1in Steel Ball Bearing Mortar
From the Author: The mortar is a model of a gun I saw on the north bank of the Thames, hard by the Tower of London, where the English display some of their trophies of war. I took photographs and measurements. This gun is not in any scale since I started from the 1″ ball, but the proportions are right (Photo 1). Mortars of this type were mounted on the fored~ck of a bomb ketch which, under cover of darkness, crept in close under the walls of a harbor fortification. From this vantage point, safe from the guns of the fort which could not be depressed to bear on the little ship, it would lob bombshells up and over the battlements to the confusion of the enemy gun crews. The forestay of the mainmast was a chain, to withstand the heat and blast of the mortar.
This document contains complete blueprints, instructions and photographs of the process of manufacture.