1. See, for example, Todd Shallet, ‘Building Waterways, 1802–1861, Science and the United States Army in Early Public Works’,Technology & Culture, 31 (1990), 18–50 andStructures in the Stream: Water, Science and the Rise of the US Army Corps of Engineers(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994).
2. The three volumes are: Officers of the Ordnance Department,Reports on the Strength and other Properties of Metals for Cannon(Philadelphia, 1856); T. J. Rodman,Reports of Experiments on the Properties of Metals for Cannon(Boston, 1861); A. A. Humphreys and H. L. Abbot, ‘Report upon the Physics and Hydraulics of the Mississippi River’,Professional Papers of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, United States Army(Philadelphia, 1861).
3. The Third System forts typically had multiple tiers of guns placed behind thick masonry or ashlar walls. A number of them, such as Fort Knox in Maine, survive. The cannon failures are described by Louis F. Gorr, ‘The Foxall Columbian Foundry: An Early Defence Contractor in Georgetown’,Records of the Columbia Historical Society, 71/72 (1971–72), 34–59.
4. Lee M. Pearson, ‘The ‘Princeton’ and the ‘Peacemaker’: A Study in Nineteenth Century Naval Research and Development’,Technology & Culture, 7·2 (1966), 163–83; Edward L. Beach,United States Navy: 200 Years(New York: Holt, 1986).
5. Alexander L. Holley,A Treatise on Arms and Armour(New York: Van Nostrand, 1865).