Alfred Krupp of the Krupp Works in Germany exhibited all-steel artillery at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Although the first steel guns were made of several separate pieces, improved techniques of metallurgy and larger production facilities soon resulted in heavy guns cast in one massive piece of steel.
Recoil, a growing problem with ever larger cannons, was reduced with the invention of a recuperator between the barrel and the gun carriage. Using a recuperator, the carriage of the cannon barely moves when the gun is fired. Gun crews no longer need to move the gun back into position after firing.
In the siege of Port Arthur in 1904-05 the heavy howitzers of the Japanese Army proved decisive, both by destroying the walls of the fortress and by battering the ships in the harbor.
This technology permits the recruiting of Railroad Gun and Mobile Artillery regiments, and the upgrading of older artillery to these more modern units.
