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Post by spence on Jan 6, 2021 11:43:07 GMT -7
paranger said, "Now THAT is an interesting find!"
If you are referring to the plumbers, notice that at that time they were still using the original meaning of the term, a workman in lead, not the modern version we are familiar with. It was plumbers who installed and repaired lead roofing at that time, for instance.
Spence
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Post by paranger on Jan 6, 2021 12:09:00 GMT -7
paranger said, "Now THAT is an interesting find!" If you are referring to the plumbers, notice that at that time they were still using the original meaning of the term, a workman in lead, not the modern version we are familiar with. It was plumbers who installed and repaired lead roofing at that time, for instance. Spence No, I just meant documentation of ramping up buckshot production in London at the start of the AWI. THE etymology of "plumber" is also interesting, though.
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Post by artificer on Jan 6, 2021 20:33:09 GMT -7
In relatively modern terms, meal powder is the fines & dust left over after corning and sifting black powder for grain sizes. The invoice contains a lot of weapons (muskets & cannon) and balls & shot for those weapons but only two barrels of powder - far from enough to go with even a small part of all the weapons. Today, meal powder is mainly used in fireworks - perhaps it had a special use in an 18th c army where the small quantity relative to the ordinance would make sense. Signal flares maybe? Coot, I learned to gun captain a 12 pounder years ago, but I'm not nearly as knowledgeable on powder for artillery, except to know the British Army often used 1 Fg or the equivalent in the cannon barrels. I'm wondering, did they make paper fuses in the period to put in cannon touch holes? If so, this might be another explanation for so fine of powder? Gus
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coot
City-dweller
Posts: 152
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Post by coot on Jan 6, 2021 21:06:00 GMT -7
Interesting idea. I don't know if paper (tube) fuses were used or not. I recall reading about "quills" but was this a reference to powder filled large (goose?) feathers to be used as a fuse or was the term used simply because the fuses looked like quills or that feathers were use in earlier times & the name stuck? If actual feather quills, you would think there would have been a supply on the invoice. I recall gunners on ships having priming horns which would imply loose powder (meal powder??) being poured down touch holes.
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Post by artificer on Jan 7, 2021 2:05:47 GMT -7
Thanks very much Coot,
I completely forgot about the goose quills during the AWI. So I looked it up and found:
"The cannon was fired by igniting a goose-quill tube that contained gunpowder or by using quick-match put into a vent hole that ignited the powder in the gun. Quick-match was a fast burning fuse made of cotton string permeated with black powder (or black match), and a loose fitting paper tube or pipe, about ¼ inch thick that encased the black match. When the cannon released its shot, the recoil threw it backward requiring a crew to wrestle it back into firing position where it was once more primed and aimed."
(The italicized words probably explain what I remembered partially on using paper tubes, I guess.)
Perhaps the mealed powder was intended for use with goose quills procured locally?
Gus
P.S. Also found an oblique reference to the "carcasses," I also have never heard about. In sections on mortars, they talk about using bombs and carcasses, though they didn't explain it.
PPS. We had a section of Royal Artillery with our Major's Coy of the Black Watch, man I wish I was still in contact with them to give more information on this stores list.
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Post by paranger on Jan 7, 2021 5:05:44 GMT -7
A "carcass" is an 18th c. incindiary round.
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Post by spence on Jan 7, 2021 10:10:07 GMT -7
What would those oblong carcasses have been fired from? Why oblong?
Spence
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Post by paranger on Jan 7, 2021 11:14:05 GMT -7
What would those oblong carcasses have been fired from? Why oblong? Spence I have never heard of an "oblong" carcass before and don't immediately perceive what the advantage might be other than to increase the capacity of the round for combustibles. Note that only the 8 inch (mortar) rounds are listed as "oblong," not the larger 13 inch rounds (the largest British mortar bore size). Both, of course, are standard British mortar diameters, along with 4.4, 5.5 (howitzer), 10 and I belive 12 as well.
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Post by artificer on Jan 9, 2021 8:03:39 GMT -7
A "carcass" is an 18th c. incindiary round. Thank you! Did they light it like an exploding bomb in a mortar, after the carcass was loaded into the tube? Gus
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Post by paranger on Jan 9, 2021 9:20:08 GMT -7
A "carcass" is an 18th c. incindiary round. Thank you! Did they light it like an exploding bomb in a mortar, after the carcass was loaded into the tube? Gus Yes, like an explosive mortar round, the main charge ignited the combustibles inside the hollow cavity through several holes in the casing. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcass_(projectile)Harold Peterson's Roundshot and Rammers shows a slightly different version encased by a cloth bag of some sort.
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Post by artificer on Jan 9, 2021 9:22:45 GMT -7
Thank you Pararanger. Very interesting.
Gus
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Post by hawkeyes on Jan 9, 2021 9:31:04 GMT -7
That truly looks alien in nature.
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