Which came first and why?

[Bugscuffle]

I know about the Boxer primer being invented in Europe and used over here and the Berdan primer being invented here and used over there, but I have two questions. How was it that we came to use the Boxer primer and the Europeans the Berdan, and which one was invented/produced first?

[JimBob]

The Berdan priming system was patented in the U.S. slightly earlier than Boxer's.The Berdan,patent#82,587,on 9-29-1868 and Boxer's patent#91,818 on 6-29-1869.

[Bugscuffle]

That asnwers the when part, but how did they both end up on the oposite sides of the Atlantic?

[Mako]

The reason the Boxer primer is the primer of choice in the U.S. is a story of commercialism, freedom and politics.  In the book American Rifle:A Biography  by Alexander Rose, he writes that Col. Berdan may have gotten his inspiration from a prototype of a primer that Frankford Arsenal was developing.  During that time and until about ten years after the War between the states  government arsenals produced the majority of the ammunition used by the military.  

Berdan was actually not the inventor of the primer that bears his name, in The Rifle in America  by Philip B. Sharpe, he writes that that Hiram Berdan was not the original inventor "as official government records show".   Colin Greenwood, a retired Superintendent of the West Yorkshire Police and author of Firearms Control, writes in The Classic British Rook & Rabbit Rifle  that Hiram Berdan's 1866 patent was for the primer pocket and not the primer that bears his name. Roy Marcot lists Berdan's primer pocket patent along with many others secured by the colonel in Hiram Berdan:Military Commander and Firearms Inventor including a statement by Major Treadwell to the effect that Hiram Berdan essentially copied a primer and pocket designed by Colonel S.V. Benet, Frankford Arsenal's Commanding Officer at the time.  

The arsenals realized because of the reduced funding following the war they needed to develop new cartridges with commercial arsenals so Berdan's patent for his primer pocket was used by Marcellus Hartley and Alfred C. Hobbs of Union Metallic Cartridge Company in the production of UMC's centerfire cartridges beginning in 1867.  Then the story takes another twist and thus enters the Boxer primer.  It seems that Colonel Edward M. Boxer, a British Army officer who was Superintendent of the Government Ammunition Factory at Woolwich did not actually invent the "Boxer" primer as we know it today.  In The Classic British Rook & Rabbit Rifle by Colin Greenwood he writes that Col. Boxer did not actually design the primer bearing his name. This is also pointed out by George Hoyem in The History and Development of Small Arms Ammunition volume 2,  today's Boxer primers are the result of John Gardner making improvements to the original Boxer design while he was employed in the cartridge shop at Winchester Repeating Arms Company.

This is where politics and capitalism come into play.  The commercial ammunition manufacturers quickly found the Berdan primed ammunition while being easy to manufacture was too expensive for one time use by self sufficient people in the growing American West.   This is the politics of the situation, in Europe the "common citizen" did not own firearms, the "enlightened" liberal governments of Europe had already begun to clamp down on gun ownership and only the well  heeled  could afford them.  The ammunition manufacturers in Europe did not have the commercial reason to produce ammunition that could be easily reloaded.  The military didn't care so they produced primers that were basically percussion caps that fit in an easy to manufacture primer pocket.  Boxer primers are more complex and only make sense to use if the ammunition is to be reloaded.  At the time Berdan Primers were also considered to be more reliable with the new harder to ignite nitrocellulose powders that were being introduced.

So the primary reason we have Boxer primers today in the U.S. is because of freedom and a less repressive government.  Because citizens had free access to firearms, the common man's need drove the direction to a reloadable cartridge.  Men like John Gardner at Winchester addressed this need and soon all of the other ammunition manufacturers followed suit and the Army acquiesced since they just wanted to purchase ammunition and use the developments of the commercial manufacturers when they did.

Today, if the Federal government we have in place had their way they would dictate that all ammunition would be Berdan primed to limit and control the availability of ammunition to the public.

So the answer to the great mystery is simply freedom and capitalism.  Something to consider...

Regards,
Mako

[St. George]

Thanks, Mako - an excellent post.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Bugscuffle]

Thanks mako. Good information and well presented.

[JimBob]

One should realize that the change to Boxer primers and standardization of primer sizes took a long time,well into the 1900s.A look at a 1902 UMC catalog still lists a bewildering assortment of primers by type and size.Three sizes of Berdan primers,13 types and 9 different numbers of UMC primers,Orcutt primers,and others.Collecting primer boxes is interesting in itself along with collecting old cartridges.If any of you have access to the 4 volumns of Hoyem's books on cartridge development that Mako mentions they give a fascinating look at how all this came about.

[Dakota Widowmaker]

I thought I recalled something about the fact that there were already setups that we so similar to the Boxer design with all the work put into the primer (cup, mercury fluminate, and the anvil) and that the case was EASIER to manufacture if there was just a single hole in the bottom.

I don't ever recall reloading being one of the reasons for the success of the boxer... Not that is not a feature we all enjoy, but, ammo manufacturers could care less what reloaders do. They want the funds up front to pay for their tooling and that makes reloading by consumers unappealing.

There were primer ignition systems that instead of having a hole at the bottom of the cartridge simply had an internal cup and they used soft copper instead of brass. As I understand it, ammo companies who were transitioning to center fire used this method until they perfected their tooling.

[NOTE: I tried to find a link to what I just described, but, I can't locate it at this time]

[JimBob]

From an 1894 Winchester catalog about their primers(boxer)-

"We desire to call special attention to our primer.The anvil in this is made from sheet brass,and has all the advantages of being pointed like the Berdan,with the additional advantage,that,being a part of the primer,it is replaced at each reloading.When the anvil is made part of the cartridge shell and of brass,it is blunted by the successive blows of the firing pin,and is worn out,while the rest of the shell is yet serviceable.To prevent this,iron and steel anvils are often used,which batter and blunt the point of the firing pin."

At that date Winchester listed 5 different numbers of Boxer primers and 3 sizes of Berdan primers available to reloaders.

[Dakota Widowmaker]

Advertising for reloading supplies and advertising loaded factory ammo are two different things.

I don't know of ant factory ammo catalog from UMC or Winchester that identified their factory loaded ammo as being "reloadable".

Maybe there was and it has not survived the ages...

[JimBob]

Advertising for reloading supplies and advertising loaded factory ammo are two different things.

I don't know of ant factory ammo catalog from UMC or Winchester that identified their factory loaded ammo as being "reloadable".

Maybe there was and it has not survived the ages...

A couple of examples-

Eley Catalog 1895-

"Cartridge known being capable of being fired and reloaded several times."

"All these cartridges are made of sufficent strength to be reloaded many times."

WRA Catalogue 1894-

"All centerfire cartridges are made of sufficent strength to be reloaded many times.The style of primer used is new and improved,being the Winchester patented October 1,1878,and,in addition to being sure fire,is easily used in reloading."

When you consider most of the major firearms producers also made or sold ammunition and components and most started offering reloading tool sets in the mid-1870s the market was there whether they mentioned the fact in catalogs or not.