An Armstrong gun was a uniquely designed type of rifled breech-loading field and heavy gun designed by Sir William Armstrong and manufactured in England beginning in 1855 by the Elswick Ordnance Company and the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. Such guns involved a built-up gun construction system of a wrought-iron tube surrounded by a number of wrought-iron strengthening coils shrunk over the inner tube to keep it under compression.
Armstrong gun deployed by Japan during the Boshin War (1868–69).
Screw breech system of 7-inch Armstrong gun
Powder cartridge with lubricator
Two RBL 40-pounder Armstrong guns displayed at St. George's Foundation's UNESCO World Heritage Centre, St. George's Town, Bermuda. Originally used as mobile guns for defending areas of Bermuda's South Shore without fixed coastal artillery, they were soon replaced and became part of a saluting battery at Fort Victoria before being set into a wharf as bollards
A rifled breech loader (RBL) is an artillery piece which, unlike the smoothbore cannon and rifled muzzle loader which preceded it, has rifling in the barrel and is loaded from the breech at the rear of the gun.
A Japanese swivel breech-loading gun of the time of Oda Nobunaga, 16th century.
Wahrendorff breech
Armstrong gun screw breech.
The Armstrong gun was a pivotal development for modern artillery as the first practical rifled breech loader. Pictured, deployed by Japan during the Boshin War (1868–69).
