Huge 9.2" disappearing gun dating back to 1880's was discovered under a demolished swimming pool at a B&B in Cape Town
Disappearing guns are considered to be a uniquely British feat of military engineering, and Hart’s research has found very few of these cannon-sized ‘guns’ were used worldwide. According to documents found in the Western Cape Archives and Records Service, at least three disappearing guns were brought to the Cape from England. The New South Wales State Heritage Register mentions 10 of these mountings deployed in Australia, but according to Hart, almost all of these have been demolished. Only parts of one disappearing gun from Cape Town’s Fort Wynyard military base are known to still exist. The rest, as Hart explained, simply vanished.
Interestingly this was one of the guns installed by the British to ward off an expected attack by the Russians on South Africa!
"There was no electricity involved in turning these massive structures. The entire system was operated by gears and hand-wheels, while the self-lowering mechanism was powered by the weapon’s recoil. They were true marvels and a testimony to Victorian mechanical ingenuity,” said Hart.
Based on military records Hart studied, he knew that the gun barrel had been removed in 1913. “But by and large, the rest of the substantial mechanism for training the gun and elevating the weapon in and out of its protective shield had survived along with most of the gun pit, niches for munitions and firing tubes.” At the entrance to the ammunition port magazine, surviving paintwork gave this mysterious military site a name: the battery had been known as Alpha 1.
Because of the rarity of disappearing guns worldwide and the good state of the site’s preservation, Alpha 1 is recognised as a Grade 2 national heritage site, meaning it enriches the understanding of South Africa’s cultural, historical, social and scientific development. Plans for the museum, which developers hope to open in early 2020, include suspending parts of the gun’s original blast shield from the ceiling.
Read more and watch a short video at www.bbc.com/travel/gallery/201…
#cannon #miltary #capetown
source https://squeet.me/display/962c3e10-785c-c208-ab35-882415030135
Interestingly this was one of the guns installed by the British to ward off an expected attack by the Russians on South Africa!
"There was no electricity involved in turning these massive structures. The entire system was operated by gears and hand-wheels, while the self-lowering mechanism was powered by the weapon’s recoil. They were true marvels and a testimony to Victorian mechanical ingenuity,” said Hart.
Based on military records Hart studied, he knew that the gun barrel had been removed in 1913. “But by and large, the rest of the substantial mechanism for training the gun and elevating the weapon in and out of its protective shield had survived along with most of the gun pit, niches for munitions and firing tubes.” At the entrance to the ammunition port magazine, surviving paintwork gave this mysterious military site a name: the battery had been known as Alpha 1.
Because of the rarity of disappearing guns worldwide and the good state of the site’s preservation, Alpha 1 is recognised as a Grade 2 national heritage site, meaning it enriches the understanding of South Africa’s cultural, historical, social and scientific development. Plans for the museum, which developers hope to open in early 2020, include suspending parts of the gun’s original blast shield from the ceiling.
Read more and watch a short video at www.bbc.com/travel/gallery/201…
#cannon #miltary #capetown
source https://squeet.me/display/962c3e10-785c-c208-ab35-882415030135
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