Paixhans gun (naval shell gun)
Cañón Paixhans (obús naval de proyectiles explosivos)
- Date
- 1822-1824 · confidence high
- Place
- Metz, Grand Est, France
- Credited to
- Henri-Joseph Paixhans
- Field
- Conflict
What it is
A flat-trajectory naval gun firing explosive hollow shells instead of solid shot. Its destructive effect on wooden hulls was shown at Sinop (1853), where a Russian squadron annihilated the Ottoman fleet.
Explosive shells had long been used in mortars; the novelty was applying them to flat-trajectory ship guns by means of a safe delay fuze. Paixhans developed it in 1822-1823 and published his plan in 1822 (Nouvelle force maritime).
What it led to
- the armouring of warships
- modern naval artillery
- the end of the wooden ship of the line