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Powder and Brass, a History of 19Th Century American Pistols

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Powder and Brass, a History of 19Th Century American Pistols 19th Century American Pistols (work in progress last updated 05.22.2017) message to self: self, to access internal links “control, right mouse click” at this time, links will not work on the web site Pre 19 th Century Events: (important dates in history of firearms http://www.americanfirearms.org/gun-history/ American Firearms Institute ) 1044: Earliest known written formula for Gunpowder from the Chinese Wujing Zongyao 1247: The first record of the use of Gunpowder in Europe is a statement by Bishop Albertus Magnus in 1280 that it was used at the Siege of Seville. 1354: Traditional date for the German monk Berthold Schwartz to “invent” gunpowder. 1425: Matchlock (“arquebus”) introduced. Uses a “serpentine” to arc taper into the flash pan loaded with a finer grade of gun powder. Guns were fired by holding a burning wick to a “touch hole” in the barrel igniting the powder inside. The Matchlock secured a lighted wick in a moveable arm which, when the trigger was depressed, was brought down against the flash pan to ignite the powder 1490: Corning of Gunpowder makes it coarser and burns better. European powdermakers began adding liquid to the constituents of gunpowder to reduce dust and with it the risk of explosion. The powdermakers would then shape the resulting paste of moistened gunpowder—known as mill cake—into “corns,” or granules, to dry. Not only did “corned” powder keep better because of its reduced surface area, gunners also found that it was more powerful and easier to load into guns. The main advantage of corning is that each corn contains the ideal proportion of the three gunpowder components. Prior to corning, gunpowder would gradually demix into its constitutive components and was too unreliable for effective use in guns] 1498: Rifling was invented. The first rifled gun barrels were made in the 1400s. This early date may be surprising, however it makes sense when one considers that arrow makers had learned to angle the fletchings on an arrow’s shaft to make it spin as it flew through the air, giving it greater stability. This technique carried over to firearms. Rifled barrels were rare until improvements in manufacturing techniques in the 1800s made them easier to fabricate 1526: Beretta Firearms founded. Sold 185 Arquebus barrels to the Arsenal of Venice 1540: Rifling appears in firearms. 1612: The muzzle loading, smoothbore F lintlock Musket was invented as an improvement on the matchlock and wheel lock muskets. Developed in France. A key contributor to this development was Marin le Bourgeoys who was assigned to the Louvre gun shops by King Louise XIII of France. 1670: Flintlock Revolving Rifle 1690: The “ Brown Bess ” was known in Ireland as a “King’s Arm” from its use by William at the Battle of the Boyne and would be used by the British Army for over 100 years 17??: Kentucky Rifle, Pennsylvania Rifle. ( Also pistol, battle of new orleans, document) 1776: American Revolution 1786 -1868 Henry Derringer. 1788: Elisha Collier born, died 1856. Had patent on a revolving flintlock. From Boston. This was improved upon by Colt for his 1836: Colt Revolving Cylinder Patent . See also P epperbox 1781: Gunpowder Ratio . Richard Watson DD FRS, Bishop of Llandaff, England, professor of chemistry, gunpowder for general purposes, proportions shall be saltpeter 75%, charcoal 15%, sulfur 10%. For British gunpowder it has remained the same ever since. 1795: Springfield Armory established. 1798: Eli Whitney Sr. established an arms production business and the company went on to manufacture several revolvers and rifles of outside origin. (name of business) 19 th Century Events: 1800: The First Baker Rifle * The Infantry Rifle, was the first standard-issue, British-made rifle accepted by the British armed forces. The Baker rifle has a ¼ twist of rifling for the entire barrel and that is the essence of a Baker rifle. Barrel was only 30 inches. (what about the enfield.) 1805: 1807? The Percussion Cap ignition system developed and patented by Reverend John Forsyth of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Explosive cap, contains fulminate of mercury, powder made of potassium chlorate, sulpher, and charcoal. Used first in a steel cap and then in a copper cap. Came into general artillery us nearly 30 years later.” Used by gunsmiths and private individuals before coming into general use by the British Military c. 1842. Same compound used in the paper or plastic caps in a child’s cap gun. See 1842 C opper Percussion Cap, and Percussion Cap of 1820. (review the dates and facts of the percussion cap and coordinate entrys) 1808: First integrated cartridge in Paris by Swiss gunsmith Jean Samuel Pauly with French gunsmith Francois Prelat. Fully self contained. Copper base with integrated primer and round bullet and either brass or paper casing. Loaded through the breech and fired with a needle. Improved version made by Pauly 1812. Some form of paper cartridges actually go back the 14th century. 