The Maynard tape primer was a system designed by Edward Maynard to allow for more rapid reloading of

musket A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually di ...

Invention

Muskets in the early 19th century were

flintlock Flintlock is a general term for any firearm that uses a flint-striking ignition mechanism, the first of which appeared in Western Europe in the early 16th century. The term may also apply to a particular form of the mechanism itself, also know ...

s, 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 Alexander John Forsyth (28 December 1768 – 11 June 1843) was a Scottish Church of Scotland minister who first successfully used fulminating (or 'detonating') chemicals to prime gunpowder in fire-arms thereby creating what became known as per ...

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 Alexander John Forsyth (28 December 1768 – 11 June 1843) was a Scottish Church of Scotland minister who first successfully used fulminating (or 'detonating') chemicals to prime gunpowder in fire-arms thereby creating what became known as pe ...

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

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. 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 A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nails into wood, to shape metal (as wi ...

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.

Initial reception

Maynard's new system still required the musket's

powder A powder is a dry, bulk solid composed of many very fine particles that may flow freely when shaken or tilted. Powders are a special sub-class of granular materials, although the terms ''powder'' and '' granular'' are sometimes used to distin ...

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. This saved the soldier a step during the reloading process, which increased the soldier's overall rate of fire. The Ordnance Board was initially hesitant about the design, but the secretary of war, future Confederate

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as ...

, was so enthusiastic about the design that it was installed on the

Springfield Model 1855 The Springfield Model 1855 was a rifled musket widely used in the American Civil War. It exploited the advantages of the new conical Minié ball, which could be deadly at over . It was a standard infantry weapon for Union and Confederates a ...

rifle-musket.

Performance in the field

The Maynard tape worked well under controlled conditions, but proved to be unreliable in the field. The mechanism proved to be delicate and fouled easily with mud and debris. The tape had been advertised as waterproof, but moisture tended to be its worst problem. The paper strips were susceptible to adverse weather and even humidity. For later muskets like the

Springfield Model 1861 The Springfield Model 1861 was a Minié-type rifled musket used by the United States Army and Marine Corps during the American Civil War. Commonly referred to as the "Springfield" (after its original place of production, Springfield, Massachus ...

, the Ordnance Department abandoned the Maynard system and went back to the earlier percussion lock. 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. Variations of the Maynard tape system are still used today in modern toy guns.

References

* Pauly, Roger (2004). ''Firearms: The Life Story of a Technology''. Greenwood Publishing Group. * Coggins, Jack (2004). ''Arms and Equipment of the Civil War''. Courier Dover Publications. {{DEFAULTSORT:Maynard Tape Primer Early modern firearms Ammunition American inventions 19th-century inventions Firearm terminology