Most forts here still had parrot guns on display 
until the war effort of 42 when they were given up for scrap 
; and if memory serves me the edison telephone and the telgraph 
 were used to relay messages between the signal tower  and the gun 
enplacements as well as the flag man (in day time ) .......spam radio indeed !

I don't have it in front of me(but I will find it )  but it was the British 
engineers who first tested tested the different cannons against masonry ;
 and that is why fort builders turned to all concrete (1898)
 in their building structures .The forts ;the ones that stayed active
 into world war 2  have become  time capsuals 
of what was the latest  "Methods and Materials" 
of not only the 19th cent but the 20th as well .
The concrete structures mostly all painted  with  asphaltic tar 
which I understand is a mortar and tar  science in itself ; mostly to protect 
them from salt Py

   

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