Military affairs at the turn of the eras. The original carbine chambered for a paper cartridge was also patented in the USA by Edward Linder, an American of German descent. Production was established at the Amoskeag Manufacturing Co. from Manchester, New Hampshire. Was in service with the army of the northerners, although in very small numbers: 892 carbines (900?). The company received $ 19,859 for them. Another $ 2,262 was paid for 100,000 rounds of ammunition. Caliber 0.58, paper cartridge. The carbine was notable for its meticulous workmanship and decoration, light weight and dimensions.
The design of the carbine was quite unusual. The bolt in the form of a steel bar swung in a vertical plane inside the receiver. There was a spring under the bolt that lifted it up with the opening of the charging chamber. On the breech of the barrel there was a rotating clutch with a cutout, which was controlled by a small lever located on it in the closed position on the right. When, grasping this lever, the shooter turned it all the way to the left, a cutout was opened on the sleeve, through which the spring lifted the bolt up. The cartridge chamber was loaded with a paper cartridge, after which the clutch for the lever had to be returned to its original position. On the inner surface of the coupling there was a protrusion that fell into the annular groove of the charging chamber and … attracted the chamber to the barrel when moving. An additional means of protection against the breakthrough of gases was an asbestos washer, which was put on the cylindrical part of the shutter!
The inventor noted that the advantage of this system is the rather simple alteration of an outdated muzzle-loading weapon into a breech-loading one by installing a couple of parts, which, of course, was beneficial in all respects.
However, when the sample presented by Linder was tested in January 1859, the army rejected it. In the report of the army specialists the following was written: "In our opinion, this carbine does not have either the simplicity or durability required for military weapons." In addition, when firing, the bolt became very hot, which, of course, also made it difficult to use.
But with the outbreak of the Civil War, everything magically changed. Both Linder and K received their first order for these carbines, issued upon receipt of the 1st Michigan Cavalry Regiment at the end of 1861 and used until the end of 1862, when the regiment was rearmed with Sharps carbines.
The second batch of 500 pieces was sent to West Virginia in April 1863, where they were armed with the local 8th Cavalry Regiment.
The successful use of carbines in battles led to the fact that the army ordered 6,000 of them to the company at once, but their delivery was completed only in May 1865, when they were no longer needed by anyone. The carbines ended up in a warehouse, where they lay until the Franco-Prussian war, when the company still managed to sell them to the French. For the sake of economy, many carbines were made from primer muzzle-loading rifles purchased in Europe and then sold to Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, where the local military used them in various pronunciamentos and for settling national accounts.
The Jenks carbine is the second breech-loading rifle in the US Army (the Hall rifle was the first). It was adopted by the Navy in 1841. It was a.52 breech-loading smoothbore carbine with an unusual side striker and a piston bolt that was locked by a lever system. Outwardly simple and elegant, very lightweight but durable. So it was characterized by many, that is, for its time it was a very modern and well-designed weapon. True, his nickname was rather strange: "Mule's ear." Apparently, someone thought he had the appropriate shape of the trigger, because there were simply no other parts protruding on it!
Arranged carbine was nowhere easier. To shoot, you had to put the trigger on the safety cocking, then open the bolt with the upper lever, then throw a bullet into the opened hole, pour gunpowder there, close the hole by lowering the lever, cock the hammer completely - and bang-bang!
By the way, the inventor also took care of the shooter's convenience, considering that the lateral arrangement of the seed rod would better protect his face from fragments of a broken primer.
The carbine was unusual in that the caliber of its bullet was much larger than the caliber of the barrel. So, the caliber of a bullet is.525, and the caliber of the barrel is.52 with a chamber diameter of.577. That is, the bullet entered his barrel very tightly, which completely excluded the breakthrough of gases forward (a disadvantage characteristic of all smooth-bore guns). A bullet from such a barrel could not roll out even with strong shaking.
Jenks's carbines were produced with Maynard's device, which provided automatic feeding of paper tape with primers. The Remington company produced 1000 of such carbines.
The military did not like it, and in 1841 Jenks offered them a version with primer ignition. The army did not accept it either, since both the rifles and Hall's carbines were fine with them, but the sailors liked it, and they ordered 1,500 carbines with barrels of different lengths. Then the fleet ordered another 3,700 short-barreled carbines, that is, a total of 5,200 pieces were manufactured.
During the Civil War, the Navy removed from service 2800 Jenks carbines and sold them to a certain Mr. … The carbine turned out to be very successful, durable and simple. Weighing a little over 2.4 kg, it consisted of only 34 parts! And this despite the fact that the muzzle-loading musket had 56, and Hall's breech-loading rifle had 71.
The strength of this carbine was also impressive. So, when in 1841 it was tested, 4500 shots were fired from it within five days without any breakdowns. It was decided that the carbine withstood the test, but they continued to shoot from it, and 10,313 more shots were fired, after which its hose burst. That is, 14,813 shots were fired from it without any breakdowns!
The Ballard rifle was produced in the USA in 1861-1873. and had an original bolt controlled by a lever that lowered the bolt together with the trigger. No one else thought of this then, although the shutter itself, which vertically moving in the grooves of the receiver, was not new in the United States. Caliber - from.32 to.52. Rimfire cartridges. The firing range is up to 1000 yards. The most widespread was the.44 caliber, and the rarest.52 Spencer 56-56.
Charles Henry Ballard received a patent for his shutter mechanism, which lowers along with the trigger, back in 1861, and there were only five parts in it! The shooter lowered the bolt, inserted the cartridge into the chamber, and then returned the lever to its original position, while the hammer was cocked, but only halfway. That is, it was automatically put on a half-platoon. To fire, the shooter had to fully cock the hammer and pull the trigger. As soon as the breech opened for reloading, the spring extractor automatically ejected the spent cartridge case. If suddenly the force of the spring was for some reason not enough, it was possible to use the extractor handle protruding from below and, using physical force, still remove the sleeve from the chamber.
The first Ballard rifles were produced by Ball & Williams of Worcester, Ballard's employer, and were purchased by the state of Kentucky. Soon, however, single-shot carbines began to give way to multi-shot ones, and purchases of Bollard carbines dropped sharply. In 1874, the Ballard patent was bought by John Marlin, who began producing target rifles of his design.
Consider the Remington cavalry carbine. It was produced in the USA in 1865-1866, had a.46 caliber and fired with rimfire cartridges (first type) and.56-50 Spencer cartridges (second type). Firing range 500 yards.
It is interesting that the bolt, which became the highlight of the design of the carbine and all subsequent Remington rifles, was patented by Joseph Ryder, a shoemaker by profession! He already worked with E. Remington & Sons, received a lot of money from it, and then moved to Newark and opened a jewelry store there. But the soul of the inventor, apparently, dreamed of creativity, so he continued to work with Remington and in 1863 invented his surprisingly simple shutter, similar to the letter "P", in the center of which was a trigger, supporting the shutter with its protrusion. To load such a carbine, the shooter had to pull the trigger back all the way, that is, put it on a full platoon, and then pull the bolt back by the side "ears". At the same time, the extractor removed and threw out the spent cartridge case. Then a cartridge was inserted into the chamber, the bolt returned to its place, and the carbine was ready to fire.
Historically, it so happened that at the end of the war, many of the Remington carbines ended up in warehouses, but the company bought them and sold them to France during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871.
