Page "World's Columbian Exposition" Paragraph 69

The German firm Krupp had a pavilion of artillery, which apparently had cost one million dollars to stage, including a coastal gun of 42 cm in bore ( 16. 54 inches ) and a length of 33 calibres ( 45. 93 feet, 14 meters ).

A breach loaded gun, it weighed 120. 46 long tons ( 122. 4 metric tons ).

According to the company's marketing: " It carried a charge projectile weighing from 2, 200 to 2, 500 pounds which, when driven by 900 pounds of brown powder, was claimed to be able to penetrate at 2, 200 yards a wrought iron plate three feet thick if placed at right angles.

" Nicknamed " The Thunderer ", the gun had an advertised range of 15 miles ; on this occasion John Schofield declared Krupps ' guns " the greatest peacemakers in the world ".

This gun was later seen as a precursor of the company's World War I Dicke Berta howitzers.