnell, but no drawings have survived. Based on the descriptions, several reproductions have been made and are on display in various museums. Clearly the builders of these subs had to employ some guesswork regarding the details. My model is an amalgam of some of these reproductions with some of my own guesswork.

 #Turtle #submarine #American_Revolution #Bushnell #Blender #Cycles

CSS H. L. Hunley

 

The CSS H. L. Hunley, a Confederate submarine, made history on 17 February 1864 when it became the first submarine to sink an enemy ship, the USS Housatonic, in Charleston, SC, harbour. The boat was designed and built in 1863 in Mobile, AL, CSA, and named for the principal investor in the project. In 1864 it was shipped by rail to Charleston and taken over by the confederate army. The Hunley carried a crew of seven or eight, one Skipper and the rest to hand crank the propeller. The sub was 12 Meters in length with a beam of 1.17 Meters and a hull height of 1.2 Meters. It had a top speed of 7.4 Km/hr. Not only was the interior very cramped for the crew, but the two hatches were only 40 cm in diameter, making entry difficult as well. Hunley’s armament was a spar torpedo, a copper canister containing 41 Kg of black powder explosive mounted on the end of a 6.7 Meter spar. The torpedo was equipped with a barbed spike designed to be rammed into the hull of an enemy ship below the water line. The Hunley would then be backed away and the torpedo detonated by withdrawing a cord attached to the fuse. Unfortunately for the crew, the torpedo seems to have exploded within a few meters of the sub and sank both the target and the Hunley.

This model is based, in part, on the reproduction of the Hunley on display at the Charleston Museum, which I saw in 2001 on a visit to South Carolina. I first modelled the Hunley in SketchUp in 2014.

#army #Charleston #Civil_War #Confederate #CSS #hand-powered #Hunley #navy #SC #South_Carolina #submarine

The Whitworth 12 Pounder Gun

The Whitworth 12 Pounder was designed and manufactured in England by Joseph Whitworth in the mid-nineteenth century. The gun’s design was unusual for field artillery of that period: it was breech loaded and had hexagonal rifling, which gave it a high degree of accuracy and a range of up to six miles. The barrel was 7’ 9” (2.36 M) long; the gun weighed 896 lbs. (406.4 Kg) and was manned by a crew of six.

After being rejected by the British army due to cost, it was purchased by the Confederate army in the U.S. civil war. It was also used by the Union Army, particularly at the battle of Gettysburg.

 #Whitworth #12_pounder #artillery #British #US_civil_war #Blender #Cycles

Canon de 65mm Mle. 1906

 The French mountain gun designed by Col. Ducrest and manufactured by Schneider was a specialized infantry support weapon. It was very small with a weight of 400 kg (882 lbs) and an height of 1.25 m (49 in) and easily transported by four mules over difficult terrain. The gun had a range of 5.5 km (3.4 mi) and a rate of up to 15 rounds per minute. It was used extensively by the French army mountain troops during WW I and was sold or donated to several countries between the world wars.

 #Artillery #mountain gun #65mm #French #Blender #Cycles

 

 French 75 Sight

A week ago I posted my model of the French 75 gun. In the write-up I mentioned that most of the photos of the gun that I found were lacking the sight so I left it out of the model. Then I found a YouTube video about Matthew Switlik and his 30-year effort to own the gun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDz0uW2jex0&t=983s. In it there’s quite a lot of discussion of the sight. He also mentions drawings of the 1901 sight that I found on the internet.

 The sight (site in French), made mostly in brass, incorporated collimator optics, which are still in use today in some gun sights. The sight was mounted on the left end of the gun’s trunnion, the pivot point for the barrel assembly, and had its own small shield to protect the gunner.

 #French 75 #gun #artillery #collimator #site #sight #Blender #Cycles

 

French 75 Gun

In 1898 the French army adopted a revolutionary new piece of field artillery, the Matériel de 75mm Mle 1897 or as it came to be called in English, the French 75. The gun is considered to be the first modern artillery piece because of its rapid firing system. It used a hydro-pneumatic recoil absorbing mechanism that allowed the crew of six to fire the gun repeatedly at a target without re-aiming after every shot. By the end of WWI, about 12,000 had been produced and were in use by many different armies including the British and Americans.

The gun in this model is the 1901 version. The model is based primarily on museum photos. There are some missing pieces in the model due to the fact that they are not in most of the available pictures:  the telescopic sight and two leather pouches on the back side of the shield. This is my second effort modelling this gun.

 #artillery #cannon #French 75 #Blender 2.91 #Cycles