User:Grieg2/sandbox
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| 35.5 cm MRK L/25 | |
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Place of origin | Germany |
| Service history | |
| Used by | Denmark |
| Production history | |
| Designer | Krupp |
| Manufacturer | Krupp |
| Produced | 1878 |
| No. built | 7 |
| Specifications | |
| Mass | 52,000 kg[1] |
| Length | 8,880 mm (L/25)[1] |
| Caliber | 355 mm[1] |
| Breech | horizontal sliding wedge |
| Muzzle velocity | 1878: 496 m/s[2] |
The 35.5 cm Mantel Ring Kanone L/25 was a 35.5 cm 25 caliber long Krupp Mantel Ring Kanone (MRK). It was a rifled breech loader built-up gun with a Krupp cylindroprismatic sliding breech. It was one of the few Krupp breechloaders that was designed to profit from slower burning gunpowders, but not for using very long projectiles. The gun was used by Denmark.
Context[edit]
Up to the 35.5 cm MRK L/22.5[edit]
In the race between naval guns and armor, krupp developed a series of heavy rifled breech loader built-up guns (Ring Kanone) starting in the mid 1860s. At first, the Prussian Navy thought that a 15 cm gun would suffice to penetrate armor. This caliber soon proved insufficient, and by 1867 the caliber of the Krupp cannon had increased to 24 cm, see 24 cm K L/20. This was still not enough, and by 1875, the caliber of the biggest Ring Kanone had increased to 35.5 cm. The dimensions of this gun and its siblings followed a pattern. In general, they where either short (19 calibers long) or long (22 calibers long).[3]
The 35.5 cm MRK L/22.5 was the direct ancestor of our 35.5 cm MRK L/25. It already had the Mantel Ring Kanone (MRK) construction, which meant that it was jacketed and hooped instead of only hooped. This increased the maximum explosive gas pressure that the barrel could withstand by about 25%.
The effects of slower burning gunpowder[edit]
When the North German Federal Navy accepted the Krupp system of guns in the late 1860s, Krupp guns already depended on using a type of slow-burning gunpowder called prismatic gunpowder. In German Prismatisches Pulver (P.P). This made it possible to use a higher charge without reaching a higher peak gas pressure inside the gun.[4] The first kind of prismatic gunpowder that was adopted for service was the so-called P.P. c/68 which had a density of 1.66.[5]
Already during the tests of the gunpowders that led to the P.P. c/68, it was known that for profiting from prismatic gunpowder the length of the gun was important: The higher the absolute length of the barrel, the more one would profit from the advantages of prismatic gunpowder.[5] When in late 1868, Krupp got the order to design what would become the 21 cm RK L/22 and the 24 cm RK L/22, the requirements included making them longer but of the same weight as the previous shorter models.[6]
Advances in gunpowder manufacturing[edit]
By the winter of 1875/76, when Krupp was developing and testing the Mantel Ring Kanone (MRK) construction, developments in gunpowder science had led to the P.P. c/75.[7] This was a gunpowder with a density of 1.75. It burned even slower than the P.P. c/68.[8]
Development[edit]
The discoveries about the properties of different kinds of gunpowder led to a lot of scientific experiments. They also led to a lot of practical problems to actually produce the required kind of gunpowder in a consistent quality.[8]
In light of the general advantages of slow burning gunpowder, and the development of slower burning gunpowders like the P.P. c/75 is is logical that Krupp wanted to develop longer heavy guns. In 1874 it had developed the 17 cm RK L/25. However, a test of this gun showed that while the P.P. c/75 gunpowder did well in many respects, it did not suffice because not enough of the charge burned inside the barrel.[9]
Notes[edit]
- ^ a b c Von Marées 1879, p. 333.
- ^ Von Marées 1879, p. 334.
- ^ Von Müller 1879.
- ^ Von Müller 1879, p. 66.
- ^ a b Von Müller 1879, p. 68.
- ^ Von Müller 1879, p. 86.
- ^ Von Müller 1879, p. 260.
- ^ a b Von Müller 1879, p. 150.
- ^ Von Müller 1879, p. 186.
References[edit]
- Von Marées, G. (1879). "Schieszversuche auf dem Krupp'schen Schieszplatze bei Meppen part 1". Jahrbücher für die deutsche Armee. F. Schneider & Co., Berlin. pp. 322–336.
- Von Müller, Hermann (1879), Die Entwickelung der preußischen Küsten- und Schiffs-Artillerie von 1860-1878, Robert Oppenheim, Berlin