August 2, 1864 Grandissima Ruina

In 1642, Italian gun maker Antonio Petrini conceived a double barrel cannon with tubes joined at 45° firing solid shot joined together, by a length of chain.  This was the year of the “Great Rebellion“, the English Civil War, when King and Parliament raised armies to go to war – with each other.  Petrini’s idea must have looked good to King Charles I of England. Imagine, a weapon capable of slicing through the ranks of his enemies, like grass before a scythe.

The idea was to fire both barrels simultaneously, but there was the rub.  Wild ideas occur to the imagination of imperfect combustion, and a chained ball swinging around to take out its own gun crew.  The King himself was mute on the subject and went on to lose his head, in 1649.  Petrini’s manuscript resides to this day in the tower of London.  There is no documented evidence…