Artillery
Artillery names 6 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Artillery all sorts of great guns
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
all sorts of great guns, cannon, or ordnance mortars, howitzers, machine-guns, etc., together with all the apparatus and stores thereto belonging, FRENCH 75-MILLIMETER FIELD GUN which are taken into the field or used for besieging and defending fortified places. It is often divided into (1) horse artillery; (2) field artillery; and (3) garrison artillery. Field artillery is artillery designed to be taken with an army to the field of battle; a park of artillery is artillery with the carriages, horses, and stores of all kinds necessary for its effective use; siege artillery is artillery of heavy metal designed to be employed in breaching A ROMAN DEVICE FOR SHOOTING FOUR ARROWS AT ONCE fortifications; a train of artillery is a certain number of pieces of cannon mounted on carriages, with all their furniture fit for marching. ১০ 0000 000 The name artillery is also given to the land troops by whom these arms are served, whether they accompany an army in the field, take part in sieges, or occupy fixed posts. Technically speaking, artillery includes all projectile weapons whose propelling force is gas. This definition of artillery excludes the mechanical devices by which, in the days of Archimedes and the Romans, missiles were projected to a considerable distance by mechanical means as the ballista. The discovery of ROMAN CATAPULT gunpowder in the 13th century made possible the engines of destruction that to-day are the chief reliance of armies. Several crude cannon were used at the battle of Crecy in 1346. They were also employed by the troops that Joan of Arc led to the siege of Orleans. Once the 000 BRITISH 9.2" HOWITZER, MOUNTED ON SEMI-PERMANENT BASE idea was grasped and the possibilities of the new arm demonstrated, developments were rapid. Its use spread through all Europe in the 16th century, but it was not until the 17th that its value in warfare was measurably utilized by Gustavus Adolphus in the Thirty Years' War. Napoleon used it with telling effect in his campaigns, and laid especial stress upon the concentration of artillery fire. The most important modern imrivalry between France and Germ resulted in many other important improvements. Austria - Hungary, Italy, Russia, Japan, Switzerland, and the ITALIAN 16" MORTAR provements in artillery, besides the increase in size, is the general adoption of rifled ordnance, breech-loaders, and machine-guns. Throughout the 19th century the Great Powers increasingly United States each strove to perfect its own artillery and to meet its special requirements. In the World War the use of artillery was on a scale unparalleled up to that time. The Germans 155-MILLIMETER HOWITZER worked on the improvement of their respective artilleries. Great Britain, as a result of its many colonial wars, continuously improved both its military and naval artillery. The Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871 and the resulting and Austrians with their great gun works at Essen and Skoda had a great preponderance over the Allies in heavy guns. The forts at Namur, Liège, Antwerp, and Maubeuge crumbled up like paper before the attack of the monster POWDER PROJECTILE -TUBE (rifled)
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
firearms too heavy to carry in the hand. Artillery was used before muskets. There is some reason to believe that cannon were invented by the Chinese, and were used by the Saracens. Historically, cannon were used by the English at the battle of Crecy in 1346. They were made of iron bars held together with hoops. From that time until the present, light artillery for field work, and heavy artillery for siege and defense, have formed an important part of military equipment. Various terms, as cannon, mortars, howitzers, and the like have of late given way to the general term gun. Some of the famous guns of the present day are the Armstrong, noticed under this head, the Rodman, with a heavy breech and light barrel, and the breech-loading Krupp. The artillery corps of the United States consists of a chief of artillery detailed by the president, fourteen colonels, a complete force of subordinate officers, and 18,000 men. The guns are divided into 30 batteries of field artillery and 126 batteries of coast artillery. To this showing the guns of the American navy should be added. Describing a recent test, Colonel Church gives a striking illustration of the power of modern ordnance. He says: The range of the sixteen-inch breech-loading rifle now at Sandy Hook is estimated at between twenty and twenty-one miles, the gun being elevated at the extreme angle of forty-five degrees, and firing a 2,400-pound projectile. At this range the projectile would rise at the highest point of its trajectory over five and one-half miles above the earth, 29,040 feet. This would carry it over Mont Blanc, with Pike's Peak piled on top of it. See Armstrong ; Krupp ; Fortifications; Battleships
Artillery Committee on Public Information 62449 Committee on Public Information
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
Committee on Public Information 62449 Committee on Public Information A BRITISH HANDLEY-PAGE BOMBING AIRPLANE Committee on Public Information A FIVE-MAN GERMAN GOTHA BROUGHT DOWN BY AMERICAN ANTI-AIRCRAFT FIRE Lwing Galloway ASSEMBLING AIRPLANE WINGS IN AN OHIO FACTORY. THE CUTTING AND JOINING ARE DONE WITH GREAT CARE Royal Air Force AN ANTI-AIRCRAFT 75-MILLIMETER GUN
Artillery FIGURE 2.-THREE 14-INCH GUNS IN A TRIPLE MOUNT
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
FIGURE 2.-THREE 14-INCH GUNS IN A TRIPLE MOUNT, FIRING SIMULTANEOUSLY Enc. Vol. 1-p. 282
Artillery THE 16-INCH GUN FOR BATTLESHIPS IS ABOUT EIGHTY FEET
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
THE 16-INCH GUN FOR BATTLESHIPS IS ABOUT EIGHTY FEET LONG S
Artillery RIGHT-HAND CORNER ARE THE SHELL AND THE POWDER CHARGE
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
RIGHT-HAND CORNER ARE THE SHELL AND THE POWDER CHARGE
Artillery OF CONSTRUCTION, POWDER CHARGE
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
OF CONSTRUCTION, POWDER CHARGE, AND PROJECTILE
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's in 1921 could still call artillery the "chief reliance of armies," and it was right: shellfire caused most casualties of the war it had just watched, and the French 75 it illustrated was the model field gun of the age. The guns themselves are recognisable descendants — the 155mm calibre of the American howitzer pictured is still the NATO standard — but almost everything around them has changed. Aiton's 1910 boast of a Sandy Hook rifle throwing a shell twenty miles has been overtaken by rocket-assisted and guided rounds: the GPS-steered Excalibur shell, first used in Iraq in 2007, is meant to land within a few metres at similar or greater distances, and truck-mounted rocket launchers such as HIMARS strike much further. Fire is now directed by counter-battery radar and cheap drones rather than by forward observers with field glasses, as the fighting in Ukraine since 2022 has shown — where artillery has again proved the biggest killer on the battlefield.
Written for this edition, 2026.