1.
Gunpowder
–
Gunpowder, also known as black powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate, the sulfur and charcoal act as fuels, and the saltpeter is an oxidizer. Black powder firearms are in limited use today in hunting, shooting, Black powder has been replaced for most industrial uses by high explosives such as dynamite. Black powder is assigned the UN number UN0027 and has a class of 1. 1D. It has a point of approximately 427–464 °C. The specific flash point may vary based on the composition of the gunpowder. Gunpowders specific gravity is 1. 70–1.82 or 1. 92–2.08, Gunpowder is classified as a low explosive because of its relatively slow decomposition rate and consequently low brisance. Low explosives deflagrate at subsonic speeds, whereas high explosives detonate, ignition of the powder packed behind a bullet must generate enough pressure to force it from the muzzle at high speed, but not enough to rupture the gun barrel. Gunpowder thus makes a good propellant, but is suitable for shattering rock or fortifications. Gunpowder was widely used to fill artillery shells and in mining and civil engineering to blast rock until the half of the 19th century. Black powder is used as a delay element in various munitions where its slow-burning properties are valuable. The spread of gunpowder across Asia from China is widely attributed to the Mongols, the earliest record of a written formula for gunpowder appears in the 11th century Song dynasty text, Wujing Zongyao. This discovery led to the invention of fireworks and the earliest gunpowder weapons in China, in the centuries following the Chinese discovery, gunpowder weapons began appearing in the Muslim world and Europe. The technology spread from China through the Middle East or Central Asia, the earliest Western accounts of gunpowder appear in texts written by English philosopher Roger Bacon in the 13th century. The most ardent protagonists were Nathaniel Halhad, Johann Backmann, Quintin Craufurd, however, due to lack of sufficient proof, these theories have not been widely accepted. A major problem confronting the study of the history of gunpowder is ready access to sources close to the events described. The translation difficulty has led to errors or loose interpretations bordering on artistic licence, early writings potentially mentioning gunpowder are sometimes marked by a linguistic process where old words acquired new meanings. For instance, the Arabic word naft transitioned from denoting naphtha to denoting gunpowder, saltpeter was known to the Chinese by the mid-1st century AD and there is strong evidence of the use of saltpeter and sulfur in various largely medicinal combinations
2.
Buffalo Bill
–
William Frederick Buffalo Bill Cody was an American scout, bison hunter, and showman. Buffalo Bill started working at the age of eleven, after his fathers death, during the American Civil War, he served the Union from 1863 to the end of the war in 1865. Later he served as a scout for the US Army during the Indian Wars. One of the most colorful figures of the American Old West, shortly thereafter he started performing in shows that displayed cowboy themes and episodes from the frontier and Indian Wars. He founded Buffalo Bills Wild West in 1883, taking his company on tours in the United States and, beginning in 1887, in Great Britain. Cody was born on February 26,1846, on a farm just outside Le Claire and his father, Isaac Cody, was born on September 5,1811, in Toronto Township, Upper Canada, now part of Mississauga, Ontario, directly west of Toronto. Mary Ann Bonsell Laycock, Bills mother, was born about 1817 in New Jersey and she moved to Cincinnati to teach school, and there she met and married Isaac. She was a descendant of Josiah Bunting, a Quaker who had settled in Pennsylvania, there is no evidence to indicate Buffalo Bill was raised as a Quaker. In 1847 the couple moved to Ontario, having their son baptized in 1847, as William Cody, at the Dixie Union Chapel in Peel County, the chapel was built with Cody money, and the land was donated by Philip Cody of Toronto Township. They lived in Ontario for several years, in 1853, Isaac Cody sold his land in rural Scott County, Iowa, for $2000, and the family moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Territory. In the years before the Civil War, Kansas was overtaken by political and physical conflict over the slavery question and he was invited to speak at Rivelys store, a local trading post where pro-slavery men often held meetings. His antislavery speech so angered the crowd that they threatened to kill him if he didnt step down, a man jumped up and stabbed him twice with a Bowie knife. Rively, the owner, rushed Cody to get treatment. In Kansas, the family was persecuted by pro-slavery supporters. Codys father spent time away from home for his safety and his enemies learned of a planned visit to his family and plotted to kill him on the way. Bill, despite his youth and being ill at the time, Isaac Cody went to Cleveland, Ohio, to organize a group of thirty families to bring back to Kansas, in order to add to the antislavery population. During his return trip he caught an infection which, compounded by the lingering effects of his stabbing and complications from kidney disease. After his death, the family suffered financially, at age 11, Bill took a job with a freight carrier as a boy extra
3.
