Springfield Model 1855 Rifle
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The design of the Model 1855 US Springfield originally had a feature, known as the Maynard tape primer, which resulted in the unique high hump under the familiar arch-shaped hammer. There were two different firearms which should not be confused, the Model 1855 Rifle, and the Model 1855 Rifle-musket.
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[edit] Invention
Dr. Edward Maynard was a dentist by trade, and a former West Point cadet who had to drop-out (poor health). Maynard went on to study dentistry in both Europe and the United States. He invented a number of dental instruments and introduced the method of filling cavities in teeth with gold foil. He also invented the Maynard carbine breechloader and the patented tape primer system. His primer was submitted to the Ordnance board at West Point in 1845.
[edit] Patent Wording
The patent for it read:
- I claim as my invention, and as distinguished from all others before known is first, making primers of fulminating mixtures, or such compounds as ignite by percussion in a continuous series, each primer…being separated from the others by a substance which is more or less combustible than the fulminating mixture, by which one or more may be exploded without communicating fire to the others. Secondly, the mode of moving and measuring out the primers by movement of the lock…"
The original idea was for the conversion of flintlocks to percussion, and the first alterations had the primer magazine outside the stock, and did not permit use of regular percussion caps. In 1851, the Ordnance Department suggested an improved lock, in which the primer was imbedded in the lock plate. This design was used on the MODEL 1855.
The roll of tape was placed inside a compartment behind the door on the lock plate, and advance as the hammer was cocked. This would potentially save the soldier a few precious seconds necessary to place a percussion cap over the cone during loading. Maynard advertised his device as a godsend, "since the act of priming...is the most difficult the soldier has to perform in battle.” That has not been my experience, but it may have some merit in the cold, or when you hands are gloved, or wet. However, a "capping" device, a little magazine that holds and dispenses percussion caps, works best of all, if you are inclined to be clumsy. Maynard made his roll of caps in a strip of paper, and waterproofed them by sealing with varnish. There were about fifty to a roll. Much as in a modern cap gun, the priming strip was held in a receptacle within the lock plate and moved along by a feeding mechanism.
[edit] First Use
In 1857 the Springfield Armory began producing the Model 1855 rifled musket, and it got its first test on or around 1 September 1858 in the Pacific Northwest at the Battle of Four Lakes (Spokane Plains) where the Northern tribes greatly outnumbered US troops. The attacking warriors were dispatched by US troops armed with the Model 1855 rifle-musket before they could get in range with their smoothbores.
[edit] Design Changes
The cost of the primer's feeding mechanism, as well as its delicacy (it fouled easily with mud and other debris), caused the design to be changed when the American Civil War began. The nearly ubiquitous Model 1861 US Springfield was an update of the Model 1855, with the exclusion of the Maynard Tape Primer, no patch box and a few other mostly cosmetic alterations.
The arch-shaped hammer on the Model 1855, necessary to accommodate the tape primer, was technically obsolete at the time the Model 1861 was being made. The shape was retained for ease of manufacture and because the Model 1861 was seen as an update of the MODEL 1855, rather than a completely different design. This hammer shape, and the necessity of placing the bolster farther from the firing chamber to accommodate it, resulted in a treacherous path for the charge from the cap to travel on its way to the barrel.
[edit] External link
- Article on the U.S. Model 1855 Rifle (about the 1855 Rifle, not Model 1855 Rifle-Musket]
