small scale whitworth

[rampa room artillery]

anybody ever made a small scaled breach loading whitworth?? i got to thinking about building one on my way back from the range today. I am thinking .75 cal. I dont know, it is just a thought in my brain right now,  didnt know if anyone else ever tried it.


rick bryan

[Soot]

I've seen at least one small one and several full size.

[GGaskill]

That drawing has been posted here before.  There is a conflict in the thread measurements.  It says the pitch is 11/16" and a double start thread but the lead is 1 11/32".  The lead of a double start thread should be exactly twice the pitch so one of those numbers is wrong.

Here is a drawing I made of the thread for the last discussion of this:

[rampa room artillery]

very nice drawings, but i was going to keep it alittle more simple, i was going to use a large bolt and nut for the threads and cut them down in the lathe. just something simple to play with,

  come on dom, i bet you can come up with something simple.  yet looks good and works like the full scale gun. 


rick bryan

[rampa room artillery]

dom i know your brain is turning just trying to come up with some ideas.    I am really surprised that more people have not jumped on this,  i think it is easier then people think.  maybe i just stare at large bolts at work to much.  or to many daydreams. 

 rick bryan

[dominick]

I built two small ones in 2006 that were for firecrackers.  They were 50 caliber and they were to small to hinge the breech.  I sold both at a gun show the day after I finished them.   If I remember correctly, I think I used a 3/4" or 7/8" diameter # 2 bolt.   I may do another one someday.

[theoldsarge]

There is a piece on the web, somewhere, about a working model, don't recall where just now, but I believe the site sells carbide cannons.
Many years ago I bought a set of plans to make a working model of a Whitworth cannon, carriage and all, chambered in .45 Long Colt.  I looked a few months back and the plans were not where they were supposed to be.  There is a lot of stuff in that room, so it's going to be awhile before I track them down, if I can. 

[Cannoneer]

Rick,
These pics are from the old "Cannon Mania" website, all I really made note of when I saved the photos was the machinist's name (Ronald Nulph), and the fact that the barrel was made of steel. IIRC, the barrel was bigger than it looks (around 20''), and the aluminum carriage and wheels were temporary (he planned to make realistic wooden replacements).

Photos by Ronald Nulph

[rampa room artillery]

see now thats what i am talking about.  that is nice. 

[Federov-Fox]

That replica is pretty impressive.   I love the detail on the breech mechanism.

[theoldsarge]

I found just a bit more from that site, not me saving it, someone else.  http://thedonovan.com/archives/003169.html

[dominick]

Do anyone know where the previous posts are with the Whitworth diagrams? 

[seacoastartillery]

     Complete 12 Pdr. Breech-Loading Whitworth Rifle drawings are available from AOP on the vendor list in the stickies.  We have studied these drawings extensively in anticipation of building a half scale one in 2015.  These drawings are completely dimensioned in the difficult tube and breech block areas, but the carriage drawings are line drawings and will have to be interpolated.  We have used much less complete drawings with complete success.  Order No. 23, convert all the fractions to decimal inch, then multiply the resulting dims. by the scale factor decimal multiplier like .25 for 1/4 scale.

     From the maker's original writings or writings attributed to Ronald Nulph, I recall that this gentleman made repeated trips to a Gettysburg, PA  museum to obtain his dimensions which he used to make this excellent model.

    The only thing missing in all these schemes is the one critical component which allowed these guns to be fired as muzzle loaders after they quickly fouled so badly as to be inoperable as breech-loaders.  This is the difficult to make, cartridge case which was, incredibly, a twisted or helical hexagon case of brass with an axial hole to receive the friction primer.  The obturation of this case was absolutely necessary for this gun to operate at all.

Mike and Tracy

[GGaskill]

I think the aluminum foil powder bag would probably substitute for the brass case assuming there are no nooks or crannies it could get caught in and be hard to clean out.

[rampa room artillery]

thats why they make brushes, lol  and a little elbow grease in between rounds.

[Cannoneer]

This Whitworth in brass may not be as realistically modelled as the Nulph barrel, but I like it. Barrel is 14.50-inches long with a .50 caliber bore.

Photos from eBay

[dominick]

This is the one at Gettysburg.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJaWthKC-oM

[rampa room artillery]

very cool,  who was the one casting that barrel do you know??  thats one i have not ever seen.

[Cannoneer]

very cool,  who was the one casting that barrel do you know??  thats one i have not ever seen.

Rick,
The short, sweet, and truthful answer is I don't know; it was auctioned on eBay some years ago, and it sold for $885.99. I have seen a cast brass Parrott of approximately the same scale mounted on a duplicate cast carriage with brass hardware, (same wheels, same exact color scheme) so it's possible that they were manufactured by a company, but my gut instinct tells me they were one-offs made by an individual craftsman.