Big Ben is the 13.5 ton bell in the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament. It was cast at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1858, and popularly known as
Big Ben after Sir Bejamin Hall, the First Commissioner of Works at the time. Research Big Ben
The metric system is a system of measurement based on the decimal system. It was first formalised in France at the end of the 18th century and by the 1830s was being widely adopted in Europe. In Britain, bills for its compulsory adoption were defeated in 1871 and 1907 and Imperial units remained supreme until 1963, when the yard was redefined as 0.9144 metre and the pound as 0. 45359237 kilogram. The Metrication Board set up in 1969 failed to achieve its target of the metrication of British industry by 1975 and metrication now proceeds on a voluntary basis, in which it was correctly envisaged that pints of beer, miles per hour, yards, and feet would persist until the end of the century, they have and perhaps will continue for many years to come. However, the Weights and Measures Act (1985) lists certain units that may no longer be used for trade: these include the hundredweight, ton, bushel, square mile, cubic yard, and cubic foot. It is hoped that before the end of the century such units as the therm and British thermal unit will have been abandoned. For all scientific purposes and many trade and industrial purposes the form of the metric system known as SI units is now in use. In the USA metrication has been even slower than in the UK. The metre was intended to be equal to one ten-millionth part of the distance from the pole to the equator, but was found to have been made too short and so is now set upon a certain length of iridio-platinum. Research Metric System
Henry Bell was a British engineer. He was born in 1767 at Linlithgowshire and died in 1830. He was apprenticed as a millwright, and afterwards served under several engineers, including Rennie. He settled in Glasgow in 1790, and subsequently in Helensburgh. In 1798 he turned his attention specially to the steam-boat, the practicability of steamnavigation having been already demonstrated. In 1812 the Comet, a small thirty-ton vessel built at Glasgow under Henry Bell's directions, and driven by a three horse-power engine made by himself, commenced to ply between Glasgow and Greenock, and continued to run until she was wrecked in 1820. This was the beginning of steamnavigation in Europe. It has been asserted that Fulton, who started a steamer on the Hudson in 1807, obtained his ideas from Henry Bell in the previous year. Henry Bell is also credited with the invention of the 'discharging machine' used by calico-printers. A monument has been erected to his memory at Dunglass Point on the Clyde. Research Henry Bell
In modern warfare, the term cannon is applied to a shell-firing gun of a heavier calibre than a machine gun. They have a lower rate of fire, but are more destructive than machine guns. Before the Great War, all big guns which we would now refer to as howitzers and anti-tank guns etc were called cannons, irrespective of whether they were muzzle or breech loaded.
In older warfare, the term cannon was applied to a big gun or piece of ordnance. The precise period at which engines for projecting missiles by mechanical force (catapults, etc) were supplanted by those utilizing explosive materials is a matter of controversy, the invention of cannon being attributed to the Chinese, from whom the Saracens may have acquired the knowledge. A doubtful authority asserts their use at the siege of Belgrade in 1073; but they were certainly brought into use in France as early as 1338. At first they were made of wood, well secured by iron hoops, the earliest shape being somewhat conical, with wide muzzles, and afterwards cylindrical. They were then made of iron bars firmly bound together with iron hoops like casks, Mons Meg at Edinburgh being a good example.
The first cannons used in Britain appeared around 1335. Edward III used cannons at the Battle of Cressy. In the reign of Elizabeth I, the British cannon was a muzzle-loading gun with an 8-inch bore that fired a 60 lb projectile. Bronze was used in the second half of the 14th century, towards the close of which and during the 15th century cast-iron ordnance came into use. A form of breech-loading cannon was introduced in the 16th century.
Cannon formerly received the following distinctive names: cannon royal, or carthoun, carrying 48 pounds; culverin, 18; demi-culverin, 9; falcon, 6; basilisk, 48; siren, 60; etc. They were afterwards named from the weight of the balls which they carried: 6-pounders, 12-pounders, etc; but by 1900 were often, especially the large ones, designated by their weight, as a 25-ton gun, a 67-ton gun, an 80-ton gun, etc. Their calibre or diameter of bore was also used in designating them: a 6-inch gun, a 12-inch gun, etc.
Around the 19th century the classification of cannons into muzzle-loading and breech-loading came into use though all the guns of the improved types of the 19th century were breech-loading. Quick-firing guns and machine-guns were classes of introduced late in the 19th century.
Great improvements and changes in the manufacture of cannon were introduced in the late 19th century. Not long before they were all made of iron, brass, or gun-metal (a variety of bronze) by casting. The introduction of rifled small-arms led the way to that of rifled cannon, and the adoption of heavy armour for ships of war rendered guns of enormous power and magnitude necessary in order to penetrate their sides. For round balls projectiles of considerable length were substituted in the rifled ordnance; and the increased weight and inertia of the projectiles and their rapid rotation in these rifled guns try the piece so severely that cast-iron and bronze were superseded, and the old methods of making guns given up. Guns built up in different ways are now in general use, and the construction and connected mechanism is now somewhat complicated, so that to turn out a large gun of modern type is a long and expensive process. In Englandsteel and wrought-iron guns came in for all heavy artillery by 1900, and they were manufactured for foreign powers on a large scale, especially by the Elswick Ordnance Company.
The former heavy guns of the British service, made on the 'Woolwich' system, had a steel tube to form the bore, over which were shrunk coils of wrought-iron, increasing in thickness about the breech, This method of manufacture was first introduced by Sir William Armstrong about 1858. Such guns present the hard steel to meet the wear and tear on the bore of the gun, while great support is given by shrinking on the wrought-iron hoops, which contract with a tight grip upon the steel. Hoops of steel were later preferred to those of wrought-iron; and later still the guns were strengthened by flat steel wire or a narrow ribbon of steel coiled round it.
Steel guns of very high quality were long made by Krupp of Essen, and Sir J. Whitworth's guns also gained a high name. The Whitworth guns were made of mild steel of a special quality, massive hoops being forced over a central tube, and over one another, by shrinkage or by hydraulic pressure. These guns had comparatively small hexagonal bores, with a very rapid twist, and fire long projectiles, made to fit mechanically, with remarkable accuracy to a great range.
The Dodge T214 was an American military three-quarter ton truck introduced in 1942 as a successor to the Dodge T215. It was slightly wider and lower with larger wheels and a stronger suspension. The T214 was produced in a number of variants for different roles including weapons carrier, ambulance, command vehicle, reconnaissance vehicle and radio vehicle. The T214 had a top speed of 110 kmh and a range of 450 km. Research Dodge T214
The Dodge T215 was the US Army half-ton truck used during the Second World War. The T215 was un-armed and un-armoured but produced in various variants for use as an ambulance, command vehicle, reconnaissance vehicle, radio carrier and weapons carrier by the Americans, British and Russians. The T215 had a top speed of 70 kmh and a range of 500 km. Research Dodge T215
The DUKW was an American amphibious truck used during the Second World War. It was basically a standard 6 x 6 GMC 2.5 ton cargo truck fitted with buoyancy tanks and with screw propulsion when in the water. DUKW were mainly used to ferry supplies and men from ship to shore, and played a vital part in almost every amphibious landing performed by Allied troops. Research DUKW
The SdKfz 6 (Diana) was a German self-propelled anti-tank gun half-track of the Second World War. The SdKfz 6 comprised a captured Russian 76.2 mm M1936 field gun mounted in an armoured box on the rear of a five-ton half-track vehicle. The SdKfz 6 carried a crew of five and had a top speed of 50 kmh and a range of 317 km. Research SdKfz 6
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Big Ben
