Artillery Gin
The contraption being shown in this article is an artillery gin. A gin is a device, often consisting of a tall tripod to which a winch is attached, used to hoist heavy loads off the ground. Here you can see two artillery workmen and two veteran cannoneers of the Imperial Guard using a gin to lift a heavy 12-pounder cannon tube. Gins were indispensable in arsenals or artillery parks to hoist hefty tubes and position them onto cannon carts for example. In the field, if need be, simpler and improvised devices might've been used instead of the somewhat cumbersome gin to perform the same tasks. The winch and its hook were connected to the cannon using a rope or chain and then by turning the winch pulling levers the tube was slowly lifted from the ground. When the tube was high enough in the air, the desired cart could be brought underneath the gin which, like this model, had to be quite tall to be able to straddle even the highest models of cannon carts. At last, the tube woul...