.321 Greener triplex blueprint drawings

[Rrickoshae]

Drawings for a very unusual round,

 

[TimG]

This is a follow on from work carried out in the Great War, in an attempt to have effective airborne ammunition against other aircraft.

extract from "Reports on Special Small Arms Ammunition Developed during 1915 - 1919" (1920) F.W. Jones O.B.E

Bearing on the kind of cartridge just described, there was a proposal to use large size shot cartridges from large bore shotguns, the idea being that the spread of the shot charge would increase the chance of hitting the pilot and bringing down his plane. Very much later - even as late as 1918 - experiments were made with a .303 cartridge containing three superimposed bullets of different weight and shape, and arranged so that they would not strike the same point of the target, and therefore with one shot increase the possibility of a hit.

Harry Greener of W.W Greener, was more than likely responsible for early development and has two patents on the matter -

GB128617A https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search?q=pn=GB128617A
US1376530A https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search?q=pn=US1376530A

The purpose of the longitudinal grooves on the neck of the case is two fold - they keep the subsequent bullets in place and also allow passage of gas around them. This was to ensure the bullets separated in an orderly manner on leaving the barrel, otherwise, apparently there is a tendency for the bullets to tumble.

Photo and cutaway - https://cartridgecollectors.org/cmo/cmo07may.htm

TimG

 

[Rrickoshae]

Thank you very much for that Tim, a most unusual concept but clever to have different shape & weight bullets to ensure they didn’t all ‘go the same way’.

Dave