First, let me say publically that I intend no offense to Mike and Carl in questioning an object on the sales area of this website. I simply do not know of another example of this object on the internet, and readers here need a link to see what the object looks like.
Please take a look at this item in the Fuzes listings here at bulletandshell.com.
http://bulletandshell.com/Items/item.php?id=U00363Note that its body is threaded.
In all my decades in this field, I've never seen any confirmation of the McKee-&-Mason book's identification of that object as a "Whitworth friction primer." I have doubts about that ID, for the following reasons.
1- We know that Lee's army had Whitworth cannons, which were used more than just a little bit. But insofar as I'm aware, nobody has reported finding "expended" Whitworth friction primers at the locations where those cannons got used. I'll acknowledge that it's possible some have been dug at those locations but the digger(s) did not recognize them as a civil war military relic and thus tossed them into the trashcan. But since the McKee-&-Mason book does identify them in a photo as a Whitworth friction primer, it seems like somebody would have dug some and announced the find.
2- This threaded object obviously takes a lot more labor and precision to manufacture than the standard cannon friction primer of that era. What is the advantage of this form over the standard form which makes the much-greater production labor worth doing?
3- Verification of the object's ID as a Whitworth friction primer could be tested by checking whether or not a Whitworth cannon's vent/touch-hole is threaded... and is the correct size to accept this object.
Also... perhaps John D. Bartleson Jr. can check with his British artillery experts for confirmation of the M&M book's identification.
Regards,
Pete