Battle of the Little Bighorn
–
The battle, which occurred June 25–26,1876, near the Little Bighorn River in eastern Montana Territory, was the most prominent action of the Great Sioux War of 1876. The fight was a victory for the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne. The U. S. 7th Cavalry, including the Custer Battalion, five of the 7th Cavalrys twelve companies were annihilated, Custer was killed, as were two of his brothers, a nephew, and a brother-in-law. The total U. S. casualty count included 268 dead and 55 severely wounded, including four Crow Indian scouts, the battle, and Custers actions in particular, have been studied extensively by historians. Even though many of the native peoples eventually agreed to relocate to ever-shrinking reservations, among the Plains Tribes, the long-standing ceremonial tradition known as the Sun Dance was the most important religious event of the year. It is a time for prayer and personal sacrifice on behalf of the community, towards the end of spring in 1876, the Lakota and the Cheyenne held a Sun Dance that was also attended by a number of Agency Indians who had slipped away from their reservations. Col. John Gibbons column of six companies of the 7th Infantry and four companies of the 2nd Cavalry marched east from Fort Ellis in western Montana on March 30 and they were accompanied by teamsters and packers with 150 wagons and a large contingent of pack mules that reinforced Custer. They were later joined there by the steamboat Far West, which was loaded with 200 tons of supplies from Fort Lincoln, the coordination and planning began to go awry on June 17,1876 when Crooks column retreated after the Battle of the Rosebud. Unaware of Crooks battle, Gibbon and Terry proceeded, joining forces in early June near the mouth of the Rosebud Creek, as this was the likely location of Native encampments, all army elements were to converge around June 26 or 27, attempting to engulf the Native Americans. Custer had been offered the use of Gatling guns but declined, at sunrise on June 25, Custers scouts reported they could see a massive pony herd and signs of the Native American village roughly 15 miles in the distance. After a nights march, the officer who was sent with the scouts could see neither. Custers scouts also spotted the regimental cooking fires that could be seen from 10 miles away, assuming his presence had been exposed, Custer decided to attack the village without further delay. On the morning of June 25, Custer divided his 12 companies into three battalions in anticipation of the forthcoming engagement, three companies were placed under the command of Major Marcus Reno, and three were placed under the command of Capt. Frederick Benteen. Five companies remained under Custers immediate command, the 12th, Company B under Capt. Thomas McDougall, had been assigned to escort the slower pack train carrying provisions and additional ammunition. Unknown to Custer, the group of Native Americans seen on his trail were actually leaving the encampment on the Big Horn, Custers overriding concern was that the Native American group would break up and scatter. The command began its approach to the village at noon and prepared to attack in full daylight, the 7th Cavalry was created just after the American Civil War. Many men were veterans of the war, including most of the leading officers, six other troopers had died of drowning and 51 from cholera epidemics. Half of the 7th Cavalrys companies had just returned from 18 months of duty in the Deep South
4.
