ARTILLERY REGISTER |
||||
| Manufacturer: Armstrong, Sir William George: Elswick, b. 1810 d. 1900 | ||||
| In 1854, during the Crimean War, Armstrong read about the difficulties the British Army experienced in manoeuvring its heavy field guns. He decided to design a lighter, more mobile field gun, with greater range and accuracy. Armstrong surrendered the patent for the gun to the British government, rather than profit from its design, and received a knighthood. He became employed as Engineer of Rifled Ordnance to the War Department. In order to avoid a conflict of Armstrong created a separate company, called Elswick Ordnance Company, in which he had no financial involvement. Under his new position, Armstrong worked to bring the old Woolwich Arsenal up to date so that it could build guns designed at Elswick. |
||||
©