Columbiad The Columbiad was a large caliber , smoothbore , muzzle loading cannon able to fire heavy projectiles at both high and low trajectories . This feature enabled the columbiad to fire solid shot or shell to long ranges , making it an excellent seacoast defense weapon for its day . Invented by Colonel George Bomford , United States Army , in 1811 , columbiads were used by the United States coastal artillery from the War of 1812 until the early years of the 20th Century . Very few columbiads were used outside of the U . S . Army ; nevertheless , the columbiad is considered by some as the inspiration for the later shell - only cannons developed by Frenchman Henri - Joseph Paixhans some 30 years later . History . The first columbiads produced in 1811 possessed a diameter bore and took a fifty pound projectile . The army did not widely adopt early columbiads due to initial high costs of manufacture . Only after 1844 did an eight - inch ( 203 mm ) model and a ten - inch ( 254 mm ) model see mass production . The eight - inch ( 203 mm ) columbiad could project a 65 pound shell or for solid shot ; the model weighed 9240 pounds . The ten - inch ( 254 mm ) columbiad weighed 15 , 400 pounds and hefted a 128 pound shell to or solid shot to . These cast iron weapons were typically mounted on seacoast carriages designed to recoil up a slightly inclined set of " rails " or wooden beams . The mounted columbiad could pivot left or right on a traversing rail . In most cases the arc of pivot was less than 180 degrees , but some batteries allowed 360 degree traverse . Just prior to the American Civil War , ordnance officer Thomas Jackson Rodman developed an improved version of the columbiad , which became known by his name . Specifically the Rodman gun was designed to reduce cracking and other weaknesses found in such large iron castings . The process involved ensured the iron cooled evenly from the inside out , and resulted in what we might call today a " soda bottle " shaped casting with smooth , tapered exterior . The " Rodman " process also allowed the manufacture of much larger bore columbiads . Between 1858 and the end of the Civil War , Northern foundries produced eight - inch ( 203 mm ) , ten - inch ( 254 mm ) , fifteen - inch ( 381 mm ) and twenty - inch Rodman style columbiads . The smaller bore columbiads shared similar range factors to the older weapons , but the fifteen - inch ( 381 mm ) models weighed over 25 tons and could fire 400 pound projectiles out to . The monster twenty - inch model weighed over 60 tons but could range to over . Very few of the largest types were built , and none were fired in anger during the war . The Confederate States also used columbiads extensively , mostly stocks captured from Federal arsenals at the time of secession . These acquitted themselves well against early ironclad warships . In addition , the Confederates produced limited quantities of eight - inch ( 203 mm ) and ten - inch ( 254 mm ) columbiads without the Rodman process ; these could not withstand sustained use . The Confederates also rifled some columbiads in an effort to improve weapon performance . After the Civil War , many columbiads remained in place at seacoast fortification s around the U . S . In the late 1870s several were rifled and tested for use against modern steel clad ships , with poor results . Strapped for funding , the post - war Army continued to carry smooth - bore columbiads on inventory lists until after the Spanish - American War , when modern breech - loading rifled cannon replaced them . Many columbiads are on display at Federal and state parks , " guarding " courthouse s around the United States , as well as in city parks with accompanying historical markers , commemorating the 19th - century seacoast fortifications . In fiction . In Jules Verne ' s novel " From the Earth to the Moon " , a giant columbiad space gun is constructed in Tampa , Florida after the American Civil War , with the purpose of striking the Moon . Although the cannon is originally designed to fire a hollow aluminum ball , a bullet - shaped projectile is later designed with the purpose of carrying people . It is now known that neither concept is viable using such a cannon . This fictional columbiad is made of cast iron six feet thick , is 900 feet ( 274 m ) long , and has a bore with a diameter of nine feet . It weighs more than 68 , 000 short tons ( 61 , 700 metric tons or 60 , 700 long tons ) and is therefore cast directly in the ground , rather than being mounted on rails . The cannon is then loaded with 400 , 000 pounds ( 180 , 000 kg ) of " pyroxyle " ( gun cotton ) to give the projectile sufficient velocity to leave Earth ' s atmosphere and reach the Moon . A vastly scaled down depiction of this fictional cannon was built as a launch cannon for the French version of at Disneyland Paris . Originally named " Space Mountain : " De la Terre à la Lune " " , the ride was loosely based on Verne ' s novel , and the attraction ' s exterior was built using a Verne - era retro - futuristic influence .