Lancaster Gun

Smooth-bore, muzzle-loading gun, having a bore of oval cro -section and increasing twist; devised for English service by Lancaster ab. 1850. The projectile was an elongated one, having nearly the same oval cro -section, so as to allow for windage. When inserted in the muzzle and rammed to its seat, it was obliged to make a quarter of a turn. On being fired, rifled motion was thus imparted imparted to the projectile. The failure, by jamming the projectile in the bore, of some converted 8-inch and 68-pound cast-iron guns, during the Crime an War, led to the abandonment of the system.