While I was in DC for Glenn Beck’s 8-28 rally with my Mom and sister, Mom took me to the Navy museum at the DC Navy Yard. The Museum is really cool, basically a warehouse filled with every bit of Navy history from it’s founding to sailors in the sands of Iraq.
While there I saw an interesting black powder rifle designed in 1841 and used by the Union navy during the Civil War, the Jenks breechloading carbine.
The rifle is loaded with a paper cartridge by sliding the bolt back and placing it in the barrel.
The primer is then placed over the nipple on the right side of the carbine (different than most rifles of the day).
This seems like a good idea as it would be faster than the Reb muzzleloaders, I wonder why it wasn’t widely used?
Good question. Cost, perhaps? The South was poorer than the North, weren’t they? Was this a precurser to cartidge based firearms?
In the post I mentioned that it was used by the Union, not the Rebs.
I saw that it was used by the North, I was offering reasons why it might not have been more widely used.Was this a rifle or smoothbore?
Rifle. I don’t think it was used by the South at all, and it wasn’t very common in the Union navy either.
The Jenks was manufactured/issued during the 1840′s-50′s. It was in general use during/after the Mexican War. There were some left in Navy armories by 1861, but the ones in the fleet were pretty worn out; as with most early breechloaders, the gas seal at the breech tended to wear out over time, and no one had given much thought to producing early breechloaders with replacable gas seal parts.
Up Spirits!
The Jenks used the Maynard Tape Priming System. This was a paper roll, or tape, that had priming compound, (fulminate of mercury, I believe) impregnated on it. The action of the Jenks caused the tape to unroll and project through a slot in the top, near the nipple. This worked very much like the cap guns that many f us played with as kids. With the Maynard system, there was no percussion cap needed, though one could be used if the Maynard Tape was not available. Allen the Coastie is right, the gas seal wore out over time and made the weapon uncomfortable if not downright dangerous to fire.