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Rodman GunThe Rodman Gun was an 80-ton cannon produced during the American Civil War. It was the largest gun in the world at the time. The cannon was made at the C. Knapp Foundry in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, later the Fort Pitt Foundry and now Mackintosh-Hemphill. Named for Lt. Thomas J. Rodman, commander of the Allegheny Arsenal, it was designed to project an iron ball up to seven miles. Rodman designed several other heavy guns of lesser size and they were also known as Rodman guns. Thomas Jefferson Rodman(1815-71) was born at Salem, Indiana and graduated at West Point in 1841. Ordnance became his field of endeavor. He realized that a stronger gun barrel could be constructed by first cooling the inside of a gun casting while the outside remained hot. Cooling the hot outside lastly produced compression on the already cooled interior of the gun casting which strengthened the casting. A gun casting using the Rodman method was tested in 1849.
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