American Indian Wars
–
These conflicts occurred in the current boundaries of the United States from the time of earliest colonial settlements until 1924. In many cases, wars resulted from competition for resources and land ownership as Europeans, Warfare and raiding also took place as a result of conflicts between European governments and later the United States. These governments enlisted Native Americans tribes to help them conduct warfare against each others settlements, after 1776, many conflicts were local, involving disputes over land use, and some entailed cycles of reprisal. In the 1800s, conflicts were spurred by ideologies such as Manifest Destiny, in the years leading up to the Indian Removal Act of 1830 there were many armed conflicts between settlers and Native Americans. Prior to the Act of 1830, some conflicts were resolved through sale or exchange of territory through treaties between the government and specific tribes. The 1830 act authorized the removal of indigenous peoples who lived East of the Mississippi River to the West. As United States citizens continued to settle areas towards the Pacific, the policy of removal was refined to move some indigenous peoples to very specific reservations. The 2010 census found 2,932,248 Americans who identified themselves as being Native American, no consensus exists on how many native people lived in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus, but extensive research has been and continues to be conducted. Estimates on the population of pre-Colombus North America range from a low of 2.1 million to 7 million people to 18 million, scholars believe that the overwhelming main causes were new infectious diseases carried by European explorers and traders. Native Americans had no acquired immunity to diseases, which had been chronic in Eurasian populations for over five centuries. For instance, some estimates indicate case fatality rates of 80–98% in Native American populations during smallpox epidemics. They have cost the lives of about 19,000 white men, women and children, including those killed in individual combats, the actual number of killed and wounded Indians must be very much higher than the number given. Fifty percent additional would be a safe estimate, from about 1600 onwards, the process of European colonization of North America by the English, French, Spanish, Dutch and Swedish was contested by various indigenous tribes. Similarly, in the American Revolution and the War of 1812, the British planned to set up an Indian nation in what is now the Ohio-Wisconsin area to block further American expansion. The U. S. protested and finally, in 1812, most Indian tribes, especially those allied with Tecumseh, supported the British and were ultimately defeated by General William Henry Harrison. The latter were defeated by General Andrew Jackson, during and after such warfare, many refugees from defeated tribes went over the border to Canada, those in the South went to Florida while it was under Spanish control. During the early 19th century, the government was under pressure by settlers in many regions to expel Native Americans from their areas. Some resisted fiercely, most notably the Seminoles in a series of wars in Florida and they were never finally defeated, although some Seminole did remove to Indian Territory
5.
Wagon Box Fight
–
The Wagon Box Fight was an engagement on August 2,1867, in the vicinity of Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming, during Red Clouds War. A party of 26 U. S. Army soldiers and 6 civilians were attacked by several hundred Lakota Sioux warriors. Although outnumbered, the soldiers were armed with newly supplied breech-loading Springfield Model 1866 rifles and Lever Action Henry rifles and they held off the attackers for hours with few casualties, although they lost a large number of horses and mules driven off by the raiders. This was the last major engagement of the war, although Lakota, the area has been designated as a Wyoming State Historic Site and is marked by a memorial and an historic plaque. F. These would be the first major actions of 1867 against government forces in the area, following up the Native American successes in 1866. Unable to agree where to attack first, the Sioux and Cheyenne force - variously estimated at between 300 and 1,000 men - split into two bodies, moving against Fort C. F. Smith, and a number, mostly Sioux and possibly including Red Cloud. These jobs were performed by contractors, usually armed with Spencer repeating rifles. The hay cutters and wood gatherers had been a target of the local Indian warriors since Fort Kearny was established one year earlier. The Indians had conducted dozens of raids, killing several dozen soldiers and civilians. The soldiers were on the defensive, suffering a lack of horses and trained cavalrymen, but, the soldiers had recently been issued breech-loading rifles that could fire about three times faster than muzzle-loaders and could be more easily re-loaded from a prone position. The native population were poorly armed, probably possessing only about 200 firearms, bows and arrows were their basic weapon. To protect against raids near the pine forest, the contractors had constructed a corral. It consisted of 14 wooden bodies of wagons, which were removed from the chassis and placed on the ground in an oval 60-70 feet long, both soldiers and civilians in the wood-cutting details lived in tents outside the corral of wagon boxes but could retreat to it for defense. On July 31, Captain James Powell and his command of 51 troops departed the walls of Fort Kearny on a 30-day assignment to guard the wood cutters, until then, the summer had been quiet, with few hostile encounters with the local Native Americans. On the morning of August 2, Captain Powells force was divided, fourteen soldiers were detailed to escort the wood train to and from the fort,13 soldiers guarded the wood-cutting camp, about one mile from the wagon box corral. The Indian plan of attack on the woodcutters and soldiers was tried-and-true, similar to the plan used the year to kill Fettermans force. A small group of Indians would entice the soldiers to chase them, Crazy Horse was among the members of the decoy team
6.
