Naval Ordnance; A Text-Book Prepared for the Use of the Midshipmen of the United States Naval Academy, Corrected to April 1, 1917
Annapolis: The United States Naval Institute, 1917. Revised and Corrected edition. Presumed first printing thus. Hardcover. x, 383, [3] pages. Illustrations (including many folding plates, charts, diagrams). No dust jacket present. Spine says 1915. Cover and edges show some staining; all pages are separate and the text is clear. Ink notation inside the front cover references a Special Aide to Commandant, 5th Naval District. Lieut. Commander Roland Curtin undertook the task of revising the text of Ordnance and Gunnery. It was was not completed when he died, and was completed by Lieutenant Commander Thomas Johnson shortly before the entry of the United States into the WWI. Among the topics covered are, Metals used in Ordnance Construction, Naval Rifled Guns, Breech-Mechanisms, Main Battery Guns, Gun-Sights, Gun-Mounts, Turret-Mounts, Gas-Expelling Device, Firing- Attachments, Field Artillery, Explosives, Smokeless Powder, Gun-Cotton, Ammunition, Projectiles, Fuses, Armor, Proving-Ground, Range-Finders, and Demolitions. Lieutenant Commander Roland I. Curtin served on the USS Wasp during the Spanish-American War. Thomas Johnson graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Class of 1898. He retired as a U.S. Navy Captain. He was awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal for exceptionally meritorious service in a duty of great responsibility Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. CANOICUS, engaged in laying mines in the North Sea during World War I. Naval ordnance includes all the weapons and their control systems used by naval forces. These can be classed by type (guns, mines, torpedoes, depth charges, bombs, rockets, or missiles); by warheads (conventional or nuclear); by launching platform (surface, airborne, or underwater); or by targets (submarine, air, or surface). Until the mid-nineteenth century, U.S. Navy ships were armed with carriage-mounted, muzzle-loading, smooth-bore cannons, principally of iron, firing solid shot at point-blank range. At the time of the Civil War, pivot mounts, turrets, rifled guns, and explosive projectiles were in use. By World War I, directors, rangekeepers (computers), and breech-loading steel guns were in use. Moored mines, contact-activated or controlled from the shore, were used in the Civil War. World War I aircraft were armed with machine guns and crude bombs. Condition: Fair.
Keywords: Ordnance Construction, Naval Rifled Guns, Breech-Mechanisms, Main Battery Guns, Gun-SIghts, Gun-Mounts, Turret-Mounts, Gas-Expelling Device, Firing=Attachments, Field Artillery, Explosives, Smokeless Powder, Gun-Cotton, Ammunition, Projectiles, Fuses
[Book #83463]
Price: $175.00