Description:

CONTRACT FOR GARDINER EXPLOSIVE BULLET
SAMUEL GARDINER New York based inventor who developed one of the first exploding bullets for use with muskets and rifles. Issued to the Union Army, they were the only exploding bullets used during the Civil War. Important content war date manuscript D.S. 3pp. legal folio, New York, Nov. 19, 1861 being a "Memorandum of an agreement made and entered into... between Samuel Gardiner... and Robert J. Hubbard..." granting Hubbard 1/8 interest in his newly-developed exploding bullet. The document reads in small part: "Whereas the said party of the first part has discovered and invented a new and useful improvement and invention in the forming and designing of an explosive projectile, called an Explosive Bullet, or shell or Ball for Muskets, Rifles and Cannons, and an Explosive or detonating powder to be used therewith and a new fuze in form and substance also to be used in connection with the above, and for the purpose of securing to himself the benefit of said improvement and invention, the said party of the first part has heretofore filed in the Office of the Commissioner of Patents in Washington, under date of the 13th day of September 1861... said party of the first part has agreed to and hereby does sell and dispose to the said part of the second part a certain undivided one Eighth (1/8th) part, portion or interest in the Patent-right to be obtained for said invention and discovery for and in consideration of the sum of Five Hundred Dollars lawful Money... in case any contracts shall be made or taken with the Government of the United States or any other Government or with any persons or individuals for the use or right to manufacture said invention of Balls or said powder or fuze, the same shall be taken and made by the parties in interest under the name and stile of firm as may in future be agreed upon... the said party of the first part does give to the said party of the second part a proper writing stating the mode and manufacture of the said powder which the said party of the second part and his assigns of said patents intent shall at all times be permitted to manufacture and use in the manufacture and sale or in the use of said Balls or Bullets, that said part of the second part is not to divulge or make known the secret of manufacturing said powder but is to keep the same a secret with himself...". Additionally signed "Robert J. Hubbard", the party of the second part. The docket bears an endorsement by a notary dated Mar. 3, 1863 and is also endorsed by Acting Patent Commissioner JOHN L. HAYS noting that the agreement had been recorded on May 11, 1863. Soon after he executed this agreement, Gardiner was lobbying for an order from the Army. The bullet was produced in .54, .58. and .69 calibers and had a fuse timed to explode 1 1/4 seconds after firing. Some forms of explosive ordnance had already been in use on a sporadic basis by the Confederates with terrible results. A New York Tribune correspondent reported that "To my dying day, I shall have in my ears the wailing shrieks of a private of the 1st Long Island [67th. N.Y.] shot dead beside my horse with a percussion musket-ball, whose explosion within its wound I distinctly heard." In June 1862 Gardiner brought his invention to the White House and showed his samples to Lincoln who promptly sent samples to Chief of Ordnance, Gen. James W. Ripley, writing, "Will gen. Ripley please consider whether this musket-shell, would be a valuable missile in battle?" Ripley believed that the bullet was impractical and thought that the existing solid shot served its purpose effectively enough. Still Gardiner won an order for 110,000 rounds in November 1862. Ironically, about 10,000 rounds fell into Confederate hands and were used with brutal results prompting Grant to complain that "their use is barbarous because they produce increased suffering without any increased advantage to using them". Of the rounds that remained in Union hands, most of these were used by Union soldiers for target practice with mixed results. About 35,000 rounds were requisitioned by the 2nd New Hampshire Volunteers in June 1863 and used them at Gettysburg. Of these, about 10,000 were abandoned at some point in Virginia (and this is the likely the same 10,000 that came into the hands of the Confederates). All in all the bullet's range and accuracy were found to be questionable and when rammed into a hot musket or rifle, they had an unfortunate tendency to explode...with terrible consequences for the user. The existence of this deadly ordnance prompted the Russian government in 1866 to propose an international convention to ban the use of exploding projectiles. Obviously this proposal never went terribly far. Document bears the usual folds, but is in otherwise fine condition.

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October 9, 2010 11:00 AM EDT
Stamford, CT, US

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