Gun Truck
Description
Gun carriage wheel (truck). Large circular ring, doughnut – shaped. On outside edge is carved. “.P.16.H”. Just to the left of this is a small carved letter that appears to be a “T”.
The naval gun carriage had large ‘trucks’ at the front, and small ones at the back. This led to it being known as the ‘truck’ carriage – named after the four small wheels on which it was mounted. The variation in wheel size at the front and back was because a naval gun carriage had to move in two directions - forward to be run up and to fire; and backwards after the gun was fired to allow recoil. Gun trucks were designed to be inefficient, so that friction braked the recoil as rapidly as possible. Because of this, the trucks wore rapidly, and had to be replaced frequently. Gun carriages were made in different sizes, according to the type of gun they were designed for, e.g. 9, 32 or 24-pounders.
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Object Detail
Depth: 140mm (5 1/2")
Weight: 1/8cwt (6.5kg)