Small Arms Ammunition at the International Exposition Philadelphia, 1876

Abstract

As the hundredth anniversary of the independence of the United States approached, extensive plans were made to celebrate that occasion by an International Exhibition to be held in 1876 in Philadelphia. A major consideration was the desire to show the world the technological development which had put this country in the front in many aspects of design and production. The Civil War had provided a tremendous impetus to new inventions and methods in the field of arms and ammunition. The United States patent system, the War, and the expanding economy combined to produce a spate of new ideas not achieved elsewhere at any time. The military forces of other countries had been interested observers during the Civil War, and thereafter moved rapidly to re-arm their troops with the newly devised breechloaders. The ideas for these, developed in this country, together with the know-how for their mass production, focused attention on the Centennial Exhibition. The big interest was military, but the expanding West assured firearms manufacturers a ready civilian market for new products. In 1866, all foreign governments realized that they had to change from muzzle loading to breech loading firearms. Having many thousand stands of old muzzle loaders on hand their first immediate preoccupation was to convert these to breechloaders. Literally hundreds of ideas were proposed to make such conversions, usually accomplished by cutting off a short piece at the breech, screwing on a new breech incorporating some sort of devise for opening and closing it easily and securely. Most of these systems were rather clumsy, not adaptable to multishot capability, and the resulting arms were at once obsolescent because of their large calibers. Some of these designs, however, were very sound and have served for a long and useful duration, e.g., Remington rolling block, Sharps drop block, Peabody, Ballard, Morse. The last had features still used in most firearms, such as enclosed cartridge head, rebounding firing pin, and spring loaded hook extractors. In the ten year period 1866 to 1876, inventors had been very active in designing new systems not inhibited by having to start with an old gun. At the beginning of this period there were practically no standardized cartridges.<br/>Paper cartridges with powder and ball had been satisfactory for muzzleloading weapons, but they were fragile and subject to damage from moisture. More seriously, they were not adaptable to breechloaders, as they provided little or no seal for the joint between breech and barrel. Hence development of breechloaders and repeaters was directly tied to availability of suitable ammunition. Designers of effective early breechloaders had to come up with a practical cartridge too. It is still a truism that design of a good weapon must be concurrent with that of its ammunition.<br/>The War Department display at the Centennial Exhibition was an important part of the material shown by the Executive Branch. Springfield Armory and the Frankford Arsenal each presented exhibits and actual sections of their shops in which visitors could watch rifles and ammunition being made. The ammunition production line of 19 machines constituted the first public display of automation as we now know it. In the official report on the Exhibition it was stated, "&amp;hellip; no place seemed to arrest more the attention of the people, nor to hold them longer in contemplation, than that occupied by this machinery."1<br/>The Ordnance Department, U.S. Army, at the International Exhibition, 1876. 2 January 1877 letter of Lt. Col. S. C. Lyford, Representative of the War Dept. p. V. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 1884.<br/>By 1876, design and production of small arms ammunition had been rather well formalized. Further improvements were to be in detail and in process refinements rather than in major concepts. Smokeless powder, not then available, would later extend the capability of the cartridge, but the mechanical aspects had been worked out. Earlier breechloaders often used special cartridges not adaptable to any other arm. The field was wide open in the 1860s and many designers and inventors sought to devise a cartridge that would combine good ignition with a satisfactory seal at the breech. The National Armory at Springfield, Massachusetts, and Frankford Arsenal at Philadelphia worked intensively to these ends, concurrently devising machines for producing the cartridges they needed. The Services constantly sought flatter trajectory, which required smaller calibers with longer cases in order to limit the recoil to acceptable limits. More powder produced the required higher velocity, but the bullet then had to be smaller as the product of these two is involved in the recoil calculation. In order to draw the longer cases that were called for by the military requirements, drawing and annealing techniques had to be perfected. Often by the time a requirement was met, the Services again raised the performance level specified. Many of the ordnance officers and civilian employees at the arsenal suggested new approaches, most of which they did not bother to patent. Often civilian inventors here and abroad saw and copied these designs and took out patents in their own names. Though the gun design field was nearly pre-empted by civilians, the opposite was true in cartridges. Frankford Arsenal led the world in design and production of small arms ammunition.