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American Civil War Artillery Projectiles & Fuzes;


John D. Bartleson Jr.

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To All Interested:

Kenny has ask me to start an American Civil War section in order to aquaint our members with projectiles and fuzes used during our great but sad war from 1861 to 1865.

This period in our history produced a vast amount of projectile and fuze design ever searching for the best way to achieve propellant gas seal and projectile rotation and fuzes that were simple in construction and to function on time and or impact with the target.

Several years ago I collected hardware from actual relic hunting or our right gifts from friends and my interest grew.

When I first entered the U.S. Navy's EOD program in 1956 the operational teams had no guidelines for dealing with ACW ordnance. The subject was not taught in our school nor were we provided with publications on the subject. While stationed in Charleston South Carolina our unit deactivated hundreds of shells for the Fort Sumpter National monument and for local civilians as pure public relations.

In 1999 I lost vision in both eyes due to macular degeneration and had to give up the hardware end and started collecting digital images. Two years ago a good friend taught me the technique of rendering color plates from the digital or scanned images.

As one draws the features that make up the ordnance I become aware offine details that are sometimes overlooked in examing a rusty or corroded shell or fuze. So the color plate becomes a way of not only expressing my interest, but to permit the viewer to see these details.

i have hundreds of color plates but oweing to the limited space on tiis site I will only show a few models of each patternused in the war.

Regards,

Bart

 

 

Edited by John D. Bartleson Jr.
Reduce size of images to permit more
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Hi Bart ,

 

excellent information ,not only am I amazed at your artwork but are you saying you can't see anything at all after you lost your vision?

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Hi Bart ,

 

excellent information ,not only am I amazed at your artwork but are you saying you can't see anything at all after you lost your vision?

 

Kenny,

The Veteran's Administration has provided me with text magnification and text reading software which allows me to still use my computer. When I make these color plates I am usually working at X 400 normal screen viewing.

Along with the screen magnification I have trained my pherifial vision to take over instead of just giving up. B)

Yours Aye,

Bart

 

 

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wow Bart, I'm even more impressed now !!!

 

Looking forward to finding out more about Civil war fuzes :thumbsup:

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Great pictures Bart, I'm amazed at how advanced these shells were considering they are from the 1860's I always thought they only fired cannon balls in the American Civil War!

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Hi Bart,

 

they open fine with me, the problem you may be having is that the images are very big can you resize them at all? I usually find 800 x 800 is the best size, but they do open fine anyway.

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US Artillery was actually quite advanced. Granted 1861 started with mostly left overs from the War of 1840 against Mexico. However, very quickly rifled guns were created, as was timed fuses. By the end of the war breach loaders were coming into design, as was rapid fire guns. Within 5 years you have the War of 1870 in Europe and Krupp producing guns that would not change much until WWI.

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Interesting stuff I always imagined rifled guns and fuzes to be later on in the Century, you learn something new every day.

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Excellent Bart, glad you can open the images now :) 800 x 800 is the best size for viewing on the web.

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Excellent glad you have got the rest to upload, I must admit your images are stunning Bart, look forward to seeing more :thumbsup:

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Parrot and Hotchkiss are my favorite :-) I always enjoyed going down to Gettysburg and taking a look at their fantastic collection of guns spread across the park... had some amazing ones... my favorite were the Brass 1840 Mountain Mortars down on the Confederate side near the viewing tower.

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Ask and you shall receive:

http://www.google.com/patents?id=AwEAAAAAE...amp;dq=schenkle

 

Improvement for Percussion-fuse shell

Patent number: 36576

Issue date: Sep 30, 1862

Inventor: JOHN P. SCHENKL

 

Seek and ye shall find,

Greg,

I meant I have benn unable to locate a patent for his projectile design. I have all of his patents for the fuzes.

Regarrd,

Bart

 

 

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A fire in 1877 destroyed several thousand patents within the Old Patent Building in Washington... it is possible the material was lost in that fire.

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