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Fire-control system
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===Coast artillery fire control=== <!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Battery Fire Control.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Figure 1. A cutaway drawing of a battery's fire control system.|''Figure 1''. A cut-away drawing of a Coast Artillery battery, showing its two base end stations (upper left), the plotting room (with plotting board), and the directing point (between the two guns), with their displacement from it.]] -->[[File:Fire Control Data Flow.jpg|thumb|upright=1|''Figure 2''. A conceptual diagram of the flow of fire control data in the Coast Artillery (in 1940). The set forward point of the target was generated by using the plotting board (1). This position was then corrected for factors affecting range and azimuth (2). Finally, fire was adjusted for observations of the actual fall of the shells (3), and new firing data were sent to the guns.]]In the [[United States Army Coast Artillery Corps]], [[Coast Artillery fire control system]]s began to be developed at the end of the 19th century and progressed on through World War II.<ref>For early background, see "Fire Control and Position Finding: Background" by Bolling W. Smith in Mark Berhow, Ed., "American Seacoast Defenses: A Reference Guide," CDSG Press, McLean, VA, 2004, p. 257.</ref> Early systems made use of multiple observation or [[base end station]]s (see ''Figure 1'') to find and track targets attacking American harbors. Data from these stations were then passed to [[plotting room]]s, where analog mechanical devices, such as the [[plotting board]], were used to estimate targets' positions and derive firing data for batteries of coastal guns assigned to interdict them. [[Seacoast defense in the United States|U.S. Coast Artillery forts]]<ref>See for example, the write-up on [[Fort Andrews]] in Boston Harbor for a summary of artillery assets and fire control systems typical of these defenses.</ref> bristled with a variety of armament, ranging from 12-inch coast defense mortars, through 3-inch and 6-inch mid-range artillery, to the larger guns, which included 10-inch and 12-inch barbette and disappearing carriage guns, 14-inch railroad artillery, and 16-inch cannon installed just prior to and up through World War II. Fire control in the Coast Artillery became more and more sophisticated in terms of [[corrected firing data|correcting firing data]] for such factors as weather conditions, the condition of powder used, or the Earth's rotation. Provisions were also made for adjusting firing data for the observed fall of shells. As shown in Figure 2, all of these data were fed back to the plotting rooms on a finely tuned schedule controlled by a system of time interval bells that rang throughout each harbor defense system.<ref>For a complete description of fire control in the Coast Artillery, see "FM 4-15 Coast Artillery Field Manual-Seacoast Artillery Fire Control and Position Finding," U.S. War Department, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1940.</ref> It was only later in World War II that electro-mechanical [[gun data computer]]s, connected to coast defense radars, began to replace optical observation and manual plotting methods in controlling coast artillery. Even then, the manual methods were retained as a back-up through the end of the war.
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