SueMyChin Posted March 13, 2015 Posted March 13, 2015 Here is the full American correspondence between Captain Jones, The American Philosophical Society and the War Department for anyone wanting to read it... No. V.Memoir on Leaden Cartridges. By WiUiam Jones. — ReadMarch 15, 181 i.THE awful catalogue of disasters, produced, by the acci-dental explosion of gun powder, particularly on board shipsof war, has been the subject of serious contemplation, andof earnest solicitude, for the discovery of an adequate re-medy.Naval and military history is replete with instances of thedestruction of ships of war, and of military magazines, byaccidents arising from the exposed and defective manner inwhich gun powder is kept ; and particularly from the looseand combustible nature of the common paper cartridge: alsoof men killed and maimed in the act of reloading cannon, inconsequence of the burning remnant of the paper cartridge,remaining in the chamber of the gun after the discharge.Naval expeditions of the utmost importance are said tohave failed, from the defective quality of the powder ; dama-ged either by accident, or impaired by long exposure to thesaline atmosphere, in the confined apartments on shipboard ;and it is equally susceptible of injury from the humidity of amilitary magazine ; as, in both cases, it is kept in casks, acces-sible to the action of the air.The magazine of a ship of war, is a place that can be ap-proached but with the.greatest caution j and even under the138 MEMOIR ON LEADEN CARTRIDGES.highest state of discipline and vigilance, frequent and fatalaccidents occur.Impressed with the importance of the subject, I conceivedthe idea of substituting lead for paper ; and in the year 1805,when at Canton in China, I caused to be made one hundredcartridges of thin sheet lead, with a portion of tin, to give itmore tenacity. — One half were of six, and the other of four,pounder calibre ; I have yet remaining between 80 and 90. —The whole cost five dollars ; but if the order had been fora considerable quantity, the price would doubtless have beenmuch reduced.On my passage that year in the ship Ploughboy, from Can-ton to Philadelphia, I took an opportunity to make a fair ex-periment, and fired six rounds from a four pounder in quicksuccession, by instantly inserting the charge without spunging;and then upon cleaning out the gun, I found only a smallportion of lead, nearly of the size and form of mustard seedshot, and in quantity only sufficient to cover a surface of aninch square.The lead cartridge may be perforated with as much easeas paper; and as it is not necessary to ram home the charge,or prime the gun, until intended to be used, it may remainat all times in the gun, ready for service, without injury fromwet or damp.When ships of war take fire by any casualty, unless it canbe instantly subdued, it becomes absolutely necessary to de-luge the magazine ; for which purpose there is usually a stop-cock through the bottom of the ship : thus the whole of thepowder on board may be rendered totally unfit for service,and of course the ship utterly defenceless. Whereas, if en-closed in lead, the powder would not sustain the least injuryfrom the inundation.The whole of the powder for a ship of war, may be filledin a perfect state, in the laboratory on shore; and the aper-ture in the end of the cartridge, being closed with a cap oflead, secured by a cement of white lead, or other propersubstance, will be impervious to moisture ; and thus the pow-MEMOIR ON LEADEN CARTRIDGES. 139der may be preserved unimpaired in the state in which itwas filled, for any length of time — an advantage of the utmostimportance to the success of an enterprise.The cartridges should be packed in cases, with cylindricalcompartments fitted to the size of the several calibres; orwith some soft substance to preserve them from injury ordeformity ; hence the necessity and the danger of filling thecartridges on board, in time of action, will be superseded.If it shall be deemed necessary to have some larger pack-ages of powder for ordinary or casual uses, the casks con-taining it, should be lined with thin lead, in the manner of atea chest, and closed, like the cartridges, until required foruse.I think cases preferable to casks: their cubical form willoccupy less space in proportion to their contents than casks ;and about 50 pounds weight in each case, can be handled byone man with convenience.As leaden cartridges will preserve their form better whenfull than empty, and will occupy only the same space, thewhole of the ammunition should be filled in the laboratory,and the contents of each case distinctly marked with thenumber, calibre, and nature of the charges, whether full orreduced.The