A. Uberti, Srl.
–
Thanks to their quality, Uberti replicas are also sought after by collectors and historical firearm enthusiasts. Uberti is located in Gardone V. T, a suburb of Brescia, Italy, that has for centuries been the home to other firearm manufacturers and similar craft businesses. Independent for many years, Uberti was purchased and made into a subsidiary of Beretta Firearms and subsequently acquired by Benelli, also a member of the Beretta Holding Company. Aldo Uberti founded his company in the foothills of the Italian Alps in 1959 to recreate long-obsolete but iconic firearms from the days of the American West and the U. S. Civil War. The factory was in Gardone in the province of Brescia, a renowned for arms. In particular, a tradition of that area has been that of replicating foreign-style armor, most notably armor in the German style to be exported to. This was done in part to establish the area as an important arms-manufacturing center, which it remains today. Aldo Uberti had attended the Zanardelli gunsmithing school, and by age 14 he was already apprenticing with Beretta, a determining factor in his early career. He founded Uberti on the eve of the U. S. Civil Wars 100th anniversary, Ubertis first replica was the 1851 Colt Navy revolver, followed by other Colt civil-war-era models, later, he moved on to Remington and Winchester designs. It was during this era that Colt ceased production of their famous Single Action Army or Peacemaker revolvers, in the year 2000, Uberti was acquired by Beretta, thanks to whose substantial financing it upgraded the factory to a brand-new facility, thereby greatly expanding production capacity. Uberti firearms have been featured in numerous Western movies thanks to their authentic looks, other movie credits include Ubertis Colt Walker featured in John Waynes 1969 True Grit, as well as the same model in Clint Eastwoods The Outlaw Josey Wales. It is for this reason that Uberti has been called The King of Replicas by U. S. shooters and collectors. Furthermore, Ubertis faithfulness to the originals is such that internal parts of their current Colt replica may be interchanged with those of an original first-generation Single Action Army. S. Customer, with unfounded rumors about quality differences between the lines offered through various importers, the reason is that the product has been often marketed under the importers name rather than the manufacturers, with each importer naturally positioning their product as being the best. Currently, Uberti firearms come into the United States through three main importers, the first and largest is Stoeger, a member of the same parent company. The second is Taylors, a Virginia-based company that caters in particular to cowboy-action shooters, reenactors and collectors, the third is Cimarron Arms, a Texas-based company also specializing in the Cowboy-action market. The Beretta Holding Company acquired Uberti with the goal of dominating the market niche of replica firearms—a niche that up to that point Beretta had not entered. Through this acquisition, Berettas intention was to become the dominant force in this interesting market segment
7.
