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Mallet's Mortar was a British 
The gun used for testing is on loan to the
shell
Shell may refer to:
Architecture and design
* Shell (structure), a thin structure
** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses
** Thin-shell structure
Science Biology
* Seashell, a hard o ...
-firing mortar built for the Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...
, but never used in combat.
The mortar was designed by Robert Mallet
Robert Mallet (3 June 1810 – 5 November 1881) was an Irish geophysicist, civil engineer, and inventor who distinguished himself in research on earthquakes and is sometimes called the father of seismology. His son, Frederick Richard Mallet was ...
and was constructed in separate sections so that it could be transported.
Robert Mallet first made his design public in 1854. There was little response from the authorities until Mallet wrote to the then Prime Minister Lord Palmerston
Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865) was a British statesman who was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century. Palmerston dominated British foreign policy during the period ...
in March 1855. Palmerston was taken with the idea and instructed the Board of Ordnance to arrange for the construction of two mortars of Mallet's design.
Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company
The Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, Limited was a shipyard and iron works straddling the mouth of Bow Creek at its confluence with the River Thames, at Leamouth Wharf (often referred to as Blackwall) on the west side and at Cann ...
won the contract at a price of £4,300 per mortar. The company's bankruptcy resulted in the work being divided among three firms which managed to deliver the mortars in May 1857.
Testing began on 19 October 1857 with further testing on 18 December 1857, 21 July 1858 and 28 of July 1858. Each test was brought to an end by damage to the mortar. A total of 19 rounds were fired with a rate of about four shells an hour being achieved.
Shell weight was between . In testing with an charge it fired the lighter shell
Shell may refer to:
Architecture and design
* Shell (structure), a thin structure
** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses
** Thin-shell structure
Science Biology
* Seashell, a hard o ...
a distance of with a flight time of 23 seconds.
Both mortars are in the collection of the Royal Armouries
The Royal Armouries is the United Kingdom's national collection of arms and armour. Originally an important part of England's military organization, it became the United Kingdom's oldest museum, originally housed in the Tower of London from ...
, the UK's national museum of arms and armour.
The gun used for testing is on loan to the Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...
and is located at Repository Road, opposite the army base in Woolwich
Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained thr ...
, while the unfired gun is on display at the Royal Armouries
The Royal Armouries is the United Kingdom's national collection of arms and armour. Originally an important part of England's military organization, it became the United Kingdom's oldest museum, originally housed in the Tower of London from ...
Fort Nelson near Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
.
See also
*List of heavy mortars
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
*List of the largest cannon by caliber
The list of cannon by caliber contains all types of cannon through the ages listed in decreasing caliber size. For the purpose of this list, the development of large-calibre artillery can be divided into three periods, based on the kind of projec ...
References
;Citations ;Bibliography *External links
{{Commons category, Mallet's Mortar *https://web.archive.org/web/20110805194124/http://www.royalarmouries.org/visit-us/fort-nelson/galleries *http://www.victorianforts.co.uk/fortlog/mallet.htm Victorian Forts Website Mallet's Great Mortar *https://archive.org/stream/ballouspictorial1516ball#page/n333/mode/1up Ballou's Pictorial of November 20, 1858, had an extensive contemporary article on the mortar. Mortars of the United Kingdom 914 mm artillery Individual cannons