Chapter 96 Rapid-Fire Cannon

After several passing ceremonies of the train, Constantine went to the steel plant in the industrial zone of Piraeus Port without stopping to participate in the technical weapons meeting of the Greek Army.

In view of the serious backwardness of the artillery in service of the Greek Army, Constantine decided to let the Military Technology Office and the Machinery Factory work together to carry out the preliminary research and development of advanced artillery.

Facing the Ottoman Turkish army that quickly formed combat effectiveness with the help of the Germans, the pressure on the Greek Army increased day by day. The backward and bulky muzzle-loading artillery seriously affected the combat effectiveness of the Greek Army.

Artillery is known as the "God of War" and has always played an important role in the army. Therefore, Constantine attached great importance to the preliminary research and development of this new artillery.

The experience of the French army in the Franco-Prussian War vividly tells the world what kind of misfortune an army with backward artillery will encounter.

I hurried to the conference room of the machinery factory, and saw that all the relevant personnel had arrived, including Nobel, who was invited by Constantine, Tesla, who also had knowledge of machinery, Skarloi, the current manager of the machinery factory, and six researchers from the Metallurgical and Mechanical Laboratory of the University of Athens, and Chaimis, the director of the Military Technology Office.

It can be said that in order to develop new artillery, this office has gathered the most elite relevant personnel that Greece can currently find.

"Everyone, the reason why you are called here should have been heard by everyone, that is, to discuss the development of new artillery and the feasibility of rapid-fire artillery development." Seeing that Constantine was already in place, Chaimis, as the head of the military technology department, took the lead in speaking.

"If a hydraulic recoil mechanism can be installed on the artillery, and the artillery can automatically restore its position after each artillery firing, then there is no doubt that the artillery's firing rate can be improved by leaps and bounds," said Nobel.

As soon as these words came out, the originally quiet conference room was instantly buzzed with discussions.

There is no doubt that Nobel's remarks are very inspiring, and everyone is touched.

Whether it is the famous Krupp cannon at this time, or the giant cannon used by the Ottoman Turks to bombard the walls of Constantinople in the 15th century, whether it is a muzzle-loading cannon, a breech-loading cannon, a rifled cannon, or a smoothbore cannon, all of these cannons have a common disadvantage without exception - recoil.

The recoil when the cannon is fired will push the cannon back from the gun position. Not only does it take effort for the soldiers to push the cannon back to its original position, which limits the range of options for the cannon position, but it will also make the original aiming of the cannon completely lost, and the ballistic elements need to be recalculated, which is both time-consuming and cumbersome.

Just like people often think of the scene when the cannon is fired: the cannon roars, the smoke billows, the wheels of the cannon body and the gun carriage retreat under the drive of the recoil, and the artillery crew work together to push the cannon back to its original position, re-aim, and then repeat.

In this cycle, pushing the cannon back to its original position and re-aiming is the step that wastes the most time.

The recoil mechanism that Nobel is talking about now is to allow the artillery to skip this step. If it can be successful, then it is obvious that the firing rate of the artillery will usher in a leap.

This improvement from the original rigid gun mount to the elastic gun mount will be a revolutionary step in the history of artillery development.

"If Mr. Nobel's idea can become a reality, then there is no doubt that the firing rate of the artillery will be greatly increased, but the key to the problem lies in how to design this hydraulic recoil mechanism." After hearing Nobel's suggestion and thinking carefully, Chaimie said excitedly.

"Speaking of rapid-fire guns, I think of someone," said Skarloi.

"It is an unappreciated German engineer I met in my previous work, named Conrad. I heard that he is looking for a buyer for his patent for a long recoil liquid-gas recoil device," Skarloi said to everyone.

"If there is no problem with his design, then it can be said that the biggest difficulty of the rapid-fire gun has been conquered. In this case, why don't those German artillery factories, such as Krupp, adopt it?" Constantine asked curiously.

Anyone with a little military experience can see the importance of such revolutionary technology. However, Conrad, as Skarloy said, is actually promoting his patented technology. In a traditional land power like Germany, ignoring the progress of artillery technology is problematic no matter how you think about it.

"I heard that the reason why Krupp rejected it was because the hydraulic device leaked oil. It was precisely because of this defect that Conrad's patent was ignored," Skarloy explained.

Everyone was relieved. There was indeed a problem, otherwise it would be unreasonable for the Germans to give up this technology.

Although this technology has defects, if the professionals present can see Conrad's actual technology, it will also have a considerable reference effect.

After all, starting on someone else's shoulders and studying the hydraulic recoil mechanism of artillery almost from scratch are still very different.

At this point in the meeting, everyone looked at Constantine. This decision could only be made by Constantine.

Frowning, Constantine thought carefully. If he started from scratch, it would take who knows when the rapid-fire artillery technology would achieve a breakthrough. However, the threat posed by the Ottoman Turkish army would not allow the Greek army to be slow.

"Mr. Skarloi, since you mentioned Conrad, you should go to Germany in person and bring Conrad to Greece to join us. At the very least, you should get his technical patent permission." The backward situation of the Greek army's artillery is already extremely urgent, and the only way is to buy time with money.

Seeing that Constantine has made the decision to invite Karad, today's discussion on rapid-fire guns can only end here.

Seeing that Chaimis looked quiet, Constantine reminded: "Chaimis, have you forgotten something?"

After Constantine's reminder, Chaimis suddenly realized, slapped his forehead, and continued: "Oh, by the way, there is also a copy submitted by His Excellency the Duke, um" At this point, Chaimis hesitated, not knowing how to describe this strange design.

"Mortar," Constantine reminded.

"Um, yes, mortar, this is a design submitted by Duke Constantine, let's discuss it together", after that, Chaimis handed out a stack of drawings in his hand to everyone present.

Everyone saw a strange mortar shape on the drawing, with the barrel pointing obliquely and a tripod under the barrel as support, and nothing else.

To be honest, this is very different from any current artillery, and it looks weird. Everyone doesn't understand what the purpose of Constantine's artillery design is.