Full Size Printed Plan DISPLAY MODEL Old Fort Niagara's Disappearing Gun

Full Size Printed Plan & Building Notes

No material plans only

Old Fort Niagara's Disappearing Gun

Full size printed plan on a 24” x 20” sheet

Five-page article with building notes and photos

DISPLAY MODEL

LENGTH 15 ½ Inches

BUILDING MATERIALS WALNUT and BRASS

By ROBERT H. DALTON  

  The model can of course, be made with or without the ramp. Without the ramp the model gun will be identical to the flanking guns of the Ravelin at Old Fort Niagara.

  AT Old Fort Niagara, situated at the mouth of the Niagara River, there is an interesting old disap­pearing howitzer (Fig. 1), mounted on the outer works at the apex of the Rave­lin angle of the old fort. While other flanking guns of the Ravelin are mounted on ordinary naval carriages, only this one has a ramp for disappearing operation. This type of carriage is believed to have been designed by the French lead­er, Comte de Saxe, in the War of the Austrian Succession, about the year 1730, and found its way to America by way of the French who started the building of Old Fort Niagara. Years ago one of the great advantages of the disappearing gun was in its use as an element of surprise on an attack­ing force. The gun could be loaded at the bottom of its ramp-out of sight of the enemy (Fig. 9), and then run up over the parapet and fired. Then too, the ar­tillery man could load the gun behind the parapet or embankment for protection, because in those days when artillery had such a short range, gunners were quite easily picked off by enemy riflemen. This type of mounting was primarily used in a garrison to ward off attacks, and often was loaded with scrap metal for use as an anti-personnel weapon.

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