United States Firearms, the First Century, 1775-1875
David F. Butler New York: Winchester Press, 1971. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hard Cover. Format is approximately 8.75 inches by 11.25 inches. 249, [7] pages. Illustrations. Index. Cover has some wear, soiling, and bumped corners. Minor endpaper and some page soiling. Contains Introduction, as well as chapters on Early Muskets and Muzzle-Loading Pistols; Muzzle-Loading Ammunition; Muzzle-loading Rifles; Breech-Loading Ammunition; Early Breech-Loading Rifles; Single-Shot Cartridge Rifles; Springfield Single Shot Breech-Loading Rifles; Repeating Firearms; Conclusions; and an Index. The first century of American gunmaking witnessed a flowering of new and more complex and technologically developed firearms designs. This book explores that growth, the gun systems and designs, their manufacture, the arms inventors, and the Civil War, which forced a rapid change to the use of modern breechloading arms and self-contained metallic cartridges. The century following the American Revolution witnessed a truly remarkable demonstration of ingenuity and inventiveness. At the opening of the Revolution the armies of the world were equipped with smoothbore flintlock muskets which had an effective range of hardly a hundred years. The muskets often misfired even in good weather and were almost useless if the weather were damp or raining. America was an agricultural colony with crude tools and few manufacturing facilities. A century later, the Untied States had been transformed into a highly creative and productive nation. the transcontinental railway had been completed, and Americans were streaming westward carrying lever-action repeating rifles capable of a high rate of fire and accurate enough to hit a mark a quarter-mile away. These tremendously improved firearms used metallic cartridges which sealed a pointed lead bullet, charged of powder, and reliable priming into a rugged, watertight package. The round lead ball of the flintlock musket rattling down a smoothbore barrel had been replaced by a tightly fitting, swaged lead bullet which was spun at a high rate of speed by the rifling in the barrel, so that serious hunting could be accomplished at ranges exceeding 400 yards. The rugged reliability of American firearms helped tremendously in the settling of the nation and earned a worldwide reputation for technical excellence. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Musket, Muzzle-Loading, Pistols, Ammunition, Rifles, Breech-loading, Single Shot, Cartridge, Springfield, Repeating Firearms, Percussion, Shotguns, Colt, Carbine, Ordnance, Remington, Winchester, Spencer, Smith & Wesson, Ballistics
[Book #83494]
Price: $75.00