c. 1858–1889

Early Cartridge Conversion

A written overview of this era is still to come. It goes through the same check as everything else here — nothing is published as fact before Butch Schoeller has confirmed it.

The plate corpus

Plates placed on this era

24 of 78 shown

These are grouped by how the arm fires, not by pattern. The records behind them identify a mechanism and a date — a patent sheet names neither the maker’s model nor the arm it ended up in, and an armoury catalogues by ignition system — so none of them is a claim about a particular gun. Where a sheet carries a mechanism classification it is named beneath the plate, and that too describes how the part works rather than which arm it came off.

Patent drawings · 74 sheets

The original engineering drawings, filed by the people who designed these mechanisms, with every component called out and numbered. One sheet is shown per filing: a patent’s sheets are pages of one drawing rather than separate drawings. The specification pages of each filing — the prose, which is most of it — are not shown, because a page of type is not a drawing.

And samtjbl v — US235829A sheetUnited States patent drawing · public domain

Breech-loading fire-aem — US188111A sheetUnited States patent drawing · public domain

Surviving arms · 4 photographs

Museum and armoury photography of arms of this ignition system. The caption under each is the source record’s own title, printed as it stands — including the holding institution and its accession number where the record carries them, because that is what lets a reader go and check the plate.

713 plates are filed under this era; 78 of them are shown here. The rest are held back for one of two reasons — the scan is too small to read, or the page is specification text rather than a figure. A patent is mostly prose, and a page of type is not a drawing of anything. The rest of the reference is reachable on the other two axes.

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Model families

Arms of this era

None in stock
Remington Rolling Block
3 parts in stock
Rolling Block Rifle
2 parts in stock
Sharps Carbine And Rifle
1 part in stock
Spencer Rifle And Carbine
3 parts in stock
U.S. .45-70 Trapdoor Springfield

The reference

Parts of this era

44 part types · 220 documented

The components documented on the arms of this era, and which of those arms each one is recorded on. Following an arm goes to that arm’s own entry for the part; following the component crosses the whole catalogue instead.

Showing 24 of 44 part types documented in this era. All part types

From the bench

Available now (15)

15 listed · 0 sold

Check it yourself

Sources

12 sources

Period and institutional material relevant to this entry. Listed so it can be checked, not as decoration — nothing here has been through expert review yet.

1.Cartridge Box Made for the Bodyguard of the Prince-Elector of SaxonyMetropolitan Museum of Art · 1565
2.Breech-Loading Rimfire Cartridge Pistol with Case and AccessoriesLouis Nicolas Auguste Flobert · Metropolitan Museum of Art · 1830
3.Cartridge BoxMetropolitan Museum of Art · 1571
4.Double-Barrel Breech-Loading Pinfire ShotgunJ. C. A. Brun · Metropolitan Museum of Art · 1866
5.Cartridge BoxMetropolitan Museum of Art · 1525
6.Cased Colt Model 1862 Police Revolver, Serial no. 9174, with Thuer Conversion for Self-contained Cartridges, and AccessoriesSamuel Colt · Metropolitan Museum of Art · 1862
7.Handbook for The 6-Inch Breech Loading Mark XII Gun, 1917. G. 21117/17Admiralty, Gunnery Branch, UK · Internet Archive · 1917
8.Colt Model 1851 Navy Revolver with Thuer Conversion for Self-Contained Cartridges, Serial no. 27060Samuel Colt · Metropolitan Museum of Art · 1853
9.Cartridge BoxMetropolitan Museum of Art · 1580
10.A treatise on ordnance and armor: embracing descriptions, discussions, and professional opinions concerning the material, fabrication, requirements, capabilities, and endurance of European and American guns for naval, sea-coast, and iron-clad warfare, and their rifling, projectiles and breech-loading. Also, results of experiments against armor, from official records. With an appendix, referring to gun-cotton, hooped guns, etc., etc. Holley, Alexander Lyman, 1832-1882 · New York : D. Van Mostrand; London, Trübner & company · Cornell University Library · 1865
11.Handbook for The 6-Inch Breech Loading Mark XII Gun, 1917. G. 21117/17Admiralty, Gunnery Branch, UK · Internet Archive · 1917
12.A treatise on ordnance and armor: embracing descriptions, discussions, and professional opinions concerning the material, fabrication, requirements, capabilities, and endurance of European and American guns for naval, sea-coast, and iron-clad warfare, and their rifling, projectiles and breech-loadingHolley, Alexander Lyman, 1832-1882 · New York, D. Van Mostrand; London, Trübner & company · University of California Libraries · 1865

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Plates placed on this era

Arms of this era

Remington Rolling Block

Rolling Block Rifle

Sharps Carbine And Rifle

Spencer Rifle And Carbine

U.S. .45-70 Trapdoor Springfield

Parts of this era

Available now (15)