“I used to have a bad record with soap, but now my slate is clean.”
Robert Parker ParrottBorn 5 Oct 1804; died 24 Dec 1877 at age 73.U.S. inventor who developed the rifled cannon known as the Parrott gun, the most formidable cannon of its time. He graduated from West Point Military Academy (1824), and spent 12 years with the Army, gaining ordinance experience. He was the army's inspector of ordinance at the private firm, West Point Foundry at Cold Spring when he retired from the army to become its civilian superintendent (31 Oct 1836) for 41 years. He perfected and manufactured a 10 pounder rifled cannon. It used a projectile with an encircling brass ring that expanded upon firing to fit the rifling grooves of the barrel. He patented both in 1861. Production of 20- and 30-pounder designs followed. During the Civil War years, he developed the Parrott sight and fuze. |
