Original Volcanic cartridges

[threedflyer]

Thought you folks might enjoy seeing these from my personal collection.
A very scarce cartridge and I am fortunate to have these two.

For those who may not be familiar with the volcanic cartridge....it has a cavity that is filled with powder and a cork stopper that seals the powder in.

Enjoy!

[relics6165]

Volcanic Arms provides an interesting tie in between Smith and Wesson, and Winchester just before 1860. The Volcanic design, owned by Smith and Wesson was enlarged and reengineered by Winchester (Henry Repeating Arms) to become the Henry rifle. The Henry rifle was then modified to become the 1866 Winchester. The Volcanic design existed until the end of the 1873 and 1876 Winchester line, well into the 1900s.

These cartridges were terribly underpowered, but, like the Rollin White patent for the bored through cylinder that made S&W a monopoly, the Volcanic cartridge lifter design made Henry, then Winchester, a monopoly. Everybody else had to come up with evasive designs to compete (or attempt to compete) with S&W and Winchester. Even Colt and Remington had to pay S&W a royalty to use the bored through cylinder. S&W also had the patent on the rimfire priming method, and they were paid a royalty for that until 1867-69, somewhere in that time frame.

[Bazoo]

Awesome condition, thank you for sharing. That thing in the center is a primer, correct?

Thanks Relics for sharing your information.

[dtknowles]

thank you for sharing.

[armoredman]

That's very neat, thank you!

Now let's see Lee make a mold for that!

[threedflyer]

Awesome condition, thank you for sharing. That thing in the center is a primer, correct?

Thanks Relics for sharing your information.

The center is a cork plug/seal here is a link with more info on the Volcanic cartridge also known as the ROCKET BALL

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Ball

[relics6165]

You can see the relationship of this Smith and Wesson Volcanic pistol with the Henry rifle, and then the 1866 Winchester.

https://www.rockislandauction.com/de...peating-pistol

[Slugster]

Thank you for the pic and info. Really cool!

[cuzinbruce]

Nice pistol. Thanks for the pics!

[relics6165]

The 54 Hunt rifle was a breech loading rifle, it used what was called a "Rocket Ball", but it was externally primed with a percussion cap on a nipple, just like a muzzleloader. The Volcanic repeater used a self contained cartridge, with the primer held in a base wad. When the "cartridge" fired, and the projectile exited the bore, there was a bit of random chance where the primer ended up. Sometimes it stayed in the bore, with the succeeding round fired while it was still in the bore. Probably not terribly dangerous, but certainly not conducive to accuracy. If it ended up in the chamber, it could make loading the next round difficult.

Underpowered, inaccurate, expensive, and with better systems coming online, and the Civil War getting in the way, no wonder it didn't last long.

[smkummer]

Yes, thank u for sharing.

[ascast]

very nice, thanks

[K43]

A step in the evolution just like primer tapes and pinfire. Very interesting and and thank you for showing this.