US Army 8-Inch Muzzle Loading Rifle in Cairo, Illinois
US Army 8-Inch Rifle, Registry Number 34, in Cairo, Illinois
Note: the photos in this post were taken by Krzysztof Kurylowicz and shared to the Facebook Group “Big Cannon Project”. The photos are used with his permission.
A US Army 8-Inch Rifle, Registry Number 34, is displayed in Cairo, Illinois. The cannon was originally cast at Fort Pitt Foundry in 1862 as a 10-Inch Rodman smoothbore, Registry Number 45. In 1884 it was converted into an 8-Inch Muzzle Loading Rifle using the breech insertion conversion. Its new registry number is 34. As converted it weighed 15,915 pounds.
The first conversions of 10-Inch Rodmans into 8-Inch rifles utilized the “muzzle insertion method” similar to the US Navy’s program to convert 11-Inch Dahlgrens. The muzzle insertion conversions entailed boring out the 10-Inch smoothbore to a 13.5-Inch bore and inserting an 8-Inch rifled sleeve into the bore. The sleeve had to be the same diameter from end to end to fit into the muzzle. However, the greatest need for reinforcement was at the breech. In 1879, the Army attempted to solve this problem using the breech insertion method of conversion. Using this method, the Rodman was bored out until it was a tube open on both ends. The new sleeve, now made of steel, could be of larger diameter. The breech insertion conversions can be distinguished by the rectangular protrusion from the breech.
