Butler Projectile

[Burney Davis]

I thought I would show this little gem that I acquired recently. Not actually a real Butler projectile, and not a piece of trench art, but either a salesman's sample or an advertising piece.

It is only 10cm tall and carries the inscription:

B.L.

Long Chamber

Butler Projectile

S Boston Iron Co

Boston Mass

USA

I have attached a couple of pictures of the piece. I found an article an article taken from Ordnance Notes of around 1875, which is the closest match to it that I can find but can't down load the picture. The link is file:///C:/Users/User/Pictures/Butler projectile.html This next link gives some detail of the South Boston Iron Co http://goodoldboston.blogspot.com/2013/01/algers-gun-works.html

I'd be grateful if anyone could shed any further light on an original projectile or exactly when it was made. Thanks in advance.

 

[bacarnal]

Our Team found several of the 8" Butler rounds at the USMA West Point, NY back in 2011. The publications we had were from 1888. I'll see if I've still got them. When we found the first round, it was without a rotating band and had an inset threaded step which made us think it was a rocket warhead at first. It ended up the threaded step was what you screwed the rotating band on to. From what I gather, the Butler rounds went through a considerable refinement process but eventually was set aside for more reliable designs. Cheers, Bruce.

 

[Burney Davis]

Thanks Bruce, would be great if you could provide more detail. Had the projectiles been fired or just discarded?

 

[bacarnal]

Burney, the one full up projectile we recovered had been fired. We had to dispose of it and it was a live round (BP filled). We also found pieces parts. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of them, being a while ago, but I do have excerpts of publications from 1880 and 1884 (not 1888 as I'd thought). The one full up we found was closest to the top one in picture 4. The ones shown in the photos were found at another site and were provided to us as a way of ID. All of the rounds found were 8" diameter. I don't know if they made any other size. Cheers, Bruce.

 

[Burney Davis]

Sorry Bruce, I missed your last post. Very helpful and great pictures. Many thanks.

 

[frijoles108]

So were these essentially transitional designs between the traditional parrot shell design and the more modern copper banded projectiles?