British Military Firearms 1650-1850 H. Blackmore

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British Military firearms 1650-1850 published London by Herbert Jenkins 1961. Original Copyright by Howard L. Blackmore of 1961 with 3 following impressions or printing in 1962, 1967 and last impression of 1969 of which this book is . The book contains 296 clean pages, bindings tight, book is hardcover with very nice dust jacket that does have a few chipped corners as photo shows. The book British Military Firearms is a relatively scarce book. Wonderful reference on British Military Firearms and bayonets.

From the dust jacket the following is written: This book, the first to be devoted entirely to the British military firearm, results from over ten years of intensive study of the records of the British Ordnance Office. In the course of these researches much information which has laid buried beneath the dust of centuries has come to light, making it possible to replace many old fallacies and fictions by historical fact.

Starting with the seventeenth century the author traces the development of the standard military arm from the matchlock musket, through all the varieties of the flintlock, to the introduction of the Enfield rifle in the later half of the nineteenth century. Detailed information is given on the famous Brown Bess and India Pattern Muskets, and on the experimental models produced by such gunmakers as Richard Wooldridge, Henry Nock and Durs Egg. The cavalry carbines and pistols which were contemporary with them are also described in detail. Many of these, like the Egg breechloader and the royal Horse Artillery pistol, are described for the first time. All the different types of bayonets are catalogued–some of them never having been previously identified. Naval arms are included, and prominence is given to special weapons such as the seven barrelled volley gun and the heavy rifle firing a belted ball. The introduction of the rifle is dealt with in full and the ill-fated Ferguson rifle provides a poignant story.

Collectors will delight in the wealth of technical detail this book offers; in the fascinating glimpses of the lives of the gunmakers who made the guns and the soldiers who used them; in the lively description of the manufacture and proof of early firearms; and in the Appendix which sets out contract prices. Other Appendices give the measurements of all the main flintlock and percussion arms, and reproductions of 102 locks, stock and barrel marks. Many line drawings and diagrams supplement eighty pages of magnificent photographs specially taken for the Author in the Tower of London Armouries with the full co-operation of the authorities.

From the sixteenth century until its dissolution in 1855, the Board of Ordnance was responsible for the supply of arms to the British Army and Navy, and other kindred forces. A large proportion of its records remain in existence and from part of the vast WO series in the Public record Office. London. In the past, historians like Sir John Fortescue, Col. Clifford Walton and the Rev. Percy Sumner directed some of their attentions to these records, notably the Warrant and Delivery Books, but their interest in arms was incidental. A few amateurs d’armes, Charles Beard and Charles ffoulkers in particular, conducted certain narrow paths of investigation; but the main Ordnance series, the Minute Books (WO 47), Bill Books (WO 51 & 52 remained virtually untouched. This may have been due to the fact that arms information is scattered thinly in these large tomes. In fact, one firearms authority, presumably after a very brief excursion into research, gave his opinion that the Minute Books were concerned mainly with the payment of pensions and the supply of small beer.

Much of what has been written (and re-written) on the subject of British Military firearms has had no proper historical foundation, with the result that some strange legends have become accepted as fact. Itr was to try to remedy this, that, in 1950, I began as broad and detailed survey of the Ordnance records as is possible for one man to undertake in the spare-time of a decade. This book is an attempt to present the results of this research , giving the collector of military firearms as much information as possible about the actual weapons, with enough background history, regimental and departmental, to underline their significance.—Preface continues in book.

