Meigs and Evans' super rifles: the most recharging in history
Apache Indians on the warpath ... Here they are shown armed mainly with Winchester carbines. But they had another, even more perfect weapon… Rice. J. Rava
Zechariah 9:14
History firearms. Probably, this is great: to live in an era when there is still nothing around you, there are no things we are used to, but there is a need for them to appear. And even with a very low level of education, people just didn’t come up with anything, from buttons to pedal submarines and airplanes. Moreover, among the successful inventors were artists and photographers, officers, sellers of men's collars, and even ... dentists! And many of them, by some strange irony of fate, were engaged in the invention of firearms. Among such “killer doctors” was the American dentist from Thomaston, Maine, Warren R. Evans, who, with the help of his brother George, managed to create ... the most repeating rifle in the world! However, still not the most, but reliable and widespread enough, because they managed to release it in the amount of about 15 copies.
Well, the most multi-charge "multi-charge" was invented by another American - Josiah Vincent Meigs, and if we consider his work and the work of Evans, it was he who was the first, but Evans was only the second. And today we will tell you about their rifles ...
Meigs rifle with shifted sliding bar. Right view. The hole for ejection of spent cartridges is clearly visible. The forend as such is absent. It was replaced by an unusual braid made of linen cord
The career of Josiah Vincent Meigs (1840-1907) was as follows: he received an engineering education, joined the Union army, rose to the rank of captain and created in it the first battalion of Negro light artillery. When the war ended, Meigs moved to Lowell, Massachusetts in 1866 and became manager of the US Cartridge Co. In 1881 he developed the construction of a monorail railway, and in 1884 he built an experimental flyover railway track with a length of a third of a mile. He left behind a lot of interesting documents that are kept in the Yale University library, as well as ... three completely unique carbines of a very interesting design for an incredibly rare rifle cartridge of .50 Meigs caliber with a magazine for 50 rounds.
One of them was kept by the descendants of the inventor and today it is included in a large collection in the United States. The second can be seen at the Cody Museum in the United States. Well, one was sold at Morphy's arms auction.
A patent for this rifle was issued to Captain Meigs on May 22, 1866. Moreover, its design really was not like anything. A spiral magazine for 50 rounds of his own design was in her stock. Rechargeable through a hole in the butt plate. The feeding mechanics of this gun is as follows: under the magazine cylinder there is a curved sliding bar on which a trigger with a bracket is mounted, inside which there is also a reloading lever. That is, in order to make a shot from a rifle equipped with cartridges, you should press the lever inside the bracket, move the bar back and forth and ... pull the trigger. A shot will follow, after which, when the bar moves back, a spent cartridge case will fall out of the hole under the barrel. That's all!
The details of the carbine are carefully nickel-plated, and the magazine cylinder is plated with an alloy "German silver". The only piece of wood is the American walnut stock comb.
Drawing from Meigs' patent showing how its bolt is actuated by a sliding bar
The barrel is 25-1 / 4 inches long, with an unusual front sight at the end, rotating. The rear sight is also an unusual positional one with a retractable aperture.
Rotating front sight at the end of the barrel
The inventor claimed that all 50 rounds of his rifle could be fired in 19 seconds, and was apparently ready to confirm his claims during testing. He calculated that a running infantryman could travel 109 yards in one minute, and that a skilled marksman familiar with the rifle would be able to fire an accurate shot every two steps he took, thus firing fifty rounds on the target before the running enemy could reach position of the arrow. He claimed that a regiment of 1000 men, armed with his rifles, could fire 50 rounds in one minute and stop any attack from any enemy. Unfortunately, his rifle was not accepted into service and remained practically unknown. And this despite the fact that its prototype was tested in the army for four whole years, and during this time 000 shots were fired from it without failures.
As for the Warren R. Evans rifle, he offered it a little later than Meigs, while in 1873 he and his brother George jointly founded the Evans Rifle Manufacturing Company in Mechanic Falls, Maine, to manufacture these rifles. They were also sold by Merwin & Hulbert and Evans' Canadian partner Ralph H. Kilby, a sports goods trader in Montreal. It was hoped that it would be adopted by the United States Army, but the rifle did not pass the standard dust test.
W.R. Evans patent 1868
Before making the rifle, Evans created an Evans .44 caliber cartridge loaded with black powder. As a basis, he took a Spencer carbine, which also had a magazine in the butt and a shutter control lever combined with a trigger bracket, but ... He worked very hard on this initial design. So, he enlarged the magazine tube in diameter and placed the famous "Archimedes screw" in it. Now, working with the lever-bracket up and down, it was possible to turn this screw and feed the next cartridge to the line of its chambering into the chamber. With the repeated movement of the lever, the spent cartridge case was removed from the barrel and thrown out through the hole in the receiver on the right.
On the first sample - the so-called "first model" (or it was also called the "old model"), there was no wooden plate on the tube of the magazine below, which made the Evans rifle look like a Meigs rifle, but then such plates were placed on the magazine both from above and from below. On the first samples, there was also a lever stopper at the bottom, which played the role of a safety device, but then it was abandoned. The first rifle model was produced from 1873 to 1876.
Evans rifle advertisement published in Spirit of the Times, 1876
The rifle was produced in a sports version (with octagonal barrels of different lengths), a carbine (with a round barrel) and an army musket (to interest the army), also with a round barrel.
At the beginning of 1876, a "transitional model" appeared, still without a lid, but already with a stock completely sewn into the tree, and also in three versions. The shops of all three rifles at this time were loaded with 38 rounds!
Despite the high price, rifles began to be bought. And positive reviews began to come to the firm, and they even belonged to such famous people as William Cody - Buffalo Bill, and his friends. True, many of them called for an increase in the power of the cartridge for this rifle.
Cartridge for "new model": .44 Evans - Long
It was developed by George Evans, and when it was ready, an improved rifle was made for it. By the summer of 1877, it was finalized and put into production. The length of the new cartridge case increased to 38 mm, the lead bullet began to weigh 17-18,5 g, the charge consisted of 2,5-2,7 g of black powder. The bullet speed was now 350-380 m / s. Caliber .44 remains the same.
Mechanism operation
The "new model" has become stronger and has a cover for the ejection hole. It was also produced in the above three variants. But due to the longer length of the cartridge, it was now possible to load only 26 cartridges into it (according to other sources - 28), however, this was an excellent indicator.
True, due to the peculiarities of the rotary mechanism of the store, it was impossible to recharge it as the ammunition was consumed. It was necessary to first shoot it all, and only then, one at a time, through the hole in the butt plate, fill it all with cartridges, which was not very convenient. And, of course, this rifle could not be used as a baton to beat her on the head with the butt. The Evans company went bankrupt in 1879, unable to withstand the competition. But, nevertheless, she managed to release about 15 of her repeating rifles!
Apache Indian with Evans repeating shotgun, circa 1880
PS Photos by Alain Daubresse (website www.littlegun.be).
Information