Original Cartridges

[fahnenschmied]

Thought I'd post a link to this fella's website, a collection of paper cartridges. Some of them are of no interest here, but there are some nice photos of various English .577 cartridges, some London colt pistol ammnunition, and especially interesting to me, as well as perhaps some of us Confederates, a Lorenz cartridge, made of recycled paper. Also some various carbine cartridges.

http://www.ch-munition.ch/sammlung_papierpatr/sammlung_clips.htm

Inspires me to make a few more sets of "living history" cartridges...

[Guardsman]

It always amazes me of how many ways you can do something to accomplish the same task. In this case hold projectile and propellant together.

Jim Fortnam

[fahnenschmied]

Yes, amazing, and many hours were spent by ordnance workers trying to make them better. There were a few tries to combine powder, projectile and primer in a muzzleloading cartridge too - at the very top photo, on the left, is a Danish Restell. There is a cardboard loop that held a percussion cap; I believe you primed first then tore the cartridge by drawing it away from the vent. Some of the Austrian tube-lock cartridges had the primer wired or tied to a cardboard pice that tore the round open as well. I wonder if the intent was to speed the rate of fire, or simply to retain the same commands needed for loading a flintlock....
For some time England experimented with cartridge tubes, made from special tubular paper, like a paper sausage casing, but they evidently never quite perfected the paper-making machinery. If you could buy that it would sure make quick work of making blanks...

[fahnenschmied]

This book

http://books.google.com/books?id=xVIBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA32&dq=Rifle+ammunition,+notes+on+the+manufactures&hl=en&ei=chk9TIqLFcL48AbklpyqBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#

has a wealth of info of how every part of an English cartridge was made, incuding a description of the sorts of paper used - with mention of the "bags" or preformed tubes experimented with, the bullets, the plugs, the caps, etc. Of interest is the description of the packing kegs - barrels made mostly of "American" wood. No mention at all of boxes. Also shown is a passably good and useable depiction of a packet label.

[Enfield]

It's amazing, what is on the internet these days. When I was in grad school many years ago, I had interlibrary loan get me an original copy of Hawes' book from England, and then I had to carefully copy every page. And here it is, as a searchable pdf. :)

Thanks for that link, David!

Geoff Walden