A multi-chamber cannon is an artillery gun that has, in addition to the main throwing charge, additional charges of the throwing explosive (BB) located in additional chambers along the barrel at certain intervals.
The principle of multi-chambers was invented in 1878 by the French engineer Perrot ( French Louis-Guillaume Perreaux ). He created a project of the so-called “theoretical cannon”, which optimally uses the energy of a propelling explosive.
The Perrault cannon had one ordinary powder charge located in the chamber of the breech of the gun, and several additional charges of propelling explosives placed in separate chambers located along (along the length) of the barrel.
Additional projectile propellant charges ignited as the projectile passed through the barrel, maintaining constant pressure in it (within the strength of the artillery barrel). Thus, the “theoretical gun” had an almost constant pressure curve, and, therefore, the ability to give a projectile a projectile velocity that was unattainable in classical artillery due to the need to have an unacceptably large (for barrel strength) initial pressure to achieve high projectile speeds.
Having achieved the exact time of ignition of the charges (carried out in different ways), it is theoretically possible to significantly increase the initial velocity of the projectile without increasing the maximum allowable pressure in the gun barrel.
In 1879, Americans Lyman and Haskell embodied the Perrault cannon in the metal and, using ordinary smoke (black) gunpowder , got a projectile speed of about 335 m / s, which even in the era of smoke powder was not a very significant achievement in terms of the maximum achievable projectile speed.
After the invention of powerful smokeless gunpowder, Perrault's idea was forgotten before the Second World War.
One of the incarnations of the Perrault principle of the multi-chamber gun was the Conders gun - one of the attempts to create a “weapon of retaliation” , known as the V-3 , the “Millipede” and the “High Pressure Pump”.
Another famous attempt to embody the general principle of the “theoretical cannon” was the “Babylon Project” . The Big Babylon cannon, designed by the famous artillery designer of ultra-long throwing guns, Gerald Bull , besides the usual throwing charge located in the chamber of the breech of the giant gun, also had an elongated propellant charge attached to the shell, which moved along the barrel of the gun as it moved along the gun’s barrel the barrel, thereby maintaining constant pressure in the barrel.