Part II, super heavy guns in 1890s - 1900s:
In the 1890s, it was assumed that it would be possible to use an 11-inch (280 mm) mortar or a 9-inch (229 mm) gun for transportation on regular highways, and a 280 mm gun for transportation on the special Decauville railway. It was supposed to buy a license for 13.5-inch (343 mm) guns in Britain or for 14-inch (356 mm) Krupp guns in Germany, and create single-caliber coastal mortars with them, which could be used, among other things, in siege artillery. However, the Obukhov plant was unable to manufacture a 13.5-inch gun, so 13.5-14 inch mortars were also abandoned at that time. In addition, guns using smokeless powder appeared at that time.
While the Obukhov plant was mastering the production of the 12-inch (305 mm) L/40 naval gun, the plant proposed to manufacture a 14-inch (356 mm) siege gun and a 14-inch mortar. The gun had a barrel weight of either 1,500 poods (24.57 tons, "light") or 2,100 poods (34.4 tons, "heavy"), the mortar had a barrel weight of 900 poods (14.74 tons) and a breech weight of 50 poods (819 kg). The projectile used weighed 31 poods (507.8 kg), according to my estimates, the speed should have been up to 1500 fps (457 mps) for a “light” gun, up to 1900 fps (579 mps) for a “heavy” gun, and up to 1000 fps (305 mps) for a mortar. The Artillery Committee considered this proposal for a long time, and in the end nothing was decided. In fact, the Russians lost some of the most powerful siege guns of the time because of this.
The same thing happened with the 10-inch (254 mm) long-range mortar, which was supposed to use 225 kg shells from 10-inch naval and coastal guns.
