CAPT. THOMAS ROWLAND's "Experiments" during the Rev War

[Dennis Glazener]

I ran across this years ago while doing research on my 3rd G GF who was in the Botetourt County VA Rifles, Thomas Rowland was one of his officers during this time.

Just saw it again today and wondered if anyone has ever heard exactly what type of "experiment" this was. Could it have been a tri-plex load? Multi barrels?
or? Just curious.
Dennis

Source here:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~qvarizona/rowlandrifle.html

Captain Rowland Goes to Washington
...to George, that is.

Virginia Gazette, Oct. 3, 1777, pub. Dixon: pg.2, Col 2.
Copied as written, with an f often used as an s; thus ufual=usual and eafy=easy.

WILLIAMSBURG, October 3.

CAPT. THOMAS ROWLAND, of Botetourt, last week, in this city,
made an experiment of his new method of loading and firing rifles,
which fhows that rifles may easily be loaded and difcharged in as fhort a
time as mufkets generally are, with their ufual certainty as to aim, and
with triple execution in time of action. He fhot twelve balls into the
compafs of a large handkerchief, at the diftance of fifty yards, in four
difcharges of his piece, in the fpace of 52 feconds. Several of the balls
were within fix inches of the centre, and but three of the twelve would
have miffed a man's body. In another experiment, after firing thirty
balls in ten difcharges, his rifle appeared as clean and cool in the barrel,
though it was not wiped during the experiment, as if it had not been
fired more than once. Capt. Rowland's method is looked upon as a va-
luable difcovery; having rendered that instrument of death, which is al-
ready to much dreaded by our enemies, capable of being infinitely more
deftuctive and terrible, and that by a fimple and eafy operation.

Letters of Delegates to Congress: Vol. 8 September 19, 1777 - January 31, 1778

Board of War to George Washington

Sir War Office York Town Octr. 7th. 1777 I have the Honour to enclose by Direction of the Board a Number of Certificates relating to the Bearer Capt. Thomas Rowland who is sent to your Excellency to exhibit his Experiments before you or such Persons as you shall appoint. On his Return he will bring your Certificates of his Performance & Opinion of the Utility of his Scheme. It appears to the Board that the Plan proposed by Mr. Rowland will be useful or they would not have have troubled your Excellency with the Matter especially as many Persons have claimed your Attention when Speculations have been either ingenious without Utility or merely calculated to get Money from the Public. The Board have furnished Mr. Rowland with a Sum of Money to bear his Expences & leave it to you either to employ him at Camp or send him back as you shall think proper.1
The Board request you will be pleased to point out to them such Regulations in Regard to the Pay & Appointments of Messieurs du Portail, de la Radiere, de Laumoy & du Guvion as are suitable to their Rank & the Nature of their Employment as Engineers.
I have the Honour to be, with the greatest Respect, your very obed Serv, Richard Peters Secy

RC (DLC)

1 Although Washington reported in his October 11 letter to John Page that Rowland was "to make some Experiments to day," the board's letter was later endorsed: "Ansd. 15th. Capt. Rowlands invention not usefull." Washington, Writings (Fitzpatrick), 9:35G55. Washington's reply has not been found and the nature of Rowland's "Experiments" has not been ascertained.

Page 72

OCTOBER 7, 1777

Available at American Memory http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

    Although the nature of Rowland's Experiments were not known when the above
    letter was archived, it's clear from the news clipping of October 3, 1777 that it was
    Thomas'new method of loading and firing a rifle, which had been demonstrated in
    Williamsburg a few days earlier. Thomas and his rifle were apparently not appreciated
    by General Washington, but three years later, in January 1781, in response to a call
    for help from General Nathanial Greene, Thomas and his Botetourt Rifles took part
    with other militia in the battles against Cornwallis in North Carolina.

[Ky-Flinter]

Dennis,

Very interesting.  From the wording of the Virgina Gazette article, I think Rowland had devised a new method of loading and firing existing rifles, not a new multi-barrel gun, as that would surely have been mentioned.

The following wording points to a single powder charge, topped with 3 balls.
He fhot twelve balls......in four difcharges of his piece, in the fpace of 52 feconds.
In another experiment, .... firing thirty balls in ten difcharges.

But there must have been something else related to quickly reloading, in order for Rowland to have loaded and fired his rifle 4 timers in 52 seconds!  Washington's response of "Capt. Rowlands invention not usefull" would seem to imply that Rowland had devised a "thing" not just the idea of loading multiple balls, which was likely already known.

Could it be it was a loading block that would hold 3 patched balls stacked in each hole, that were forced into the barrel with a short length of ramrod?

-Ron

[spgordon]

This is interesting, and I've never heard of it. I wonder why Washington deemed the experiment "not usefull," since the experiment seems to have worked (at least according to the first report).

BTW (and off topic): the transcriber for the genealogy page got it wrong when he wrote "Copied as written, with an f often used as an s; thus ufual=usual and eafy=easy." The "long s" (used in handwriting) was never printed as an "f": the crossbar did not extend to the right across the upright line. Eighteenth-century printers, that is, used a different character for that long s. So it is a mistake to transcribe the word as "eafy" or "ufual." That character in script and in print has nothing to do with an "f".

Same thing with the "ye"--which, when I listen to audio-books, I hear the readers pronounce as "ye." This, too, is just a mistake: NOBODY ever said "ye." There was at earlier times a character called a thorn--which, in handwriting and in print, looked like our "y"--but that was pronounced "th." So, while printers often used a "y" as that thorn, the printed word "ye" was ALWAYS pronounced "the" (never "ye").

[Brookville]

I always found the long "s" interesting.  There were/are rules for when it is used in conjunction with the short "s".  Anyone engraving a horn or other accoutrements should be aware of the "rules".  Here's one source:

http://babelstone.blogspot.com/2006/06/rules-for-long-s.html

I remember that the long "s" was never used at the end of a word and never used in pairs.  I guess, by the early 1800s,  people just got tired of using it, although I've seen it in Census enumerations well into the mid-1800s. 

[spgordon]

It continues in handwriting for a very long time, longer than it does in printed forms.

The babelstone page (what a great page!) shows clearly the difference between the typographical character used for the "long s" and for an "f."

Some clever folks (Shakespeare) would play with the typographical conventions: he knew what the line "Where the bee sucks, there suck I" looked like when the other typographical character, which resembled an "f," was used instead of the "s."

[Brookville]

Here's another great source:

http://www.orbitals.com/self/ligature/ligature.htm