Bullet
–
The word bullet is a firearm term. A bullet is a projectile expelled from the barrel of a firearm, the term is from Middle French and originated as the diminutive of the word boulle which means small ball. Bullets are made of a variety of materials and they are available singly as they would be used in muzzle loading and cap and ball firearms, as part of a paper cartridge, and much more commonly as a component of metallic cartridges. Bullets are made in a numbers of styles and constructions depending on how they will be used. Many bullets have specialized functions, such as hunting, target shooting, training, defense, a bullet is not a cartridge. In paper and metallic cartridges a bullet is one component of the cartridge, bullet sizes are expressed by their weight and diameter in both English and Metric measurement systems. For example.22 caliber 55 grain bullets or 5. 56mm 55 grain bullets are the same caliber, the word bullet is often used colloquially to refer to a cartridge, which is a combination of the bullet, paper or metallic case/shell, powder, and primer. This use of bullet, when cartridge is intended, leads to confusion when the components of a cartridge are discussed or intended, the bullets used in many cartridges are fired at a muzzle velocity faster than the speed of sound. Meaning they are supersonic and thus can travel a substantial distance, bullet speed through air depends on a number of factors such as barometric pressure, humidity, air temperature, and wind speed. Subsonic cartridges fire bullets slower than the speed of sound and so there is no sonic crack and this means that a subsonic cartridge such as.45 ACP can be effectively suppressed to be substantially quieter than a supersonic cartridge such as the.223 Remington. Bullets do not normally contain explosives, but damage the target by impact. The first use of gunpowder in Europe was recorded in 1247 and it had been used in China for hundreds of years. Later in 1364 hand cannon appeared, early projectiles were made of stone. Stone was used in cannon and hand cannon, in cannon it was eventually found that stone would not penetrate stone fortifications which gave rise to the use of heavier metals for the round projectiles. Hand cannon projectiles developed in a similar following the failure of stone from siege cannon. The first recorded instance of a ball from a hand cannon penetrating armor occurred in 1425. In this photograph of shot retrieved from the wreck of the Mary Rose which was sunk in 1545, the round shot are clearly of different sizes and some are stone while others are cast iron. The development of the hand culverin and matchlock arquebus brought about the use of cast lead balls as projectiles, bullet is derived from the French word boulette, which roughly means little ball
8.
.45-70
–
The. 45-70 rifle cartridge, also known as. 45-70 Government, was developed at the U. S. Armys Springfield Armory for use in the Springfield Model 1873, which is known to collectors as the trapdoor Springfield. The new cartridge was a replacement for the stop-gap. 50-70 Government cartridge which had adopted in 1866. The new cartridge was completely identified as the. 45-70-405, but was referred to as the.45 Government cartridge in commercial catalogs. The minimum acceptable accuracy of the, a skilled shooter, firing at known range, could consistently hit targets that were 6 ×6 feet at 600 yards —the armys standard target. It was a skill valuable mainly in mass or volley fire, after the Sandy Hook tests of 1879, a new variation of the. 45-70 cartridge was produced, the. 45-70-500, which fired a heavier,500 grain, bullet. The heavier bullet produced significantly superior ballistics, and could reach ranges of 3,350 yards, which were beyond the maximum range of the. 45-70-405. While the effective range of the. 45-70 on individual targets was limited to about 1,000 yards with either load and it was hoped the longer range of the. 45-70-500 would allow effective volley fire at ranges beyond those normally expected of infantry fire. While the nominal diameter was.450 inches, the groove diameter was actually closer to.458 inches. As was standard practice with many early U. S. commercially produced cartridges, specially-constructed bullets were often paper patched and this patch served to seal the bore and keep the soft lead bullet from coming in contact with the bore, preventing leading. Like the cloth or paper used in muzzleloading firearms, the paper patch fell off soon after the bullet left the bore. Paper-patched bullets were made of soft lead.450 inches in diameter, when wrapped in two layers of thin cotton paper, this produced a final size of.458 inches to match the bore. Paper patched bullets are available, and some black-powder shooters still roll their own paper patched bullets for hunting. Arsenal loadings for the. 45-70-405 and. 45-70-500 government cartridges generally used groove diameter grease groove bullets of.458 inches diameter. The predecessor to the. 45-70 was the. 50-70-450 cartridge, adopted in 1866 and used until 1873 in a variety of rifles, many of them percussion rifled muskets converted to trapdoor action breechloaders. The conversion consisted of milling out the rear of the barrel for the tilting breechblock, the. 50-70 was nevertheless adopted as a temporary solution until a significantly improved rifle and cartridge could be developed. The result of the quest for an accurate, flatter shooting.45 caliber cartridge. Like the. 50-70 before it, the. 45-70 used a copper center-fire case design, a reduced power loading was also adopted for use in the trapdoor carbine
9.
