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Steel Tube with brass ends 5.5" x 1" BP R /I\ L Half Sectioned

roller63

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Steel Tube with brass ends 5.5" x 1" BP R /I\ L
Half sectioned with simulated propellant.
Can anyone help identify this steel tube with brass ends ? It's a half-sectioned item, painted black, with simulated propellant inside. I measures 5.5" long by 1" wide. It has brass ends closed internally with card dics. Both brass ends are the same and are marked :- R /I\ L BP and one very small indistinct makers mark ? My educated guess is that it's British, quite old and designed to burn through from one end to the other ?
Apologies for the poor phone camera photos. Item belongs to a friend.

IMG_20211203_104537.jpgIMG_20211203_104710.jpgIMG_20211203_104510.jpgIMG_20211203_104452.jpg
 
it dosent appear to have any flash hole,primer hole,so how would the "powder"be ignited?

Sorry for the late reply, both ends have holes in them, but no sign of a percussion cap or similar, just card discs internally. Hope that helps.
 
BP,probably black powder.could be a propelling charge from a toffee apple mortar,9in or 12in something like that
 
What you have there is the burster charge for a 12 Pr Rifle Breech loader (Armstrong) gun, Segment shell. If you wish drawing of the shell and burst container please contact me direct.
 
What you have there is the burster charge for a 12 Pr Rifle Breech loader (Armstrong) gun, Segment shell. If you wish drawing of the shell and burst container please contact me direct.

That's excellent, thank you ! I will send you a pm regarding this. Would this be from the Victorian period ?
 
There's a sectional diagram in the 1877 version of the Treatise on Ammunition.

It's not brilliant resolution, but it's better than nothing I guess.

Right a screen capture first, then the actual image from the PDF file.


12 pr. Breech Loading Armstrong Gun Segment Projectile - 1.jpg12 pr. Breech Loading Armstrong Gun Segment Projectile - 2.jpg


Some very strange scanning was used to make the file as the page background image is huge (3476×5594), but the sectional diagram of the projectile is tiny in comparison (484×610)?
 
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