Editing World's Columbian Exposition (section)

=== Guns and artillery ===
[[File:The great Krupp building, Columbian Exposition, by Kilburn, B. W. (Benjamin West), 1827-1909.jpg|thumb|[[Stereoscopic]] image of the Great [[Krupp]] Building]]

The German firm [[Krupp]] had a pavilion of artillery, which apparently had cost one million dollars to stage,<ref name="Rosenberg2008" /> including a coastal gun of 42&nbsp;cm in bore (16.54&nbsp;inches) and a length of 33 calibres (45.93 feet, 14 meters). A breech-loaded gun, it weighed 120.46 [[long ton]]s (122.4 metric tons). According to the company's marketing: "It carried a charge projectile weighing from 2,200 to 2,500 pounds which, when driven by 900 pounds of [[brown powder]], was claimed to be able to penetrate at 2,200 yards a wrought-iron plate three feet thick if placed at right angles."<ref>John Birkinbine (1893) "Prominent Features of the World's Columbian Exposition", ''Engineers and engineering'', Volume 10, p. 292; for the metric values see {{cite book|author=Ludwig Beck|title=Die geschichte des eisens in technischer und kulturgeschiehtlicher beziehung: abt. Das XIX, jahrhundert von 1860 an bis zum schluss.|year=1903|publisher=F. Vieweg und sohn|page=1026}}</ref>

Nicknamed "The Thunderer", the gun had an advertised range of 15 miles. On this occasion [[John Schofield]] declared Krupps' guns "the greatest peacemakers in the world".<ref name="Rosenberg2008">{{cite book|author=Chaim M. Rosenberg|title=America at the fair: Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition|year=2008|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-0-7385-2521-1|pages=229–230}}</ref> This gun was later seen as a precursor of the company's World War I [[Dicke Berta]] howitzers.<ref name="Schirmer1937">{{cite book|author=Hermann Schirmer|title=Das Gerät der Artillerie vor, in und nach dem Weltkrieg: Das Gerät der schweren Artillerie|year=1937|publisher=Bernard & Graefe|page=132|quote=Der Schritt von einer kurze 42-cm-Kanone L/33 zu einer Haubitze mit geringerer Anfangsgeschwindigkeit und einem um etwa 1/5 geringeren Geschossgewicht war nich sehr gross.}}</ref>