Superposed load
Encyclopedia
A superposed load or stacked charge is a method used by various muzzleloading firearms, from matchlock
s to caplocks, as well as newer Metal Storm weapons, to fire multiple shots from a single barrel without reloading.
Flintlock
s using superposed charges often involved a sliding lock, that slid along the barrel and locked in place at each successive touch hole. The lock would be primed, cocked, and fired at each touch hole to discharge successive charges. Some caplock designs used multiple hammers, each impacting a nipple leading to a different charge, allowing true rapid fire.
Matchlock
The matchlock was the first mechanism, or "lock" invented to facilitate the firing of a hand-held firearm. This design removed the need to lower by hand a lit match into the weapon's flash pan and made it possible to have both hands free to keep a firm grip on the weapon at the moment of firing,...
s to caplocks, as well as newer Metal Storm weapons, to fire multiple shots from a single barrel without reloading.
Design
Superposed loads are loads that are placed in the barrel, one of top of the other, so that there is an alternating sequence of (from the breach end) powder, ball, powder, ball, etc., for the desired number of charges. Each charge is accompanied by a corresponding touch hole that allows ignition of that charge. In the simplest case, the matchlock, each touch hole is individually primed and ignited with the match, front to rear. Each ball behind the first acts as a seal, to prevent ignition of the next charge.Flintlock
Flintlock is the general term for any firearm based on the flintlock mechanism. The term may also apply to the mechanism itself. Introduced at the beginning of the 17th century, the flintlock rapidly replaced earlier firearm-ignition technologies, such as the doglock, matchlock and wheellock...
s using superposed charges often involved a sliding lock, that slid along the barrel and locked in place at each successive touch hole. The lock would be primed, cocked, and fired at each touch hole to discharge successive charges. Some caplock designs used multiple hammers, each impacting a nipple leading to a different charge, allowing true rapid fire.
History
Designs using superposed loads have appeared periodically throughout firearms history, though they have met with only limited success. They have always been plagued with issues of sequential charges firing together, which can result in a burst barrel and injury to the user.- An early mention of superposed loads is made by Giambattista della PortaGiambattista della PortaGiambattista della Porta , also known as Giovanni Battista Della Porta and John Baptist Porta, was an Italian scholar, polymath and playwright who lived in Naples at the time of the Scientific Revolution and Reformation....
in his book Magia Naturalis (published in 1558), wherein he describes a brass gun that could discharge ten or more bullets "without intermission." Porta's description is very similar to a Roman candle, in that it uses a propellant charge topped with an undersized ball, followed by a slower-burning charge to add a delay, repeating until the muzzle is reached. The chain of charges is fired by igniting the last layer of slow-burning powder, whereupon the gun fires each charge in succession. - Samuel PepysSamuel PepysSamuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
also mentions in a 1662 entry of his diaryDiaryA diary is a record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. A personal diary may include a person's experiences, and/or thoughts or feelings, including comment on current events outside the writer's direct experience. Someone...
a gun that would discharge seven times, and described it as "very serviceable." - A British patent for superposed loads in a single barrel was issued in 1682 to Charles Cardiff.
- American inventor Joseph Belton combined the earlier superposed load concepts into the Belton flintlockBelton flintlockThe Belton Flintlock was a repeating flintlock design using superposed loads, invented by Philadelphia, Pennsylvania resident Joseph Belton some time prior to 1777...
, which used a sliding lock with multiple touchholes to ignite separated sets of fused charges, allowing multiple shots per pull of the trigger and multiple shots to be fired by repositioning and recharging the lock. Belton attempted to licenseLicenseThe verb license or grant licence means to give permission. The noun license or licence refers to that permission as well as to the document recording that permission.A license may be granted by a party to another party as an element of an agreement...
his invention to the Continental CongressContinental CongressThe Continental Congress was a convention of delegates called together from the Thirteen Colonies that became the governing body of the United States during the American Revolution....
in 1777, and to the British ArmyBritish ArmyThe British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
and the East India CompanyEast India CompanyThe East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
in 1784. - An American gunsmith, Isaiah Jennings, produced a superposed load gun mentioned in a New York Evening Post article on April 10, 1822. The article claims the gun consists of a single barrel and lock, which may fire fifteen to twenty charges, which can be fired in the space of two seconds per charge. Jennings' gun adds, in addition to the sliding lock and multiple touchholes of earlier designs, a mechanism for automatically priming the pan of the lock, meaning each shot can be fired by simply cocking the lock and pulling the trigger. A 12 shot, breech-loading flintlock version of Jennings rifle, serial number 1, sold for US$34,000 at auction in 2006.
- The Metal Storm design may be the first practical design to circumvent these problems with a combination of projectile design and an electronic firing system.
See also
- Belton flintlockBelton flintlockThe Belton Flintlock was a repeating flintlock design using superposed loads, invented by Philadelphia, Pennsylvania resident Joseph Belton some time prior to 1777...
, a system using a fusedFuse (explosives)In an explosive, pyrotechnic device or military munition, a fuse is the part of the device that initiates function. In common usage, the word fuse is used indiscriminately...
set of superposed loads for rapid fire - Metal Storm Limited, a modern, electronically controlled superposed load system