Phoenix Iron Company also produced a few 6-pounders of 3.67 in (93 mm) caliber of which seven survivors are dated 1861 and have Griffen's 1855 patent stamped on one trunnion. The government paid $370 apiece for two of these guns but neither survived. The Ordnance Department requested four wrought iron guns of 3.5 in (89 mm) caliber on 21 February 1861. After Dyer's highly favorable report, four more Griffen guns were manufactured and sent to be tested.
The gun finally burst on the tenth shot when the bore was filled to the muzzle with 13 shot and 7 lb (3 kg) of gunpowder. Then the gun was fired nine more times with increasing numbers of shot and heavier gunpowder charges. The Griffen gun was subsequently fired 500 times with no apparent damage.
The gun passed the proofing tests and when Dyer asked if he wanted to continue, Griffen challenged him to burst the gun. Captain Alexander Brydie Dyer undertook proofing tests of the gun in 1856 with Griffen as a witness. Meanwhile, Griffen was issued a patent on 25 December 1855.
DA CAPO 3 R DIFFERENCE FROM ORIGINAL TRIAL
The approximately 700 lb (318 kg) Griffen gun was sent to Fort Monroe for trial but it was not immediately tested. Reeves, president of Safe Harbor's parent company Phoenix Iron Works, approved of Griffen's method and a cannon was manufactured in late 1854. Finally, trunnions were added and a bore was drilled out. Two additional bars were wound around the bundle and then the mass was subjected to welding heat. Later, the process was refined by winding a bar spirally around the bundle. The company's superintendent John Griffen proposed manufacturing a cannon by welding together a bundle of wrought iron rods and then drilling out the bore. In 1854, Safe Harbor Iron Works of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania produced the highest-quality iron rods used in lighthouse construction. The accident was caused by bad forging and burned metal. In 1844, the 12-inch wrought iron "Peacemaker" cannon burst during a demonstration aboard the USS Princeton, killing the Secretaries of State and the Navy and others.
Gun founders had tried to produce cannons from wrought iron, but the material had not fulfilled its promise. The successful M1841 6-pounder field gun was the result of this decision. However, the Confederate States Army respected the weapons and employed those captured from Federal forces.īy 1835, so many 6-pounder cast iron cannons had burst during proofing tests that the United States Ordnance Board decided to abandon cast iron and produce field artillery from bronze. The Confederate States of America lacked the technology to manufacture successful copies of the 3-inch ordnance rifle. This was in stark contrast to the similarly-sized cast iron 10-pounder Parrott rifles which occasionally burst without warning, inflicting injury on the gun crews. There was only one reported case of a 3-inch ordnance rifle bursting in action. The 3-inch rifle was not as effective in firing canister shot as the heavier 12-pounder Napoleon, but it proved to be highly accurate at longer ranges when firing shell or shrapnel. It fired a 9.5 lb (4.3 kg) projectile to a distance of 1,830 yd (1,670 m) at an elevation of 5°. The 3-inch ordnance rifle, model 1861 was a wrought iron muzzle-loading rifled cannon that was adopted by the United States Army in 1861 and widely used in field artillery units during the American Civil War. Phoenix Iron Works (Phoenixville, Pennsylvania)
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