Volcanic pistols and rifles

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Volcanic pistols and rifles were early bolt action rifles developed around 1851 on the basis of the Smith-Jennings rifle by Horace Smith, who later became Daniel Wesson's partner at Smith & Wesson . They were the first mass-produced lever-action knee-joint repeater and fired caseless ammunition in which the ignition and propellant charge was pressed directly into the projectile, which was hollow at the rear. They were manufactured from 1855 to 1860, their knee joint locking system was used in rifles manufactured by the Winchester company .

Volcanic rifle with a 16-1 / 2-inch barrel
Volcanic pistol cal. 41
Volcanic pistol
Volcanic pocket pistol cal. .31
The Jennings rifle further developed by Horace Smith, manufactured from 1851 to 1852, below the Volcanic rifle

history

In 1848, the American inventor Walter Hunt from New York developed the rocket ball cartridge and had it patented (US patent 5701 of August 10, 1848). The cartridge consisted of a Minié bullet , the hollow end of which was filled with black powder . A cork disc with a hole and a sticky paper prevented the powder from falling out. The ignition took place via a percussion cap that was not part of the cartridge. It was ignited by the external tap, the ignition spark was led through an ignition channel to the cartridge, it penetrated the paper and thus caused the propellant charge to explode.

Hunt then developed the "Volition repeater", a lever action rifle for rocket ball ammunition. A toothed wheel was attached to the upper end of the ring lower lever, which, when operated, ran backwards on a toothed rack attached to the bottom of the lock housing and pulled the lock backwards with a toothed rack attached to the top. In the ready-to-fire position, the breech was blocked with a support flap. The cartridges were stored in a tubular magazine. Only a few “Volition repeaters” were manufactured by the company “GA Arrowsmith, New York”.

An employee of this company, Lewis Jennings, simplified the locking system of Hunt's weapon; the cartridge was ignited with an external cock, analogous to the percussion weapons . Several hundred of this weapon were made until Horace Smith, later partner of Daniel B. Wesson, on his further development, the "Jennings-Smith-Rifle", the system of Volcanic weapons for a rocket ball cartridge with an integrated primer developed.

Further development to the Volcanic weapon

The Volcanic weapons developed by Horace Smith were the first lever action rifles with a knee joint lock, the principle was patented in 1852. The patent sample was a .50 caliber rifle made by Smith and Wesson that never went into production. Partner since 1852, her company Smith & Wesson , located in Norwich , CT, manufactured around 1,700 pistols from 1854 to 1855, but no rifles for rocket ball ammunition. These predecessors of the Volcanic pistols can be recognized by the iron frame. The Model No. 1 cal .31 had a 4-inch barrel and a round handle at the bottom that held about 500 Model No. 2 cal .41 pistols had a 6 or 8 inch barrel, the handle was flat at the bottom.

Takeover of the company by Oliver F. Winchester

With poor sales, the company went bankrupt. Horace Smith left the company, which was funded by Oliver F. Winchester, a successful clothing manufacturer. It was renamed the Volcanic Repeating Arms and was led by Daniel Wesson until 1857. After he left, the New Haven Arms Co. in New Haven , CT continued to manufacture until 1859. Both this company and the Volcanic Repeating Arms made pistols and long guns.

In order to continue the business, Winchester hired the gunsmith Benjamin Tyler Henry as works manager with the task of improving the weapons. At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, Volcanic weapons were still on sale, but only a few buyers were found.

The Henry rifle

Henry then developed a rimfire cartridge in caliber .44 , which was constructed the same as the .22-short cartridges used in the Smith & Wesson No 1 revolver . He also developed the Henry rifle , a lever action rifle in .44 Henry, based on the Volcanic knee joint and magazine system. It must not be forgotten that it was Horace Smith who developed the lever-action knee-joint repeater system, which the Winchester Company used in over a million rifles, the Henry rifle and the Winchester rifles, models 1866, 1873 and 1876, while Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson founded the still successful company Smith & Wesson in a second partnership .

construction

Early Volcanic cal. .41 cartridge

The Volcanic pistols and rifles pioneered a technique that was later used in the Henry and the subsequent Winchester rifles: a lever-operated knee-joint repeater that pushed the projectile from a tubular magazine into the chamber . The Volcanic weapons used hollow projectiles known as rocket balls, which were much shorter than normal cartridges. So it was possible to accommodate a large number of them in the tube magazine under the barrel.

