Taking a break from my work to walk along the city wall. If the cows every become rebellious and try to take the city we are well prepared.
I was listening to a sf story from 1939 when I heard and unintentionaly humorous line. The story takes place on a habitable planet Venus and the explorers have befriended the natives. As they are flying toward a city, the Captain points at the city wall and asks, “What are those things that look like giant ray guns?” Um….. So this picture is the one which came to mind.
They are fine canon indeed!
These days they are powered by their own generator, but there is some old switching gear in the basement of the Clockhaven power station that sugests once the power station was used to power them.
A couple of years back I sent some ratworks along the old conduits, they do indeed lead out to the walls although there are no cables, probably taken for some other use.
You know, “Those look like giant rayguns” or the like would make a good name for a steampunk band, or a song, or both.