The original invention of a gun to fire an explosive charge with compressed air was the work of D. M.
Medford of Chicago, Illinois. His prototype was demonstrated in 1883 at Fort Hamilton, New York.
Edmund Zalinski, an American artillery officer, saw the demonstration, and over the next few years improved the design, building and demonstrating a series of prototypes. Some of his work took place at Fort Lafayette, New York.
The Navy was impressed, and commissioned the construction of a specialized "dynamite gun cruiser." The USS Vesuvius, launched in 1888, was armed with three fifteen-inch pneumatic guns capable of firing an explosive projectile 1.5 miles (2.4 km), and eventually bombarded Cuba in the Spanish-American War. The projectiles were sometimes called "aerial torpedoes"