Belton flintlock

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Belton flintlock
TypeMusket
Place of origin United States
Production history
DesignerJoseph Belton
DesignedPrior to 1777
Specifications
Action Repeating flintlock
Rate of fire 30–60 rounds/min theoretically
Effective firing range30 yd (27 m)
Cover page of Belton's first letter to the Continental Congress, sent April 11, 1777 Memorials Addressed to Congress A - B (Vol 1) Page 123a enhanced.jpg
Cover page of Belton's first letter to the Continental Congress, sent April 11, 1777

The Belton flintlock was a repeating flintlock design using superposed loads, conceived by Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, resident Joseph Belton some time prior to 1777. The musket design was offered by Belton to the newly formed Continental Congress in 1777. Belton wrote that the musket could fire eight rounds with one loading, [1] and that he could support his claims "by experimental proof." [2] Belton failed to sell the musket to Congress, and later was unable to sell the design to the British Army a year after the American Revolution. [1] There are no records that indicate that the gun was ever supplied, and it is uncertain if or how exactly the Belton improvement operated. [2]

Contents

Musket design

There are no known surviving examples of the musket Belton demonstrated to Congress. The only evidence of its existence is the correspondence between Belton and Congress. [3] Belton described the musket as capable of firing up to "eight balls one after another, in eight, five, or three seconds of time," at a distance of 25–30 yd (23–27 m). [3] He also claimed to have a secret method of modifying this weapon to discharge "sixteen or twenty [balls], in sixteen, ten, or five seconds of time." [3] Historian Harold L. Peterson argued that because it was described as having a predetermined number of shots and rate of fire, it may have worked with a single lock igniting a fused chain of charges stacked in a single barrel, packaged as a single large paper cartridge. [2]

Congress commissioned Belton to build or modify 100 muskets for the military on May 3, 1777, [2] but the order was cancelled on May 15, when Congress received Belton's bid and considered it an "extraordinary allowance." [4] After the war, Belton attempted to sell the design to the British Army, without success. [1]

Other Belton superposed load guns

While no examples of the converted muskets demonstrated to Congress are known, Belton did not give up on the concept of superposed load firearms. After the American Revolution, Belton began looking for buyers for superposed load flintlocks in England.

East India Company Seven shot muskets

Belton then began making superposed load flintlocks, which used a sliding lock mechanism, with the London gunsmith William Jover, and sold them to the East India Company in 1786. An example of a seven shot sliding lock flintlock musket made by Jover and Belton may be found in the Royal Armouries Museum collection in Leeds. This musket, rack numbered 124 (indicating a purchase and issue of at least 124 of the rifles), also has a replaceable chamber section. The replaceable chamber makes this example both a breechloader, and effectively gives it a seven shot replaceable magazine. It is not known if multiple magazines were issued per gun, though this was possible (see here for a similar scenario with percussion revolvers). The lock slides from front to rear, with a second trigger provided that slides the lock from touch hole to touch hole, allowing each successive charge to be ignited. The lock did require cocking and priming between shots; while this would take time, the sliding lock would have provided a much higher rate of fire over a typical single shot musket of the era. [5]

The Belton sliding lock design was later improved and used in slightly more successful designs, such as Isaiah Jenning's repeating flintlock rifle. [6]

Four shot pistol design

Today there are two surviving Belton and Jover pistols at the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford, having four touch holes which permit four successive discharges. [7]

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Percussion cap</span> Ignition source in a type of firearm mechanism

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charleville musket</span> French musket

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A snaphance or snaphaunce is a type of firearm lock in which a flint struck against a striker plate above a steel pan ignites the priming powder which fires the gun. It is the mechanical progression of the wheellock firing mechanism, and along with the miquelet lock and doglock are predecessors of the flintlock mechanism.

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The flintlock mechanism is a type of lock used on muskets, rifles, and pistols from the early 17th to the mid-19th century. It is commonly referred to as a "flintlock". The term is also used for the weapons themselves as a whole, and not just the lock mechanism.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snaplock</span>

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Diamant, Lincoln (2004). Chaining the Hudson: The Fight for the River in the American Revolution. New York: Fordham University Press, p. 210.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Peterson, Harold Leslie (1956). Arms and Armor in Colonial America, 1526-1783. NY: Courier Corporation, pp. 217-218.
  3. 1 2 3 Belton's original letter to Congress, April 11, 1777
  4. United States Continental Congress (1907). Journals of the Continental Congress. USGPO. pp. 324, 361.
  5. Ferguson, Jonathan, firearms curator Royal Armouries Museum (narrator) (August 30, 2017). Flintlock Repeating Musket - 1786 (Video). Leeds, England: Royal Armories Museum. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21.
  6. Moller, George D. (1993). American Military Shoulder Arms: From the 1790s to the end of the flintlock period. University Press of Colorado.
  7. Rivière, Peter. "London gun makers represented in the Pitt Rivers Museum collections". Pitt River Museum.