Chain karamultuki
Great armory The revolution of the XNUMXth century, caused by the invention of the capsule, led to the emergence of many quite successful and widespread types of firearms, such as a revolver, state-loading rifle or mitrales. But along with this, inventive minds sometimes gave birth to amazing chimeras, which remained in single copies as monuments of the originality of the fantasy of their authors.
One of them - the "chain" pistols and guns. To call them food tape, in my opinion, is not entirely correct, since the charges in this weapon were placed not in a removable tape, but in a heavy closed circuit in a ring, which was an integral part of the design. Moreover, each chain link was not just a cell for the cartridge, but a chamber in which a shot took place. Therefore, the links were massive steel cylinders with a wall thickness of a few millimeters.
The first such weapon was offered by an English gunsmith named Tribi (Treeby), who patented his "chain gun" in 1855 year.
This 0,54 inch caliber rifle (approximately 13 mm) was not yet intended for firing unitary ammunition, which was just beginning to come into use. The shooter himself poured measured doses of gunpowder into the charging chambers, inserted wads and bullets, and from the back, put caps on the firing tubes.
The trigger was cocked manually, the chain was scrolled by turning the handle, screwed on the barrel. The chain consisted of 14 chuck links, that is, the gun was 14-charging. In some places, there are references to the fact that there was also an 30-charging version of the Tribi gun with a longer "chain", but it was not preserved.
Tribi offered his rifle to the British army, but the military considered it too heavy and inconvenient, and in addition - too expensive and difficult. Individual customers this product is also not interested. Apparently, it was made only in several copies, of which two have survived to this day: one is kept in the museum of the city of Hampshire, and the other is in a private collection.
After 11, the American Henry Josselyn (Henry Josselyn) returned to the idea of Tribi. In 1866, he patented an even more curious design in the USA - a twenty-link charging chain pistol. Although the gun was already designed for unitary cartridges, the links of the chain, like the ones of Tribi, were chamber holders. Here is a patent drawing and an old photograph of the weapon of Josselin, for some reason called the revolver.
The drawing shows that it used small-caliber ring-combat cartridges and that the chain scrolling was synchronized with the trigger platoon.
In this modern photograph of the only pistol Josselin has preserved (or perhaps the only one made), it is clearly seen how uncomfortable this weapon is with a long chain dangling under the barrel, which, according to my estimates, weighs at least one and a half kilograms. Not surprisingly, there were no buyers for him, and the gun manufacturers, to whom Josselin proposed his invention, pointed to the door.
Another thing is surprising: after more than half a century in the USSR, Josselin found a follower who built a pistol according to a similar scheme, but with a chain not of 20, but of 36 cartridges! Unfortunately, I could not find any data about this "Kulibine", except that his work is stored in the Tula Arms Museum. The explanatory plate indicates that this is a prototype belt-powered pistol made in 1920-e. Neither the author’s name, nor the circumstances of the appearance of the most multiply-charged “chain” weapon in the world are indicated.
Perhaps, someone from more advanced, than I, fans of an ancient firearm will be able to tell more in detail about this amusing monster?
One of them - the "chain" pistols and guns. To call them food tape, in my opinion, is not entirely correct, since the charges in this weapon were placed not in a removable tape, but in a heavy closed circuit in a ring, which was an integral part of the design. Moreover, each chain link was not just a cell for the cartridge, but a chamber in which a shot took place. Therefore, the links were massive steel cylinders with a wall thickness of a few millimeters.
The first such weapon was offered by an English gunsmith named Tribi (Treeby), who patented his "chain gun" in 1855 year.
This 0,54 inch caliber rifle (approximately 13 mm) was not yet intended for firing unitary ammunition, which was just beginning to come into use. The shooter himself poured measured doses of gunpowder into the charging chambers, inserted wads and bullets, and from the back, put caps on the firing tubes.
The trigger was cocked manually, the chain was scrolled by turning the handle, screwed on the barrel. The chain consisted of 14 chuck links, that is, the gun was 14-charging. In some places, there are references to the fact that there was also an 30-charging version of the Tribi gun with a longer "chain", but it was not preserved.
Tribi offered his rifle to the British army, but the military considered it too heavy and inconvenient, and in addition - too expensive and difficult. Individual customers this product is also not interested. Apparently, it was made only in several copies, of which two have survived to this day: one is kept in the museum of the city of Hampshire, and the other is in a private collection.
After 11, the American Henry Josselyn (Henry Josselyn) returned to the idea of Tribi. In 1866, he patented an even more curious design in the USA - a twenty-link charging chain pistol. Although the gun was already designed for unitary cartridges, the links of the chain, like the ones of Tribi, were chamber holders. Here is a patent drawing and an old photograph of the weapon of Josselin, for some reason called the revolver.
The drawing shows that it used small-caliber ring-combat cartridges and that the chain scrolling was synchronized with the trigger platoon.
In this modern photograph of the only pistol Josselin has preserved (or perhaps the only one made), it is clearly seen how uncomfortable this weapon is with a long chain dangling under the barrel, which, according to my estimates, weighs at least one and a half kilograms. Not surprisingly, there were no buyers for him, and the gun manufacturers, to whom Josselin proposed his invention, pointed to the door.
Another thing is surprising: after more than half a century in the USSR, Josselin found a follower who built a pistol according to a similar scheme, but with a chain not of 20, but of 36 cartridges! Unfortunately, I could not find any data about this "Kulibine", except that his work is stored in the Tula Arms Museum. The explanatory plate indicates that this is a prototype belt-powered pistol made in 1920-e. Neither the author’s name, nor the circumstances of the appearance of the most multiply-charged “chain” weapon in the world are indicated.
Perhaps, someone from more advanced, than I, fans of an ancient firearm will be able to tell more in detail about this amusing monster?
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