The United States in its recent field carriage adopted the sliding wedge type in a vertical plane on account of its manifest superiority in fire at high angles. This block is rather difficult to manufacture and the type has a tendency to stick. The automatic closing necessitates a strong closing spring which fatigues the block operator, No. 1 in the gun squad. It is interesting to note that in a prospective new design for the 1916 gun carriage the American Ordnance Department adopted the French breechblock; and the St. Chamond Company, designing for the American Expeditionary Forces, adopted the American drop block.
Requirements for a breech mechanism:
The following may be said to be the principal requirements for a successful breech mechanism.
1. Safety. To be safe: (a) the gas must be restrained from escaping to the rear; this sealing or obturation must be automatic, greater pressure insuring better obturation. (b) The breech of the gun must not be weakened by the fitting of the breech mechanism. (c) The parts must have ample strength to prevent any portion from being blown to the rear. (d) The danger of premature discharge must be minimized. (e) The breechblock must be securely locked to prevent opening on firing.
2. Ease and Rapidity of Working. Otherwise, rapid and continuous fire cannot be maintained. Hence this would include facility in loading and certainty of extraction for rapid fire guns.
3. Not Easily Put Out of Order. In other words it must be able to meet service conditions and hard usage. Parts should have a reserve strength.
4. Ease of Repair. Parts most exposed to wear should be so designed as to permit being replaced. This will also include accessibility to parts, so that breakage of a part will not disable the mechanism for a long time.
5. Interchangeability. Not only should individual parts be made interchangeable by accurate workmanship, but the whole mechanism should be capable of being mounted on similar guns. This is to meet service conditions.
GUN CARRIAGES.
A modern gun carriage is expected to stand steady on firing, so that in the first place it requires no running up, and in the second place it maintains the direction of the gun so that only a slight correction in elevation and direction is required after each round. The carriage is maintained in position by the spade, which sinks into the ground, and by the friction of the wheels upon the ground. If the force of the recoiling gun were communicated directly to the anchored carriage the effect would be to make it jump violently, which would not only disturb the lay, but would prevent the cannoneers from maintaining their position. The hydraulic recoil brake is therefore interposed between gun and carriage. If the guns were rigidly attached to the carriage the latter would be forced back a short distance at each round, and the whole of the recoil energy would have to be absorbed in that short motion. Instead of this the gun alone is allowed to recoil several feet and although the recoil energy is in this case greater than it would be if gun and carriage recoiled together yet it is so gradually communicated to the carriage that instead of a violent jerk we have a steady, uniform pull, the only effect of which is to slightly compress the earth behind the spade. In a well designed carriage the amount of this pull is always less than that required to lift the wheels off the ground by rotating the carriage about the spade.