The Butterfield Priming System,By the 1850’s the user of percussion caps for an ignition system ende

The Butterfield Priming System,By the 1850’s the user of percussion caps for an ignition system ended the use of the flintlock mechanism for most military muskets.  However there were many ingenious designs created to compete with the percussion cap.  One such system was invented by Jesse Butterfield in 1855.  Rather than using a copper cap filled with mercury fulminate, the Butterfield system used small cylindrical shaped wafers or pellets of mercury fulminate called “Butterfield’s Wafers”.  This was combined with a feeding mechanism that was installed on the lock of the musket.  The mechanism featured a tube which held a number of wafers, and when the hammer was cocked, a spring loaded mechanism would force a wafer out of the reservoir while a sliding bar would push or feed the wafer onto the nipple for firing.  When struck the mercury fulminate would explode, sending a spark down into the chamber which ignited the main charge.Butterfield’s system was a good idea in theory.  The idea was that the system reduced the process of loading a musket by one step; placing a percussion cap on the nipple. It was also meant to solve function problems of the caplock system, namely when a spent cap became lodged into the cup of the hammer, it could cause a misfire (happened to me), or in the case of revolvers, jamming up the cylinder.  However since Butterfield’s wafers lacked a metal cap, this was not an issue. In practical terms, however, Butterfields wafers and feeding mechanism failed in real world condition.  The wafers themselves were much more susceptible to the effects of moisture compared to percussion caps.  In addition the feeding mechanism often jammed or malfunctioned.  Misfires were very common.  A few thousand older Springfield and Harpers Ferry muskets were converted to the system, although for the most part regular percussion caps were used instead of the Butterfield wafers.  A small number of Betterfield priming breechloading rifles were produced as well.  Jesse Butterfield also designed a .41 caliber revolver which utilized his system (bottom picture).  In 1861, at the beginning of the American Civil War, the US Government contracted him to produce an order of 2,250 Butterfield revolvers, of which only 650 were delivered.  None were ever officially issued but a few hundred were fielded by soldiers who privately purchased them. -- source link

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