Sharps rifle
–
Sharps rifles are a series of large-bore single-shot rifles, beginning with a design by Christian Sharps in 1848, and ceasing production in 1881. They are renowned for long-range accuracy, by 1874 the rifle was available in a variety of calibers and had been adopted by the armies of a number of nations and was one of the few successful designs to transition to metallic cartridge use. Reproductions of the Sharps rifle are currently made by different rifle companies, Sharps initial rifle was patented September 12,1848 and manufactured by A. S. Nippes at Mill Creek, Pennsylvania, in 1850. The second model used the Maynard tape primer, and surviving examples are marked Edward Maynard - Patentee 1845, in 1851 the second model was brought to the Robbins & Lawrence Company of Windsor, Vermont where the Model 1851 was developed for mass production. Rollin White of the R&L Co. invented the knife-edge breech block and this is referred to as the First Contract, which was for 10,000 Model 1851 carbines - of which approximately 1,650 were produced by R&L in Windsor. Sharps was to be paid a royalty of $1 per firearm, the Model 1851 was replaced in production by the Model 1853. Christian Sharps left the company in 1855 to form his own manufacturing company called C, Sharps & Company in Philadelphia, Richard S. Lawrence continued as the chief armorer until 1872 and developed the various Sharp models and their improvements that made the rifle famous. In 1874, the company was reorganized and renamed The Sharps Rifle Company and it remained in Hartford until 1876, whereupon it relocated to Bridgeport, the 1874-pattern Sharps was a particularly popular rifle that led to the introduction of several derivatives in quick succession. It handled a number of. 40- to. 50-caliber cartridges in a variety of loadings. Hugo Borchardt designed the Sharps-Borchardt Model 1878, the last rifle made by the Sharps Rifle Co. before its closing in 1881. Reproductions of the paper cartridge Sharps M1859 and M1863 Rifle and Carbine, the metallic cartridge 1874 Sharps Rifle and they are used in Civil War re-enacting, hunting and target shooting. The military Sharps rifle was a falling block rifle used during, along with being able to use a standard percussion cap, the Sharps had a fairly unusual pellet primer feed. The Sharps Rifle was produced by the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company in Hartford and it was used in the Civil War by multiple Union units, most famously by the U. S. Army Marksman, known popularly as Berdans Sharpshooters in honor of their leader Hiram Berdan. The Sharps made a superior sniper weapon of greater accuracy than the more commonly issued muzzle-loading rifled muskets, at this time however, many officers were distrustful of breech-loading weapons on the grounds that they would encourage men to waste ammunition. In addition, the Sharps Rifle was expensive to manufacture and so only 11,000 of the Model 1859s were produced, most were unissued or given to sharpshooters, but the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves carried them until being mustered out in 1864. Some Civil War-issue carbines had a feature, a hand-cranked grinder in the stock. Although long thought to be a mill, experimentation with some of the few survivors suggests the grinder is ill-suited for coffee. The modern consensus is that its purpose was for grinding corn or wheat
10.
Cartridge (firearms)
–
Military and commercial producers continue to pursue the goal of caseless ammunition. A cartridge without a bullet is called a blank, One that is completely inert is called a dummy. Some artillery ammunition uses the same concept as found in small arms. In other cases, the shell is separate from the propellant charge. In popular use, the bullet is often misused to refer to a complete cartridge. The cartridge case seals a firing chamber in all directions excepting the bore, a firing pin strikes the primer and ignites it. The primer compound deflagrates, it does not detonate, a jet of burning gas from the primer ignites the propellant. Gases from the burning powder pressurize and expand the case to seal it against the chamber wall and these propellant gases push on the bullet base. In response to pressure, the bullet will move in the path of least resistance which is down the bore of the barrel. After the bullet leaves the barrel, the pressure drops to atmospheric pressure. The case, which had been expanded by chamber pressure. This eases removal of the case from the chamber, brass is a commonly used case material because it is resistant to corrosion. A brass case head can be work-hardened to withstand the pressures of cartridges. The neck and body portion of a case is easily annealed to make the case ductile enough to allow reforming so that it can be reloaded many times. Steel is used in some plinking ammunition, as well as in military ammunition. Steel is less expensive than brass, but it is not feasible to reload, Military forces typically consider small arms cartridge cases to be disposable, one-time-use devices. However, case weight affects how much ammunition a soldier can carry, conversely, steel is more susceptible to contamination and damage so all such cases are varnished or otherwise sealed against the elements. One downside caused by the strength of steel in the neck of these cases is that propellant gas can blow back past the neck
11.
