Allen ,
please don't put small arms on the artilery site,
we have enough to deal with?
Okay, now to try and give some rerrerences to put the rifled ammunition to bed. My references is Gibbons Artillerist Manual.
I spent all afteter noon tryhing to find an answer for you in the 600 odd pages of the manual the only reference to fixed rifle ammunition is for sperical shot, shell and case shot, no mention whatsoevver for elongated projectiles/
Now, we have gone from tyhing or glueing the bag to the left over knob to placing it over the sabot. If the latter be ture then they could have tied powder bags over the base and sabots of every projectle in the inventory, save the Whitworth which used a metal searate container for powder, and make ever shell fixed ammunition. Ridiculus??
Quote from Gibbons:
Page 109
“A rifle is a gun having in its bore a number of grooves, helical in form, which, as the
projectile passes out of the bore, give it the rifled or rotating motion. In rifles loaded at the muzzle, the projectile must be made to "take" the grooves, by being forced into them. It will then turn in the piece as often as the entire curve is repeated in the length of the bore, and continue the same motion after leaving the muzzle. The rate at which it revolves will depend, for any given velocity, upon the inclination which the grooves have to the axis of the piece.”
Your proposal of tying the bag over the sabots would cut the bag to pieces by the sharp edges of the lands.
Gibbons quote concerning mateial of batgs. Canfvas was not used!
Page 301
Cartridge -bags.-- should be composed entirely of wool, free from any mixture of thread or cotton, which would be apt to retain fire in the piece. The texture and sewing should be close enough to prevent the powder sifting through. Untwilled stuff is to be preferred. Flannel may be used when the other materials cannot be obtained.
The bag is formed of two pieces, a rectangle, which forms the cylinder, and a circular piece, which forms the bottom. As the stuff does not stretch in the direction of its length, the long side of the rectangle should be taken in that direction, otherwise, the cartridge might become too large for convenient use with its piece.
The material is laid, sometimes several folds thick, on a table, and the rectangles and circles marked out on it with chalk, using for the purpose, patterns made of hard, well -seasoned wood, sheet-iron, or tin. For the dimensions of these patterns, see table, p. 446, of the Appendix.
Now, I hafve provideded a technical reference and posted images to illustrated, not just unsuppored, lengthy phrases with some sort of evidence. True, I have injected my thoughts and opions (everone has one) which I thought was sound logic but guess not.
Anyway this is really all I have time for to spend on this one also as I have run out of words and thoughts.
All the Best,
John
John