increase of expense in substituting lead for paper car-tridges, will be comparatively trifling, and will be amply re-munerated, by the preservation of the quality, and saving inquantity, of the powder. For I believe when ships of warreturn from a cruize, their powder is generally sent to beremanufactured.The preceding remarks are applied principally to navalservice ; but I conceive them to be equally applicable to manymilitary purposes, particularly magazines, and even to fieldservice, when rapid firing is necessary ; for the charge maybe instantly inserted without danger, as there is no necessityto spunge the gun, except when it may be necessary tocleanse or cool it.140 MEMOIR ON LEADEN CARTRIDGES.We often hear of partizan detachments being frustrated inthe object of their enterprise, by long exposure to heavyrains, or by fording deep streams, and thus damaging theirpowder. Why may not the cartridges of the infantry aswell as the artillery, be formed of lead, for particular ob-jects f*The musket cartridge may be made as thin as paper, sothat neither weight nor expense, can form an objection; and,when to be used, the end can be opened with the teeth,with as much facility as a paper cartridge.The two cartridges now exhibited, contain a charge for afour pounder ; and although they are of the size of a cylin-drical powder measure for one pound weight, they are eachmade to contain nearly a pound and a quarter of powder, bygently striking the bottom on a table when filling, whichserves the better to distend, and support the sides of the car-tridge.One of them had a small neck about one-fifth of an inchhigh, and is closely corked and sealed with a cement of resingum-mastic, and red lead ; the other had merely a circularaperture closed with a cork, and over that a cap of lead, ce-mented with white lead — they have both been completelyimmersed in water during the preceding forty-eight hours. Itis practicable to solder the cap ; but, on trying the experiment,I found the degree of heat necessary to fuse solder, to ap-proach so near to the ignition of gunpowder, that I think itwould be found too hazardous in common practice.It was my intention to have made this communication longsince ; but it has been delayed by the pressure of other pur-suits, and partly by neglect. In the interval, I have occasion-ally conversed with several philosophical, naval, and militarygentlemen, on this subject, who have all corroborated myviews of the utility and importance of the object, and have* Observe the difficulties that Pike and other travellers have experienced,from the effect of humidity upon their powder.MEMOIR ON LEADEN CARTRIDGES. 141urged the communication which is now submitted with de-ference and respect to the American Philosophical Society,byWM. JONES.Philadelphia, March 1 5th, 1811.This Memoir being referred to Messrs. Robert Patterson,T. Matlack and Joseph Cloud, to report thereon to the society :the author made a further communication on the subject tothe committee, which, together with their report, was directedto be printed.Philadelphia, March 22, 181 1.Dear Sir,As the only legitimate end of philosophical investigationis the discovery of truth, and as the truth can only be ascer-tained by a careful examination of facts, as they are deve-loped in the progress of experiment, I deem it necessary tostate to you, that after the exhibition of my leaden cartridges,(which had been immersed in water 48 hours) one of whichwas opened, and a part of the gun powder poured out per-fectly dry, in the presence of the society at its last meeting —I emptied both the cartridges, and, contrary to my expectation,a part of the powder appeared in lumps sligMly adhesive, butapparently dry. My first impressions were that a small de-gree of humidity must have penetrated through some imper-ceptible crevice, or that the low temperature of the water inwhich they had been immersed, had condensed the air within,and produced a slight degree of deliquescence, and conse-quent adhesion of the grains of powder: hut, upon a morestrict examination, I found the powder perfectly dry, and theinterior of the cartridge equally so ; not a grain of powderadhering to the corners, or die appearance of the least humid-14& MEMOIR ON LEADEN CARTRIDGES.ity — then recollecting that I had packed the powder very hard,in order to distend and support the sides of the cartridge, itoccurred to me that this must have been the cause of the ad-hesion. . In order to satisfy myself on this head, I returnedthe powder into the cartridge, and packed it hard as before.Two days afterwards, I emptied it again, and found the pow-der in lumps slightly adhesive, exactly in the state first de-scribed; so that I am entirely