• Preface
• List of Illustrations
• Abbreviations
• I Matchlook and Snaphonce
• II The Development of the flintlock



• III The Brown Bess
• IV Early Rifles and Breechloaders
• V The Experimental Arms of Henry Nock
• VI The Introduction of the Rifle
• VII The Later Flintlocks
• VIII The Adoption of the Percussion System
• IX The Brunswick Rifle
• X Lovell’s Percussion Arms
• XI Repeaters and Revolvers
• XII Manufacture and Proof
• Appendix A–Measurements of Flintlock Arms
• B–Contract Prices for Flintlock Arms
• C–Measurements of Percussion Arms
• D–Barrel and Lock Marks
• E–Lock and Stock Marks
• Select Bibliography
• Index
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
• 1 Matchlock and English-Lock muskets
• 2 English-lock and dog-lock pistols
• 3 Early English muskets from Apethorpe; Northants
• 4 Muskets showing transition from matchlock to flintlock
• 5 Muskets with dog-locks
• 6 English Pug bayonets
• 7 Seventeenth-century cavalry carbines
• 8 James II and Queen Anne pistols
• 9 Tinker’s mortar carbine
• 10 Muskets showing the evolution of the flat lock
• 11 Early examples of the Brown Bess
• 12 Muskets with curious stocks
• 13 Early eighteenth-century butt plates and escutcheons
• 14 Early socket bayonets
• 15 The main Land Pattern arms
• 16 Grenade guns
• 17 Three unusual carbines
• 18 Long-barrelled flintlock pistols
• 19 Flintlock cavalry carbines
• 20 Musketoons
• 21 Scottish regimental pistols
• 22 Sea Service muskets
• 23 Spear carbines
• 24 East India Company Ferguson rifle
• 26 The Grice muzzle loading rifle
• 27 Nock’s muskets
• 28 Nock’s breech loading musket
• 29 Nock’s pistols
• 30 Nock’s carbines
• 31 Seven-barrelled guns
• 32 The Nock lock
• 33 The first Baker rifles
• 34 Baker rifle bayonets
• 35 Late model Baker rifles
• 36 Volunteer rifles
• 37 Close-ups of the Wilkes and Helme rifles
• 38 The Wilkes and Helme rifles full-length
• 39 A Volunteer musket and the Egg muzzleloading rifle
• 40 Baker’s rifled carbine and the Paget carbine
• 41 Baker’s muskets
• 42 The New Land Pattern arms
• 43 Flintlock pistols with 9 in. Barrels
• 44 Gilmore’s and Noble’s muskets
• 45 Thomson’s and Egg’s Patent flintlocks
• 46 India Pattern arms
• 47 The Douglas flintlock
• 48 Cavalry carbine fittings
• 49 Side plates
• 50 rocket launchers and cannon igniters
• 51 Combination weapons
• 53 Forsyth’s locks made at the Tower
• 53 Wilkinson’s and Heurteloup’s under-hammer locks
• 54 Evolution of the short-swivel carbine
• 55 Side-hammer locks of Col. Miller and William Moore
• 56 Tube locks of Joseph Manton and William Moore
• 57 Eccles’s and Manton’s percussion trial muskets
• 58 Hayward’s self-loading pellet lock
• 59 Evolution of the Brunswick rifle
• 60 Varieties of the Brunswick rifle
• 61 Side-action Brunswicks
• 62 Close-up of breechloading wall piece
• 63 Muzzles of Brunswick and Jacob rifles compared
• 64 The Brunswick wall pieces
• 65 Sappers and Miner’s and Cadets’ carbines
• 66 Double-barrelled Cape carbines
• 67 The Jacob and other double-barrelled India carbines
• 68 Double-barrelled constabulary carbines
• 69 Miscellaneous percussion carbines
• 70 The last smooth-bore muskets
• 71 Percussion pistols
• 72 Experimental breechloaders
• 73 Lancaster’s pillar-breech rifle of 1848
• 74 Combination tools
• 75 The Minie, Enfield and Lancaster rifles
• 76 A seventeenth-century flintlock revolver
• 77 Puckle’s brass gun in the Tower of London
• 78 The Chambers gun lof 1815
• 79 A Belton sliding-lock pistol
• 80 A Belton musket made for the East India Company
• 81 The Collier revolver
• 82 The Treeby "chain" gun
• 83 The Colt and Adams revolvers.

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