during the Crimean War. The Naval Battle of Campeche made history because it was the first time both sides used explosive shells and the only time sailing ships defeated steamers. According to the Penny Cyclopaedia (1858): Development While the idea was notable in the advance of artillery, metallurgy had not advanced to the level needed for safe operation. The naval guns of this type were known for catastrophic failures: the chambers would burst in use. The long shells and large blackpowder charges needed to propel the shells put a stress on cast-iron cannon that often could not be contained. Further work by John A. Dahlgren, and Thomas Jackson Rodman improved the weapon to use both solid shot and shell safely. Adoption France In 1827 the French navy ordered fifty large guns on the Paixhans model from the arsenals at Ruelle and at Indret near Nantes. The gun chosen, the canon-obusier de 80, was so called because it was of the 22 cm bore diameter which would have fired an 80-pound solid shot. The gun barrel weighed 3600 kg and the bore was of 223 mm diameter and 2.8 m long, firing a shell weighing 23.12 kg. The guns were produced slowly and were tested afloat through the 1830s. They formed a small part of the armament on larger ships, with only two or four guns being carried, although on smaller, experimental steam vessels they, and the much larger canon-obusier de 150 of 27 cm bore, were proportionately more important. The paddle steamer Météore, for example, carried three canon-obusier de 80 pieces and six small carronades in 1833. Alongside the large guns which Paixhans had called for, the French navy also used a smaller shell gun, of the same 164 mm bore as its standard solid shot-firing 30 pounder guns and carronades, in larger numbers with first rate ships carrying over 30 of these guns. United States The United States Navy adopted the design, and equipped several ships with 8-inch guns of 63 and 55 cwt. in 1845, and later a 10-inch shell gun of 86 cwt. Paixhans guns were used on USS Constitution (four Paixhans guns) in 1842, under the command of Foxhall A. Parker, Sr., USS Constellation in 1854, and were also installed on the USS Mississippi (10 Paixhans guns), and USS Susquehanna (six Paixhans guns) during Commodore Perry's mission to open Japan in 1853. The Dahlgren gun was