138 



RECREATION. 



while others were made of continuous metal, 

 like the U. S. Frankford Arsenal cartridge. 

 This metal was admirably adapted to this 

 use, being ductile. * * * * It was soon 

 found that very thin brass or copper, drawn 

 up like thimbles, would answer the same 

 purpose as the lead, and better protect the 

 charge from rough handling, and also that 

 the objection to the use of a special primer 

 required for Morse's first cartridge must, if 

 possible, be removed. 



This caused the invention of Morse's cart- 

 ridges, tried at West Point, N. Y., in 1857 



ttJCcntzeL -Z8BG. 



and 1858. Both of these cartridges were pro- 

 vided with movable bases. Morse's cart- 

 ridges, patented in 1858, answered all the 

 purposes of the large-bored guns then in use, 

 but when he tried them lately (before mak- 

 ing his present invention), for the long range 

 small-bored guns, they failed. 



That was the primary cause of his inven- 

 tion patented in 1886 



When the Government again took up this 

 system in 1866, a rim-fire, folded head cart- 

 ridge was adopted for trial. Under the pres- 

 sure of a service charge, the thin cartridge 

 heads ruptured and failed. 



This caused the adoption of the solid head 

 Frankford Arsenal service cartridge which 

 is substantially Morse's cartridge (patent No. 



15,996, Oct. 28, 1856, figure 4), reduced one- 

 third in diameter and double in length, using 

 mostly twice as much powder. 



Considerable ingenuity is displayed in 

 Appendix 13, report of Commandant of 

 Frankford Arsenal, published on page 112, 

 report of the Chief of Ordnance, 1882, in en- 

 deavoring to account for the cause of the 

 rupture of the service cartridge in the cham- 

 bers of the rifle. 



Why does not the same cause rupture 

 Morse's shell ? Out of many thousands of 

 trials, not a single rupture of the case has 

 occurred. At one single trial to test the rel- 

 ative value of copper and brass, ten of 

 Morse's cartridges were fired some 200 

 rounds each and the cases did not fail in a 

 single instance 



The new Morse cartridge is a thin-cased 

 one, has a movable base and a rubber thim- 

 ble ; it is practically indestructible. The 

 1886 cartridge like those patented by Geo. 

 W. Morse in 1858 — the first metallic cart- 

 ridges ever made at the Frankford Arsenal 

 — see Ordnance memoranda, No. 14, 1873, 

 plate 1 — is open at both ends and may be 

 drawn in tubes of any length which economy 

 of manufacture may dictate, and made only 

 thick enough to protect the charge from 

 rough handling, moisture, etc. Its rear end 

 is closed bv a flanged-headed reinforce cup 

 carrying a priming packet. This cup enters 

 only a short distance into the case, say from 

 10 to 25 hundredths of an inch, having its 

 front edge as near to a knife-edge as may be 

 consistent to manufacture. 



On June 8, 1858, the Washington, D. C.» 

 Union, published a letter from George W. 

 Morse, replying to the attacks made by the 

 press on breech-loading fire-arms, in which 

 he said : 



" The opposition to breech-loading is short- 

 lived ; the day is near at hand when ramrods 

 will be as obsolete as matchlocks." 



The prediction was verified. Breech-load- 

 ing fire-arms had been known for centuries. 

 The first fire-arms ever made were breech- 

 loading. That is to say, the charge was in- 

 serted into the rear end of an open-ended 

 tube, which was closed by such means as 

 could then be applied. As an improvement 

 upon this original system, the muzzle-loader 

 was produced. That is to say, a tube was 

 permanently plugged or closed at one end, 

 and the charge was inserted from the muzzle 

 end thereof. 



This was done because of the supposed 

 impracticability of making a gas-tight joint 

 between the rear open end of the tube and 

 the breech-closing device. 



The United States Ordnance memoranda, 

 No. 8, 1870, page 7, says : 



"The successful invention of the self- 

 primed metallic-case cartridge has greatly 

 simplified the construction of breech- 

 loading fire-arms. Prior to its introduction 

 and use, the prevention of the escape of 

 flame through the breech-joint was of diffi- 

 cult, if not impossible, achievement, and 

 complicated arrangements of breech me- 

 chanism had to be resorted to, with, at best, 