satisfied that not the leastmoisture had passed through the cartridge, but that the pow-der and the interior of the cartridge were as perfectly dry afterthe immersion as before.When the cartridges are filled and the caps cemented anddry, I would recommend a good coat of paint, in order toprevent oxidation, as well as to fill up any imperceptible cre-vice or defect in the cartridge. It is easy, however, to provethe soundness of the cartridge, by blowing in it to ascertainwhether or not it is air tight.I am of opinion, that very thin tin plate cartridges may bemade to answer the same purpose, (in the absence of lead,which I think much preferable) provided they were well pro-tected by a coat or two of paint, as tin will oxidate much soonerthan lead.Thin tin plate may readily be perforated by a slight strokewith a steel-pointed pricker.I am very respectfully,Yours,WM. JONES,Messrs. Patterson, Cloud and Matlack,Committee on Leaden Cartridges.MEMOIR ON LEADEN CARTRIDGES. 143The Committee to whom was referred the Memoir onCannon Cartridges,REPORT,That the Committee have attentively considered the Memoiron Cannon Cartridges, presented to the society by CaptainWilliam Jones of this city, and are of opinion, that the expe-riments made by him fully demonstrate the utility of sheet-lead cartridges.The security they will afford, against the danger from latentfire, so frequently retained by the cartridges now in use, andthe time saved in scooping and spunging the cannon, whichwill be altogether unnecessary, are evidently of very greatimportance in the land service ; and, in addition to those ad-vantages, that of securing gun powder at sea, from the destruc-tive effects of moisture, extending even to the case of inun-dation of the powder-room, sometimes indispensibly necessaryfor the preservation of the ship ; they consider as being inthe sea-service inestimable. Your Committee are thereforeof opinion, that the communication is well worthy of a placein the transactions of the soeiety.And as practical improvements of this kind belong to thenation : your Committee therefore recommend, That thesecretary of the society be directed to transmit to the secre-tary of the navy and the secretary at war of the United States,a copy of Captain Jones's Memoir. This, they conceive,ought not to be delayed, as sheet-lead of a size suitable forcannon cartridges not being in common use, time will berequired for the necessary preparations for rolling it of thatsize. For a supply of an article of such importance in na-tional defence, we ought not to depend on foreign nations ;and the readiness with which this can be manufactured withinourselves, at an expense, it is believed, that will not exceedthe cost of flannel, or even paper cartridges, renders thatdependence altogether unnecessary. How far the use of sheet14t4s MEMOIR ON LEADEN CARTRIDGES.lead cartridges may, in some cases, be applied to musquetry,will of course present itself for consideration to the board ofwar of the United States; — and possibly that board may takeinto consideration the utility of preserving the whole stockof powder in their magazines in sheet-lead ; either in casesor boxes lined with it.R. PATTERSON,T. MATLACK, ^Committee.JOS. CLOUD,Copies of the Memoir and of the Report were transmittedas directed to the Secretary of War, from whom the followingletter was received.War Department, April 27th, 1811.John Vaughan, Esq.Librarian Am. Phil. Society.Your letter of the nth inst. inclosing a memoir on theadvantages of using sheet-lead for cartridges instead of paperor flannel, has been received. The attention of the Ameri-can Philosophical Society, to a subject so interesting as thatof the preservation of powder, is equally honourable fo them,and promising of usefulness to the public ; and is observed(with suitable acknowledgments) by this department, to whichit is peculiarly important.Boxes or casks for keeping powder, lined with lead, areunquestionably applicable to all magazines constructed withinor under walls of earth or masonry, or others, exposed todampness or moisture ; the introduction and use of leadencartridges, however, must depend on further experience.On the suggestion of an officer, a common tea-chest madeof wood, and lined as usual with lead, was filled with powder.MEMOIR ON LEADBN CARTRIDGES. 145The top, or mouth of the chest, was covered with pieces ofboard. It was buried in the earth in the month of November,1809, where it remained until the month of May, 1810, whenit was taken up. The powder was perfectly dry, exceptinground the edges of the mouth, where it had been coveredwith the boards.Respectfully, Sir,Your obdt. servant,W. EUSTIS. 4
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