Eprouvette Mortar ~ 1858
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The eprouvette mortar was not a weapon; it was made for testing the strength of black powder. It consists of a short mortar tube mounted on a baseplate at a forty five degree angle. When loaded with one ounce of powder, the eprouvette would fire a precisely weighed 24 lb. shot a given distance. A distance of 225 yards was the minimum for acceptable cannon powder. Good quality cannon powder would give a range of 280 to 300 yards. It was discovered that the theory behind this method of testing the quality of powder was faulty which led to the eprouvette falling into disuse by the beginning of the Civil War. It was found that the size of the powder grains greatly influenced the burn rate of the powder and thus the range, especially when used with the very short barrel of the eprouvette. Additionally, the power of the powder did progress uniformly as the quantity increased and force exerted by a pound of powder was generally far greater than than sixteen times that for an ounce of powder. This eprouvette, made in 1858, was likely the last one made for the U.S. Army. The initials PVH indicate that it was inspected by Captain Peter Valentine Hagner prior to its acceptance by the U.S. Army. It was mounted in front of Batteries Anderson and Ruggles at Fort Monroe for many years, then moved to Casemate Museum in 1971. It was transferred to the Artillery Museum when Fort Monroe closed in September 2011.
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