Since the breech of the Volcanic weapons had no lid and the hollow projectiles only contained a small charge , the range and penetration power of the projectile were small, which was the reason why these rifles and pistols did not bring economic success for the manufacturers. In addition, the breech blocks of the weapons were quickly soiled by powder residue, which could lead to the weapon jamming.

Pistols

Production 1854/55 by Horace Smith & Daniel B. Wesson's first partnership, ticker SMITH & WESSON, NORWICH, CT (below) CAST-STEEL PATENT, recognizable by the iron lock housing.

  • Pocket pistol No 1, produced from 1854/1855. Caliber .31.4 inch (~ 10 cm) barrel. Production, around 1200 pieces.
  • Pistol No 2, made by Smith & Wesson 1854/1855. Caliber .41.8 inch (~ 20 cm) barrel. Production, less than 500 pieces

Production from July 1855 to 1857 in the New Haven Arms Co. under Oliver F. Winchester, ticker VOLCANIC REPEATING ARMS CO. (including) PATENT NEW HAVEN CONN FEB. 14. 1854. From 1857 until the end of production, ticker VOLCANIC PATENT FEB. 14. 1854 (below) NEW HAVEN CONN. The weapons can be recognized by their brass (gun metal) breech block.

  • Pocket pistol No 1, caliber .31, 3 1/2 inch (~ 9 cm) barrel. Production: about 850 pieces.
  • Pocket pistol No 1, target model,. Caliber .31.8 inch (~ 20 cm) barrel. Production: about 225 pieces
  • Gun No 2, Navy model, caliber .41, 6 inch (~ 15 cm) barrel. Production: about 1500 pieces,
  • Gun No 2, Navy model, caliber .41, 8 inch (~ 20 cm) barrel. Production: about 2500 pieces
  • Pistol No 2, Navy model with detachable stop piston, caliber .41, 16 inch (~ 40 cm) barrel. Guns with barrels up to 25 inches are also known, production: around 300 pieces.

Rifles

  • It is unclear whether the first rifle made by Smith was not set up for rimfire cartridges. The fact is that a .50 caliber rifle was registered as a patent model. The weapon was in the Winchester Arms Company Museum until the company was dissolved. Horace Smith & Daniel B. Wesson's company never made long guns commercially.
  • The New Haven Arms Co. under Oliver F. Winchester produced a total of around 1000 rifles in .41 caliber from 1855 to the end of production. The barrel lengths were: 16.5 inches, 21 inches (most common barrel lengths), and 25 inches (42 cm, 53 cm, and 63.5 cm). The magazines therefore fit 20, 25 and 30 rocket balls .

Others

Karl May could have read a report published in the " Allgemeine Militärzeitung (1855) " about a 25-shot Volcanic rifle, the predecessor of the Henry rifle. The "Henrystutzen" exhibited in the Karl May Museum is, however, a further development of the Henry rifle, an early 17-shot Winchester model 1866 rifle .

In the film For a Few Dollars More (English. For a Few Dollars More ) used a Volcanic weapon.

literature

  • John Walter: Rifles of the World . DBI Books 1993, ISBN 0873491505 , p. 503
  • John Taffin: The Gun Digest Book of Cowboy Action Shooting: Guns Gear Tactics , Gun Digest Books, 2005, ISBN 0896891402 , p. 245 [1]
  • Norm Flayderman: Flayderman's Guide to Antique American Firearms and Their Values , F + W Media, Inc., 2007, ISBN 1440224226 , pp. 304-305 [2]
  • Herb Houze: Winchester Repeating Arms Company , Gun Digest Books, 2011, ISBN 9781440227257 , pp. 11-13 [3]
  • Karl May Foundation: Silberbüchse Bärentöter Henrystutzen, the most famous rifles of the Wild West . ISBN 3-910035-04-3 , p. 82
  • Roy G. Jinks, Smith & Wesson. A company with a history Verlag Stocker-Schmid Dietikon Zurich ISBN 3-7276-7025-8
  • Martin Pegler: Winchester Lever-Action Rifles , Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015, ISBN 978-1-4728-0658-1 . (82 pages online PDF)
  • Neudamm. Experimental station Neumannswalde: shot and weapon , 1907, page 467, Repetierpistole System Volcanic archive.org

Web links