| 词条 | Belton flintlock |
| 释义 |
The Belton flintlock was a repeating flintlock design using superposed loads, conceived by Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, resident Joseph Belton some time prior to 1777. The musket design was offered by Belton to the newly formed Continental Congress in 1777. Belton wrote that the musket could fire eight rounds with one loading,[1] and that he could support his claims "by experimental proof."[2] Belton failed to sell the musket to Congress, and later was unable to sell the design to the British Army a year after the American Revolution.[1] There are no records that indicate that the gun was ever supplied, and it is uncertain if or how exactly the Belton improvement operated.[2] Musket DesignThere are no known surviving examples of Belton's musket. The only evidence of its existence is the correspondence between Belton and Congress.[3] Belton described the musket as capable of firing up to "eight balls one after another, in eight, five or three seconds of time," at a distance of 25 to 30 yards.[3] He also claimed to have a secret method of modifying this weapon to discharge "sixteen or twenty [balls], in sixteen, ten, or five seconds of time."[3] Historian Harold L. Peterson argued that because it was described as having a predetermined number of shots and rate of fire, it may have worked with a single lock igniting a fused chain of charges stacked in a single barrel, packaged as a single large paper cartridge.[2] Congress commissioned Belton to build or modify 100 muskets for the military on May 3, 1777,[2] but the order was cancelled on May 15, when Congress received Belton's bid and considered it an "extraordinary allowance."[4] After the war, Belton attempted to sell the design to the British Army, without success.[1] Belton then began making superposed load flintlocks, which used a sliding lock mechanism, with the London gunsmith William Jover, and attempted to sell them to the East India Company. The Belton sliding lock design was later improved and used in slightly more successful designs, such as Isaiah Jenning's repeating flintlock rifle.[5] Pistol designToday there are two surviving Belton and Jover pistols at the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford, having four touch holes which permit four successive discharges.[6] References{{Wikisource|1=Correspondence between John Belton and the Continental Congress}}1. ^1 2 Diamant, Lincoln (2004). Chaining the Hudson: The Fight for the River in the American Revolution. New York: Fordham University Press, [https://books.google.com/books?id=bkNjv-9mqocC&pg=PA210 p. 210.] {{Early firearms}}2. ^1 2 3 Peterson, Harold Leslie (1956). Arms and Armor in Colonial America, 1526-1783. NY: Courier Corporation, [https://books.google.com/books?id=jl5thJiXkgsC&pg=PA217 pp. 217-218.] 3. ^1 2 [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Correspondence_between_John_Belton_and_the_Continental_Congress Belton's original letter to Congress, April 11, 1777] 4. ^{{cite book |title=Journals of the Continental Congress |author=United States Continental Congress |publisher=USGPO |year=1907|pages=324, 361}} 5. ^{{cite book |title=American Military Shoulder Arms: From the 1790s to the end of the flintlock period |first=George D. |last= Moller |publisher=University Press of Colorado |year=1993}} 6. ^{{cite web |url=http://england.prm.ox.ac.uk/englishness-London-gunmakers.html |title=London gun makers represented in the Pitt Rivers Museum collections |first=Peter |last= Rivière |publisher=Pitt River Museum |df= }} 1 : Early firearms |
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