1810: Christian Sharps Born January 2, 1810 – March 12, 1874. As a youth, Sharps worked for a gunsmith in New Jersey and then had an army apprentice position in the 1830's at the Harpers Ferry Arsenal, studied the early breech-loader Hall Rifle. Working for captain John Hall with the Hall Rifle is what gave him his design ideas for his own “Sharps” rifle. Reference 1848: Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company 1811: Hall Patent. The first serious military breech loader American invention, Colonel John H. Hall’s Patent This was made first as a flintlock, then as percussion, and is the first breech loader officially adopted by any army. The flintlocks were made till 1832, the percussion model from 1831 1814 -1862 Samuel Colt born July 19, 1814 Hartford, Connecticut, died January 10, 1862 age 47, in his home. 1818: Elisha Collier Patent invented a flintlock revolver around 1814. One of the earliest true revolvers, in contrast to the earlier Pepperboxes . Single-action, Collier's revolver was self- priming, produced from 1819 by John Evans & Son of London, and used in quantity by the British forces in India. Over 10,000 were made between 1819 and 1824. The origination of this invention is in doubt, as similar designs were patented in the same year by Artemus Wheeler in the United States and by Cornelius Coolidge in France. Samuel Colt saw these in 1832 which inspired him create his own caplock revolver: the Colt Paterson . ( 1836: Colt Revolving Cylinder Patent) In addition to handguns, Collier produced revolving shotguns and carbines in the 1820s. Only 150 of these now rare guns were made. 1820: Percussion Cap enabled muzzleloading firearms to fire reliably in any weather. This gave rise to the caplock or percussionlock system. Flints were converted to percussion caps. Before this flint-on-steel, Many flintlock firearms were later converted to the percussion system. Cap was made possible by the discovery of a chemical compound called mercuric fulminate, extremely explosive, shock sensitive. A sharp blow, or even too much finger pressure, can cause it to detonate. Small size made them difficult to handle under the stress of combat or while riding a horse. Accordingly, several manufacturers developed alternative, "auto-priming" systems. However, these automatic feed systems were difficult to make with the manufacturing systems in the early and mid-nineteenth century and generated more problems than they solved. In the 1850s, the percussion cap was integrated into a metallic cartridge, which contained the bullet, powder charge and primer. By the late 1860s, breech-loading metallic cartridges had made the percussion cap system obsolete. Colt Patterson Colt Handguns Percussion Cap 1820: The First Percussion Revolver was made by Lenormand of Paris in 1820 and the first Percussion Cap revolver was invented by the Italian Francesco Antonio Broccu in 1833. He did not patent it. In 1836 a similar handgun was patented by Samuel Colt, coordinate the time frames here. This does not make sence 1833: Christopher Minor Spencer was born. Was innovative and diversified inventor. Initial apprenticeship with Cheney Brothers silk manufacturing company. Did short stint at Colt. In spare time Cheney Brothers allowed him to use their work shop in off hours to develop his rifle. On March 6, 1860, Spencer received a patent on a lever-action repeater with a rotating block, which fed rimfire cartridges into the chamber via a tubular magazine bored through the buttstock. See 1860 for his lever action patent 1833: First percussion revolver was invented by the Italian Francesco Antonio Broccu in 1833. he did not patent it. In 1836 a similar handgun was patented by Samuel Colt , The first percussion revolver was made by Lenormand of Paris in 1820 (does not make sense, 1833 v. 1820? verify) 1834: The British army adopted the percussion cap. 1836: Colt Revolving Cylinder Patent . invented revolving cylinder patented Europe 1835 and US February 25, 1836. Expired 1857. This gave Colt a monopoly on revolvers for the next 20 years. Actually improved upon a revolving flintlock patented by Elisha Collier of Boston (1788 - 1856) 1836: Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company founded. Folded in 1842, His big break came when Captain Samuel Walker came to him to design and manufacture a heavier more powerful gun than the Patterson. This became known as the 1847 Colt Walker a .44 caliper . General Zachary Taylor (1784-1850) ordered 1,000 Colt revolvers. The guns were delivered to the Army in 1847. This was the rebirth of the company. Factory was in Hartford, was managed by Elisha K. Root (1808-65). Renamed Colt Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company in the early 1850s, a branch was established in London, and in 1855 a new Hartford factory–the largest privately owned armament manufacturing plant in the world–was built, he had introduced standardized production, division of labor, and assembly-line mass-production methods to his factory.
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