Austrian rifles and pistols with Vincenza Augustin lock
The Cavalry Pistol M. 1851 is an old cavalry pistol from the 1798 model, equipped with an Augustine percussion bolt. Some surplus of this Austrian weapons were sold to the US Army in the early days of the Civil War. Length 42,3 cm. Barrel length 21,4 cm. Caliber 17,1 mm. Photo of the Finart auction house
Ah, my dear Augustine,
Augustine, Augustine,
Ah, my dear Augustine,
It's all gone, everything! Austrian folk song.
It is believed that it was written in Vienna
during the plague epidemic of 1678–1679.
This song is credited to
to a certain Augustine N.
Augustine, Augustine,
Ah, my dear Augustine,
It's all gone, everything! Austrian folk song.
It is believed that it was written in Vienna
during the plague epidemic of 1678–1679.
This song is credited to
to a certain Augustine N.
History weapons. In our previous article about the capsule and the Vincenza Augustin lock system, we stopped at “the most interesting place,” as one of the commentators wrote. Well, today we will continue the story about this unusual weapon.
By the way, we know today that tubular primers are a dead end in the development of firearms. And when they first appeared, that is, in the first half of the 19th century, they seemed just as effective as any others, and were by no means considered something so unacceptable. After all, at that time no one knew exactly which capsule would prevail over the others and become the basis for the firearms of the future.
An important advantage of tubular capsules at that time was considered to be large tolerances on their size, which could be greater than that of piston-type capsules. It didn’t matter what diameter the tube of such a capsule had: 3,1 or 2,9 mm - it still had to work well. But if the capsule-piston was larger in diameter than the nipple of the fire tube, then in the heat of battle it could easily fall off it, and if it was smaller, then it simply would not fit on it.
Capsule lock of the Vincenza Augustin system. Photo "Auctionnet"
Last time we talked in some detail about the details of the work of Consol and Augustine, but now let's see what exactly Augustine remodeled in the castle that later received his name. On his hands he had his own capsule - a thin tube made of brass foil, filled with a percussion composition based on fulminate of mercury, 15 mm long and 15 mm in diameter, attached to the cartridge using a short wire passing through a felt wad located in its paper tube.
As it turned out, when remaking old flintlock rifles, the alignment of the ignition hole of the barrel and the lock attached to it on the right was not always achieved. Because of this, the replacement lock developed by Consol for converting flintlock rifles was found not to fit all guns, even if they were of the same type. In this case, ignition of the powder charge in the barrel simply became impossible. And Augustine was able to solve this problem by screwing a small metal tube, called a “core,” into the pilot hole.
This photo clearly shows the lock of the Augustine rifle in the open state. The lock cover is open and the trigger is half-cocked. The core cylinder protruding from the ignition hole and the slot in the wall of the lock for the primer wire are clearly visible. Photo "Auctionnet"
In the conversion systems, under the capsule caps, an L-shaped fire tube was screwed into the ignition hole, the end of which, where the capsule was put, was manually adjusted to the trigger and fixed in the desired position. But the operation was simple and not particularly difficult.
The trigger is pulled, the lock cover is closed. Its handle is clearly visible. Photo "Auctionnet"
This was not the case with tube capsules. Augustine came up with the idea of screwing a short tube, called a “core,” into the ignition hole of the barrel. The core was inserted halfway into the lock itself, and the capsule tube was again inserted halfway into it, which guaranteed reliable ignition of the powder charge. And the remaining part was closed with a special spring-loaded lid with a handle, which had a tooth on its surface that freely moved in a vertical plane.
At the same time, the lid held the primer tube in the desired position and did not allow it to fall out of the ignition hole, but the prong could not pierce the primer even when the lid was abruptly closed, since it rose freely. But when the trigger hit it, it accordingly transferred this blow to the primer tube, in which the initiating composition ignited.
By the way, the shock tube also turned out to be completely waterproof. It could be thrown into water and left there for several hours, and it would still ignite on impact, unlike piston-type caps, including even modern examples.
External view of the Augustine rifle, model 1844, caliber 17,74 mm. Photo "Auctionnet"
As for the Augustine rifle, it had a caliber of 17,74 mm, and at first, as before, it fired a round bullet. The bore caliber was 18,1 mm, so the bullet, together with the paper cartridge body, tightly sealed the rifled bore.
The rifle had a Delvin system chamber, which allowed the soldier to use a heavy cleaning rod to make the bullet fit even more tightly. Initially, Delvin's chamber went into the barrel at a right angle. But later Augustine rounded its edges so that the bullet would expand better.
The powder charge was 55 grains (1 Viennese grain = 0,07 g), so the muzzle velocity was significantly lower than the velocity of smoothbore musket bullets. This was necessary, because at a higher speed, a ball-shaped bullet could not spin in a spiral, but could be cut off by the rifling of the barrel, which would naturally immediately reduce the accuracy of the shot.
Now, in order to fire a shot from a new gun, the soldier needed to perform the following actions.
First of all, pull the trigger back and put it half-cocked. It was necessary to open the lock cover, take the cartridge out of the bag, insert the primer tube into the core, and so that the wire going from it to the cartridge fell into a narrow slot on the wall of the lock.
Now you can close the lock cover and simply pull the cartridge towards you, causing the wire to pull a felt wad out of the paper tube of the cartridge. After this, it was possible to place the rifle with the butt on the ground. Pour gunpowder into the barrel, insert a bullet into it and use a ramrod to drive it to the chamber. Then the ramrod was retracted into the socket under the barrel, the gun had to be taken at the ready, and the trigger put on cock.
After all this, it was time to shoot!
Removing the wad from the cartridge after the primer is inserted into the lock. Photo "Cananball"
Of course, in our opinion today, all these operations do not seem very rational to us, at least in comparison with weapons that fire cartridges. Although for that time it was a very advanced, in modern terms, system.
However, Augustine’s almost equally significant contribution to the development of small arms of the Hasburg monarchy was not only the creation of his own capsule, cartridge and rifle, but also a serious improvement in the manufacturing process of all this. Now his locks were made entirely on machines and were completely interchangeable. Although, as it turned out, a new castle requires new boxes...
Old barrels could be used if they were in good condition, but in general the new system required the production of an entirely new line of weapons, not only shotguns, but also pistols. From that time on, there could be no talk of any conversion of old flintlock rifles.
The butt and stock of the Augustine rifle had a traditional shape, worked out in many armies, with the neck of the stock smoothly turning into the butt. Photo "Auctionnet"
It is interesting that Augustine’s guns with tube cap locks had a chance to smell gunpowder not only in Europe, but also overseas, where they reached 25 copies during the American Civil War, where they were used in the army of the northerners.
Cleaning rod and bayonet latch. Photo "Auctionnet"
The further fate of the Augustine rifles was as follows - they were already replaced by Joseph Lorenz rifles in 1854. Its main difference was... the simplification of the castle design. And it, in turn, was very connected with progress in the production of capsules. Now they were produced by machine and in large quantities, and of exactly the same size.
Therefore, for new rifles, into which, again, Augustine’s rifles were converted, the old lock was removed, and instead a new one was installed with a new trigger and an L-shaped fire tube, which was screwed into the barrel instead of Augustine’s core. The rifle acquired an appearance completely consistent with such rifles as “Enfield”, “Springfield”, etc.
During the US Civil War, the Lorenz rifle was supplied to both northerners (about 226 rifles were sold to them) and southerners (924)!
Lorenz rifle with percussion lock of traditional design. Army Museum, Stockholm
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