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The ‘Dardanelles’ Gun at the Tower

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2012

Extract

Before considering the actual gun which forms the title of this paper, it may be of some interest to give some details of the manufacture and use of gigantic guns for oriental war operations, for these present certain problems of manufacture, transport, and practical use which deserve more than passing consideration. A great deal of this material has been collected by that indefatigable student of all matters connected with artillery, General Sir Henry Lefroy, who was responsible for the foundation of the Royal Artillery Institution in 1838, and, in addition to his military duties, was a keen scientist and particularly interested in meteorological survey work, which he carried out in the observatories of St. Helena, Toronto, Lake Athabasca, and elsewhere.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1930

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References

page 217 note 1 Archaeological Journal, vol. xxv, 261; Journal of the Royal Artillery Institution, vol. vi.

page 217 note 2 This translation was made at the instance of Napoleon III, but owing to differences of opinion between Dr. Dethier and Carolus Muller, who was also engaged on the same work, it does not appear to have been published. By the help of Sir Charles Newton of the British Museum, General Lefroy had access to Dethier's manuscript, from which he made extracts. The Greek text with Latin notes by Muller was published in 1870 (Brit. Mus. 2046 D.).

page 218 note 1 Histoire de l'Empire Ottoman, 1836.

page 220 note 1 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, edit. J. Bury, vol. vii, 167, 184.

page 220 note 2 Les Voyages de M. Thévenot (3rd edition), 1727.

page 220 note 3 A Description of the East, R. Pococke, LL.D., 1743, vol. ii, 104.

page 221 note 1 Baron de Tott, Mémoires, 1785, part iii. Bury in his notes on Gibbon suggests that de Tott is not always a reliable authority and that his statements should be accepted with caution.

page 221 note 2 Études sur le Passé et l'Avenir de l'Artillerie, 1862.

page 222 note 1 Bib. Nat. Française, Fonds du Roi, 6993.

page 223 note 1 Autobiography of General Sir John Henry Lefroy, C.B., K.C.M.G., privately printed, Library of the Royal Artillery Institution.

page 224 note 1 The removal and installation of this gun at the Tower was carried out by four men of Messrs. Pickford's staff with one screw jack, the transport being effected by two motor lorries of the ordinary type; an interesting example of the advance of mechanical science when compared with the 100 oxen and 400 men employed by Mohammed.

page 224 note 2 A.D. 1464.

page 226 note 1 A. D. 1524.