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Caption: Elevating screw, brass six-pounder gun, 1793-1860

The use of an elevating screw was an innovation of the French Gribeauval artillery system. The screw was a much more precise and rapid way to raise or lower the gun's breech when aiming than the mechanism it replaced - a triangular wooden block. Elevating screws were introduced in the last third of the 18th century and adopted by all armies for their light calibre field guns. Shown here is a British brass six-pounder gun on a reproduction block-trail field carriage, found at Fort George National Historic Site, Niagara-on-the-Lake.