Remington Rolling Block rifle
–
The Remington Rolling Block rifle was a breech-loading rifle produced from the mid-1860s into the early 20th century by E. Remington and Sons. The action was extremely strong, and could withstand the increased pressure of the new smokeless powders coming into use by the late 1880s. Later models were produced in. 30-06 Springfield, 7×57mm Mauser, in.43 Spanish it was the chief service arm of the Spanish Army from 1870–1893, and was used by reserve and militia forces for many years thereafter. Many Rolling Block rifles were used by Argentina before being replaced in 1891 by the new 7. 65mm Mauser, the Remington rolling block also became the standard service rifle of the Danish Army. During the Franco-Prussian War, France acquired 210,000 Rolling Block rifles to make up for a shortage of the standard-issue Chassepot. In November 1914, production of the Rolling Block was resumed, in the form of a French contract for rifles in 8×50mmR Lebel,100,291 such rifles were delivered by 1916, and used to equip rear-line troops. Along with the Sharps rifle it was one of two rifles probably used more than any other by the hunters who hunted the American bison herds in the 1870s and 1880s. Rolling block, the operating principle Remington rolling block M1867, as used by the Swedish, Springfield Model 1870, as used by the United States Navy, produced by Springfield Armory under license. Springfield Model 1871, as used by the United States Army, produced by Springfield Armory under license
12.
Primer (firearms)
–
In firearm ballistics, the primer is a component of pistol, rifle, and shotgun rounds. Early primers were simply the same black powder used to fire the weapon and this external powder was connected though a tube in the barrel that led to the main charge. As powder wont burn when wet, this led to difficulty, or even the inability, modern primers are shock sensitive chemicals. In smaller weapons the primer is usually integrated into the rear of a cartridge, in larger weapons like cannon the primer is a separate component placed inside the barrel to the rear of the main propellant charge. The first step to firing a firearm of any sort is igniting the propellant, the earliest firearms were cannons, which were simple closed tubes. There was an aperture, the touchhole, drilled in the closed end of the tube. This hole was filled with finely ground powder, which was ignited with a hot ember or torch. With the advent of firearms, this became an undesirable way of firing a gun. The first attempt to make the process of firing a small arm easier was the matchlock, the matchlock incorporated a lock that was actuated by a trigger, originally called a tricker. The lock was a lever which pivoted when pulled. The match was a burning fuse made of plant fibers that were soaked in a solution of nitrates, charcoal, and sulfur. This slow-match was ignited before the gun was needed, and it would slowly burn, after the gun was loaded and the touchhole primed with powder, the burning tip of the match was positioned so that the lock would bring it into contact with the touchhole. To fire the gun, it was aimed and the trigger pulled and this brought the match down to the touchhole, igniting the powder. With careful attention the slow-burning match could be burning for long periods of time. The next revolution in technology was the wheel-lock. It used a spring-loaded, serrated steel wheel which rubbed against a piece of iron pyrite, a key was used to wind the wheel and put the spring under tension. Once tensioned, the wheel was held in place by a trigger, when the trigger was pulled, the serrated edge of the steel rubbed against the pyrite, generating sparks. These sparks were directed into a pan, called the flash pan, the flashpan usually was protected by a spring-loaded cover that would slide out of the way when the trigger was pulled, exposing the powder to the sparks
