Gun-carriage definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (3)

American Heritage Dictionary

Century Dictionary (3)

The carriage or structure on which a gun is mounted or moved, and on which it is fired. Naval gun-carriages formerly consisted of two sides or brackets of wood, mounted on wooden trucks and controlled by tackles; but the requirements of modern gunnery have caused wood to be replaced by brass and iron or steel, and simple tackles by powerful gearing and machinery. In the case of a field- or siege-piece the carriage unites, for traveling, with a fore part fixed on a pair of wheels, called a limber, to which the horses are attached, so as to form a single four-wheeled carriage. In action it is unlimbered or detached from the fore part, and then rests on its wheels and on a strong support called the trail. The protected barbette gun-carriage, also called the Moncrieff gun-carriage (after its inventor Major Moncrieff), is designed to store up the force of recoil on firing, and apply it to the work of raising the gun to fire over a high parapet. When fired the gun descends under cover by its own recoil, assuming at the same time the loading position, in which it is retained by a toothed wheel and ratchet. When reloaded, by releasing the ratchet, it is brought by a counterweight, which the force of the recoil has elevated, back to its original position. The carriage moves laterally on a circular rail laid on the platform, and can easily be turned in any direction. The same inventor has also designed a hydropneumatic carriage, in which the force is stored up in the form of air, highly compressed in a strong iron cylinder. Also called artillery-carriage.
Disappearing gun-carriage a gun-carriage so arranged that the gun after being fired descends, under the influence of the force of recoil, to the loading position behind the protection of the parapet, where it can be manœuvered without exposing the gun detachment to the enemy's fire. During the recoil of the gun sufficient energy is stored up, by means of a counterweight or by air-compression, to raise the gun to firing position when released. The Buffington-Crozier disappearing gun-carriage has been adopted for the sea-coast service of the United States. The gun is mounted upon levers trunnioned in a top carriage which rolls back under the force of recoil. The lower ends of the levers are compelled to move between vertical guides and raise a counterweight. The constrained motion on two lines approximately perpendicular to each other, thus causing the gun to describe an arc of an ellipse in recoiling, is the mechanical principle of the carriage.
Hydraulic-recoil gun-carriage in ordnance, one in which the recoil of the gun, when fired, is gradually resisted by pistons in cylinders filled with liquid. See gun-mount.