Percussion Lock History?

[arcticap]

I would like to know more historical facts about "alternative" M.L. percussion locks and action styles from the Civil War era and before.
My personal favorite lock style is the mule ear lock, yet I don't really know anything about where, when or who originated it.
The underhammer is another style whose origins I know very little about. Were there different underhammer action styles beside the currently reproduced locks which use the trigger guard to power the action?

Were there any other percussion action styles beside the sidelock that I'm not aware of that were still loaded from the muzzle? :thanks:

 

[Stumpkiller]

From memory:

Tube lock. Pill lock. Both pre-dating the cap lock but using a side-hammer to ignite fulminate of mercury; either formed into little "pills" or enclosed in a crushable brass tube (These were not around long. Too many spectators injured or blinded by flying tubes).

A variation of the pill lock has what appears to be a little flask in front of the hammer the flask rotates and a fulminate pill is exposed for the primer. Forsythe patented this one in 1760. Trouble was, in use the whole bottle would often go off like a grenade.

There was one that used a nose that fastened to the hammer (like a bayonet style light bulb) and the "noses" came in little wooden boxes of 50. Some beautiful English doubles used this system, but it was pricy for us commoners.

You mentioned mule-ear. There are also box-locks (hammer in the center instead of either side). The under-hammers were produced by the firms Ethan Allan (not the Green Mountain Boy, but they purchased the use of his name in the earlt 1800's), and Alen and Thurber. Some used an enclosed pin and spring (like a modern in-line). Cane guns used that one frequently.

 

[benvenuto]

Check out Lewis Winants "Early Percussion Firearms" (cheap and easy to find) or Hershcel Logans's "Pictorial History of the Underhammer Gun" (a bit rarer)

The percussion system, especially in the early days is one of the most complex and fascinating areas of arms history. People raised on the Hawken rifle craze of the 1970's and civil war repros seem to think the cap was the only system in use. But other systems were still serious contenders for a long time after the cap was invented (around 1822).

In the eastern states, the pill lock was VERY popular for a long time.

As well, the sharps rifle (at least 80% of them) used Christian Sharp's ingenious magazine fed disc primer system. Most of the rest used Maynard tape primers.

Tube primers had their faults, but the advantage was an easy convesion from flintlocks and greater reliablity, especially with musket calibre (.69 and up) guns. The British navy and the Austrians were particularly keen on them.