
"The tale of Tula's oblique Lefty and the steel flea" ends with:
«- Tell the emperor that the British don't clean their guns with bricks. Let them not clean our guns either, or else, God forbid, they won't be able to shoot. Lefty said this clearly and died after crossing himself. ... The emperor never heard this, and bricklaying continued until the Crimean campaign. At that time, when they started loading the guns, the bullets would fall out because the barrels had been cleaned with bricks....
In a similar situation, if not worse, guns played a role, and that is what determined the fate of our protagonist..
In 1854, Vasily Kolchak, a 17-year-old cadet, joined the naval artillery. During the Sevastopol campaign, he was tasked with escorting the transportation of thousands of pounds of gunpowder from Nikolaev to the besieged city. After delivering the cargo, he was appointed assistant to the commander of a battery on the glacis near Malakhov Kurgan, an embankment with embrasures. On August 4th of the same year, Kolchak was awarded the insignia of the Military Order for his actions in extinguishing fascines (bundles of sticks and wicker baskets filled with earth) prepared by French troops to lay lodgements (trenches for gunners). This was the highest award available to lower-ranking soldiers, commonly known as the St. George Cross.
On August 27, after intense artillery preparation, the Allies launched an assault on the ruins of Malakhov Kurgan at noon and occupied the area, despite fierce resistance from the defenders. Among the seven survivors of the Stone Tower who were found among the bodies after the attack, one of them, Vasily, was seriously wounded. He was captured and taken to a camp on Prince Islands.
One of the reasons for the defeat was the weakness of the domestic military-industrial complex. The guns that participated in the defense against the Allied forces were:
26 – 3-pound fortress guns; 65 – 36-pound; 20 – 30-pounder; 178 – 24-pounder; 19 – 18-pounder; 4 – 12-pounder; 15 – 1-pounder unicorns; 15 – half–pounder unicorns; 26 - 5-pounder mortars.
In addition, the Russians could take off the ships: 10 – 2-pounder cannons; 20 – 1-pounder unicorns; 141 – 68-pounder cannon; 736 – 36-pounder cannons; 202 – 20-pounders; 30 –12-pounders.
It would seem incredible, but all of these weapons were either made of bronze or cast iron and were smoothbores with a range between 800 and 1000 yards.
At the end of 1854, the British Artillery Committee issued an urgent order to companies for guns that could fire "at ranges of up to 6,500 yards". The idea was simple - to fire at the enemy from distances that they could not reach. 68-pounder Lancaster cannons with an oval chamber and 1.25-turn rifling were introduced into service with the fleet. Although they could shoot at three thousand yards, this was still three times further than the Russian position.
Even Friedrich Engels wrote about the inefficacy of smoothbore guns:
« This was the final step in the debate about smoothbore guns. It showed that the issue had been settled and that those who supported smoothbore weapons had reached an absurd conclusion. Indeed, it would be ridiculous to arm an entire army's artillery with these large and slow-moving Prussian 12-pounder cannons, especially when mobility and quick maneuverability are essential.».
True, he wrote this about the German army, but only in the context of the aftermath of the Crimean War.
Upon his return from captivity in 1860, Ensign Kolchak was sent to study at the Mining Institute in 1861. He was among those who were better acquainted with physics and chemistry in order to be appointed as receivers of guns, shells, and metals from mining plants. The course of study included metallurgy, applied and theoretical geology, and theoretical and analytical chemistry. The country was rapidly rearming and needed front-line engineers. After passing exams, Kolchak went on a business trip to Abo in Finland and then to metallurgical plants in the Urals. A few months later, he received a new appointment. In 1863, Vasily Ivanovich, in connection with the creation of the state Obukhov steel mill, became the head of the workshop in it and until the end of his life a faithful colleague of the graduate of the same Mining Pavel Obukhov.
In 1857, Pavel Matveyevich was granted a patent for a method he had developed for the mass production of high-quality crucible steel. This method involved the use of iron ore in the crucible process, ensuring that steel with a constant composition could be obtained despite differences in the initial materials' carbon content. After this stage, barrel casting became possible. We started by casting guns. The Obukhov guns, manufactured in Zlatoust, could withstand 14 gunpowder charges each, while the Krupp guns could only withstand eight. Both guns were cast from the same steel.
The case was of great importance for the state, and the progress of the work was regularly reported to Alexander II. The emperor personally instructed on the allocation of funds for gun testing, which involved calculating the number of shots a cannon could withstand. As a result, none of the foreign cannons crossed the two-thousand-shot mark, and the Obukhovskaya cannon stood up to twice that amount - during the period from November 26, 1860 to March 8, 1861, a total of 4,017 shots were fired from this gun. The appearance of the Obukhov Cannon revolutionized cannon production and, by affecting the entire military might of the country, made Russia one of the leading military powers in the world.
Vasily Ivanovich is responsible for puddling, which is the process of transforming cast iron into a soft, low-carbon form. This process involves melting cast iron in a special furnace without any contact with fuel, and mixing the molten metal using special rods. The molten iron sticks to the rods, forming a doughy mass that can weigh up to 40-60 kilograms. After being removed from the puddling furnace, the iron is forged and flattened. Puddled iron has good weldability and high ductility, and contains minimal impurities such as phosphorus, sulfur, and non-metallic inclusions.
The difficulty and responsibility of this work in the overall technological process is indicated not only by the production figures, but also by the fact that, after twenty-five years of service at the factory in 1889, the author retired as a major general and wrote a seminal work titled "The History of the Obukhov Steel Mill and its Connection to the Progress of Artillery Technology."
И, наверное, все уже поняли, что Василий Колчак – отец Верховного правителя России и исследователя Севера Александра Колчака. Но это уже совершенно другая история…