Parrott, Robert Parker

▪ American inventor

born Oct. 5, 1804, Lee, N.H., U.S.

died Dec. 24, 1877, Cold Spring, N.Y.

      U.S. inventor who developed the rifled cannon known as the Parrott gun, the most formidable cannon of its time.

      Parrott was graduated from the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., in 1824 but resigned from the army in 1836 to become superintendent of the West Point Foundry. In 1861 he patented both a method of building stronger cannon by shrinking bands of wrought iron around a cast breech and a projectile suitable for muzzle-loading rifled cannon. The projectile had an encircling brass ring that expanded upon firing to fit the rifling grooves of the barrel. Parrott guns were widely used on land and at sea during the U.S. Civil War.

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