Lang Lathe/ 9.2 shell rabbithole

thanks, Gary!

This picture seems to be a demo of the metal removing capabilities of a heavy duty Lang lathe. A search for information on the Lang lathe led to the ad below from WW1, this machine's only purpose was for the manufacture of 9.2 Howitzer shells. A search on the 9.2 led to Wikipedia who says, "In World War I British service, the gun served only on the Western Front with 36 British, one Australian and two Canadian batteries. Batteries increased in size from four guns to six during 1916–17. So there seems to be only about 200 of these ponderous beasts in use, they can barely be counted as portable, requiring 36 hours to set up. Once set up they were known for their accuracy.

But as we see in the Ukraine these days, artillery requires a lot of ammunition and there are lots of pictures of crates and racks of just-manufactured artillery shells on the streets on Toronto and presumably other cities..

 

Royal Garrison Artillery David Gibbons

Alamy

And although these below are not 9.2 shells, some idea of scale of artillery usage.