CARTRIDGE is a cylindrical case made to contain either the whole or a part of the materials for discharging from a fire-arm. Those for ordnance or large guns are chiefly made of serge and flannel, sewn up into the form of a bag, which, supplied with a given weight of powder, is tied round the neck, and strengthened by iron hoops. The weight of powder varies from about 300 lbs. for an 81-ton gun, to a few ounces for a mountain gun.
Cartridges for small-arms which load at the muzzle are usually paper tubes, contain ing a leaden ball and a few drachms of powder. The tubes are made in such a way that the powder has two or three thicknesses of paper around it, while at the mouth of the tube and over the bullet there is only one. The paper over the bullet is lubricated generally with a composition of beeswax and tallow. In loading, the paper at the mouth of the tube has to be twisted or bitten off; the powder is then poured into the barrel, the tube reversed, and the bullet inserted into the muzzle, and the tube broken away. Cartridges for breech-loading small-arms are generally formed of a thin sheet of brass coiled into a cylinder, and having an iron ease, in the center of which is the per cussion arrangement. Those used for the Snider and the Martini-Henry rifles are described in the article on BREECH-LOADING Anus. Besides the C. case of coiled brass, there are others made of solid brass or copper (an American invention), and these seem to be gaining favor abroad, the Prussians having adopted such a case for the new Mauser rifle.
For mnzzle-loading shot guns, the chief cartridges used contain a charge of shot packed in a paper cylinder of a size suitable for the bore of the gun. Some of these, in addition to the paper covering, are surrounded with a wire net-work, for the purpose of increasing the range and penetration.
The C. for breech-loading shot guns is usually a stout cylinder of paper with a metal case. They arc made of various sizes to suit the different calibers of guns, and with pin
or central fire ignition. In the pin-lire C., a small brass pin passes through the side of the case into the percussion cap, and protrudes through a small hole in the top of the barrels. The pin is struck by the hammer of the gun, and forced into the percussion cap, which explodes, and ignites the powder. In the central-fire C., the cap is in the center of the case, and is exploded by the hammer of the gun acting on a piston con tained in the false breech.
In America, a solid brass C. case is often used for shot guns.
For sporting rifles, the cartridges are quite as numerous and as varied as for shot guns. With large-bore rifles the same C. case is generally used as for shot guns, but loaded with powder and ball (spherical, solid conical, hollow conical, or shell). For small-bore, or what are known as express rifles, either a coiled brass C. case, similar in construction to that for the Snider or Martini-Henry rifle, but made to contain a larger charge, or a solid brass case is used. The coiled case can be reloaded twice or thrice, while the solid case can be reloaded as often as twenty times, and on this account the latter is rapidly gaining favor with sportsmen in India and Africa. The express C. contains a very heavy charge of powder, with a light hollow conical bullet giving very great velocity, low trajectory, and immense killing power. In the Henry express C., the charge of powder is 4 drachms, while the bullet weighs only 270 grains.
Cartridges for breech-loading pistols and revolvers are generally small metal cylin ders containing a charge of powder and a bullet, and with rim, pin, or central fire ignition, the diameter varying from .230 of an inch upwards.