Iron Pivot-Carriage with
Central Recoil Check.

This carriage is the same in general principle as the ordinary pivot-carriage, the main modification being in the arrangement for checking recoil. A worm-shaft, attached to the transom of the carriage and worked by a hand-wheel outside the left bracket, gears in a large cogged wheel just outside the transom. This wheel has at the lower end of its axle a screw-sleeve operating a friction-plate which seats against two heavy bars secured to the slide. Railroad buffers are also fixed at each end of the slide.

Central Recoil-Check Carriage.

Geared Broadside-Carriage and Slide
with Hydraulic Recoil Check.

The carriage is very low, its bottom plates coming down inside the slide-rails, which are given a slope to the front. The slide is centre-port pivoting. The carriage is run out and in either by tackles or gearing. For the latter, long screw-shafts are fixed outside of the slide-rails on each side, geared by mitre-gearing to large cogged driving-wheels on the rear of the slide. A long lever is pivoted in wake of the trunnion-sockets, carrying at its lower end a half screw-sleeve. By heaving out on the lever, the sleeve engages in the screw-shaft and the gun is drawn in or out. The recoil cylinder is of the ordinary type, but provided with a circulating pipe and balanced valve by which the oil passes from one end to the other. The valve may be regulated for any desired amount of recoil. The training-gear is of the ordinary type, working a longitudinal shaft having on its outer end a cogged wheel to gear in a metal rack just inside of the rear slide-rollers.

Ericsson’s Broadside-Carriage and
Slide with Friction Recoil.
[8]

The recoil arrangement of this carriage is made up of two plates operated by a lever, and jamming between them a flat plate attached to the carriage. The carriage is run in and out by gearing, the driving-wheel engaging in racks inside the slide-rails. The training-gear is of the ordinary type, but gears directly into the slide-rollers, whose middle sections are cogged, the middle section of the circle or races being cut in a rack.