Tail screw
The tail screw (also known as the bottom screw ) is the screw that closes the rear end of the barrel on muzzle loading handguns.
The detachable screw connection was created in the second half of the 15th century . Before that, the heated rear end of the barrel was pushed over a smooth wedge pin and thus permanently locked.
The tail screw was forged from iron or cast steel , threaded 7-14 revolutions and then hardened . The nut thread was cut into the end of the barrel as a counterpart. The thread must be worked precisely because gases escaping to the rear could cause the barrel to burst.
The tail screw head is called the "cross". This serves as a screw head drive and enables the screw to be turned using pliers. In some designs, a hole is provided on the cross part with which the lock is attached.
Most often the tail screw has a nose-shaped extension called a tail screw blade, tail screw tail or tail screw nose. The tail screw blade was slightly curved and followed the shape of the shaft into which it was sunk flush. This is used for screwing with the shaft using the so-called cross-head screw (this does not mean the screw head drive) .
There are basically two versions of the tail screw, in one piece or in two parts. In the one-piece design, the tail screw blade is firmly connected to the threaded part. In the two-part design, the hooked tail screw and the tail screw blade are separate components. The tail screw has a hook with which it can be hooked into a suitable counterpart, the hook washer, on the shaft. The advantage of the hook is that the barrel can be removed more easily. At first this split version of the tail screw was thought to be not robust enough for the military, but was then introduced to some armies. Sometimes a visor notch is attached or filed as a rear sight on the nose of the tail screw.
In 1787 Henry Nock developed the design as a hollow screw, with a chamber for the propellant charge and an ignition hole for the ignition. Until then, the ignition hole led into the side of the barrel, which led to a non-optimal combustion process for the black powder . In the chamber tail screw, however, the ignition took place centrally from behind, so the black powder burned off faster and with greater intensity. They are then called the chamber tail screw.
1844 developed Louis Etienne de Thouvenin the spike gun , in which a mandrel at the bottom of the breech was attached and projected into the barrel. By strikes with the ramrod, the projectile could be compressed in such a way that it was set in rotation by the trains in the barrel when it was fired.
During the usual disassembly of the weapon by a soldier, the tail screw was not allowed to be removed. If necessary, this was carried out by qualified gunsmiths with suitable tools; the barrel was clamped in a vice . Unprofessional dismantling ran the risk of damaging the thread and loosening the screw. Also, the tail screw tail could easily be bent, which would result in it not fitting into the recess in the shaft.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Natale de Beroaldo Bianchini: Treatise on the fire and side guns. Verlag kk Hof- und Staatsdruckerei , 1829, p. 90, p. 124. (e-rara.ch)
- ^ A b c Karl Theodor von Sauer: Outline of the weapon theory. Cotta'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung , 1869, pp. 214–216. (archive.org)
- ^ Conrad Matschoss (ed.): History of technology. Volume 27, published by Julius Springer , 1938, p. 53. (books.google.de)
- ↑ a b c d Arwied von Witzleben: Heerwesen u. Infantry service of the k. prussia. Army. Edition 4, Verlag C. Grobe, 1854, p. 163 (books.google.de)
- ↑ Otto Ludwig Hartwig (ed.): Technological dictionary. Volumes 73–74, Nicolai Verlag , 1784, p. 77. (books.google.de)
- ^ Heinrich Müller: The army in Brandenburg and Prussia from 1640 to 1806. Volume 1: The armament. Brandenburgisches Verlagshaus , 1991, ISBN 3-327-01072-2 , p. 84.
- ↑ a b Friedrich von Müller : Waffenlehre, especially for use by infantry and cavalry officers of the Imperial and Royal Austrian Army , Carl Gerold's Sohn Verlag , 1859, pp. 176–177. (books.google.de)
- ^ A b Hans Eggert Willibald von der Lühe (ed.): Militair-Conversations-Lexikon. Volume VII, 1839, p. 525. (books.google.de)
- ^ Peter F. Blakeley: Successful Shotgunning. Stackpole Books, 2003, ISBN 0-8117-4370-5 , p. 20. (books.google.de)
- ^ William Wellington Greener: The gun and its development. Verlag Cassel and Company, 1910, p. 118. (archive.org)
- ↑ Oyvind Flatnes: From Musket to Metallic Cartridge: A Practical History of Black Powder Firearms. Publisher Crowood, 2013, ISBN 978-1-84797-594-2 , pp. 245-248. (books.google.de)
- ↑ Pioneer Service Manual. Verlag Carl Flemming , 1836, p. 67. (books.google.de)