Maynard tape primer

Muskets in the early 19th century were flintlocks, which had a high rate of misfire and performed poorly in damp and humid weather. In 1807 the first percussion ignition system was patented by Alexander Forsyth based on research on fulminates conducted by Edward Charles Howard, but practical percussion lock systems did not become available until the 1820s, after Alexander John Forsyth's patent had expired.

Percussion cap systems relied on small copper caps that were filled with mercury fulminate. While they greatly improved the reliability of muskets and their performance in damp weather, the slow rate of fire of muskets was still an issue. In 1845,{{sfn|United States Army Infantry School|1942|page=19}} Dr. Edward Maynard, a dentist with an interest in firearms, embedded tiny pellets of priming material in thin strips of paper, then glued a second strip of paper on top of the first, creating a "tape" of primer. The tape could be manufactured quickly and cheaply, since paper was much less expensive than copper. Maynard also developed an automatic feeding system that would advance the tape when the musket's hammer was cocked. The hammer not only detonated the primer, but would also automatically cut the paper, thus removing the spent portion of the primer tape.

File:M1855lockdiagram.JPG

Maynard's new system still required the musket's powder and Minié ball to be loaded conventionally into the barrel, but the tape system meant that the percussion cap no longer needed to be manually loaded onto the percussion lock's nipple.{{sfn|United States Army Infantry School|1942|pages=19−20}}{{sfn|Wooster|1991|page=69}} This saved the soldier a step during the reloading process, which increased the soldier's overall rate of fire.{{sfn|United States Army Infantry School|1942|pages=19−20}}

The Ordnance Board was initially hesitant about the design, but the secretary of war, future Confederate President Jefferson Davis, was so enthusiastic about the design that it was installed on the Springfield Model 1855 rifle-musket.

The Maynard tape worked well as long the tapes were kept dry,{{sfn|United States Army Infantry School|1942|page=19}} proving to be fragile in comparison to copper caps,{{sfn|Smithsonian|2014|page=81}} and unreliable under bad weather conditions.{{sfn|Wooster|1991|page=69}} In 1860, the Maynard system was deemed by the War Department as unreliable and abandoned.{{sfn|United States Army Infantry School|1942|page=20}} The M1855 was designed to use either the Maynard system or standard percussion caps, and so remained functional even with the problems of the Maynard system.{{sfn|United States Army Infantry School|1942|pages=19−20}}

Variations of the Maynard tape system are still used today in modern toy guns.{{sfn|Smithsonian|2014|page=81}}

{{reflist}}

• Pauly, Roger (2004). Firearms: The Life Story of a Technology. Greenwood Publishing Group. {{ISBN|978-0-313-32796-4}}
• Coggins, Jack (2004). Arms and Equipment of the Civil War. Courier Dover Publications. {{ISBN|978-0-486-43395-0}}
• {{cite journal |last1=United States Army Infantry School |title=From Flintlock to M-1 (A Review of U.S. Infantry Shoulder Weapons) |journal=The Infantry School Mailing List |date=February 1942 |volume=23 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JCMlAQAAMAAJ |access-date=17 January 2024 |publisher=Academic Department of the Infantry School |location=Fort Benning, GA |language=en |author1-link=United States Army Infantry School }}
• {{cite book |last1=Wooster |first1=Robert |title=History of Fort Davis, Texas |date=1991 |publisher=Division of History, Southwest Cultural Resources Center, Southwest Region, National Park Service, Department of the Interior |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YfuKYJ0NPtoC |access-date=17 January 2024 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Smithsonian |title=Firearms: An Illustrated History |date=1 April 2014 |publisher=DK Ink |isbn=978-1-4654-3089-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ma0MAwAAQBAJ&dq=maynard+tape+primer&pg=PA81 |language=en |author1-link=Smithsonian }}

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Category:Early modern firearms

Category:Ammunition

Category:American inventions

Category:19th-century inventions

Category:Firearm terminology