Invention for Improvement in the Construction of Ordnance

Ericsson, John · 1864

Ericsson’s improvement in the construction of ordnance was one of many inventive achievements, including the design for the battleship U.S.S. Monitor during the American Civil War. In 1863 he was granted a patent for this improved gun carriage. It allowed the cannon to recoil backward in its tracks when fired and was made to be worked by fewer hands within a confined space such as a gun turret.