How did automated loading for capital-ship guns develop?
Short answerIt advanced mainly through mechanization that moved crews into supervisory and control roles; complete automation remained an aspiration.
NotesModern automation implies removing most direct human action, but early twentieth-century designers usually meant progressively mechanizing shell and charge movement. People shifted toward observing indicators and pressing controls instead of hauling ammunition manually. Fully automatic systems were desired and influenced later turret studies, but contemporary technology did not quite deliver the sustained machine-gun-like battleship rate imagined by designers.