The home of innovation and protection - Pittsburgh's rich history | KD Sunday Spotlight
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - The Steel City is home to many firsts and in today's KD Sunday Spotlight, I learned how Pittsburgh made one president's military dream a reality.
"The Germans couldn't do it, the British couldn't do it, the French couldn't do it, people had to come to Pittsburgh when you wanted something big," said Andy Masich, the President and CEO of the Heinz History Center.
Masich is referring to the biggest weapon ever created during the 19th century and it was born right here in Pittsburgh.
"During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln wanted a super gun that was so frightening that British and French warships would give American territorial waters a wide berth," Masich said. "So, in Pittsburgh, Thomas Jackson Rodman, who had been the commander of the Allegheny Arsenal, said we can cast a 20-inch caliber cannon."
That military engineering marvel could fire a half-ton cannonball four and a half miles when loaded up on top of 200 pounds of gunpowder.
"Eighty tons of molten iron had to be poured from three furnaces into the mold and then it took days to cool it but Rodman's big invention was to run water down through the center of the cannon as it cooled - cooling it from the inside out - that was a big innovation because previously, large cannons tended to explode when they were fired," Masich explained.
Rodman was far ahead of his time but hundreds of cannons and guns were developed using his methods.
"This model was made during the Civil War to instruct the cadets at West Point about this new method of casting cannons," Masich said.
Both the 15-inch Lincoln gun and the 20-inch Rodman gun were considered super weapons as well as unequaled examples of American power throughout the world during this time.
"Pittsburgh has always played a role in protecting America from the time it was founded in the 18th century at the confluence of the three rivers," Masich said. "Pittsburgh has been an essential part of the American experience and the American story."
