I saw a cartoon spoofing the patent mania in England and it depicted a "Patent Gun" that went off in every possible direction and killed everything around it.
Bob Roller
LMAO you need to post that Bob .
Dan .
Interesting .
Myself I have for some time been of the opinion that the vent scraper/ priming gate , was nothing more then an un drilled self priming lid .
I wish I could remember the context in which I first read it . Maybe in the writings of Col. Berkley Lewis ?.
But I recall reading that the originally the vent scraper was to cut the prime on a self priming pan .
From what I understand , the thought was that , do to the large flash hole , a gate was needed to cut the prime so as not to have a continues line of powder from the pan to the main charge , this creating a fuse type burn to the ignition .
As the self priming designs fell from favor , some kept the nub as a way to keep the prim away from the face of the flash hole .
I also originally though the adaptation of this type of lid was an attempt at trying to make the pan more waterproof . Possible that may have been the original intent .
But that idea went south when I first ran across a late French piece which had a V notch cut to the out side of the pan .
Its rather hard to visualize , but if you look at the French lock I posted , you will see a engraved molding around the top edge of the pan . In the center the molding V’s .
On the specific lock that V was cut into the pan .
At first I though this could have been simply gas cutting as the piece have been badly treated as well as seen very heavy use . But then I later ran across several different works which showed purposeful venting of the pan lid .
If you look at the photos I posted of the Charles Moore , and also those on the Drake web site , what we see is that Moore Vented the pan . Not only that but its also lined .
So not only did he go so far as to place a flash hole liner in the main flash hole , but he also placed a lined flash hole in the pan . That added flash hole in the pan ,would seem to me to negate any benefit of any such water proof lid .
Add into that , the application is on a SXS . Which would then mean that one would have to be extremely careful not to roll the gun over while in the carry , for if you did you would expose one a the vent to moisture.
so why do that if the intent of the protrusion one the lid was to help with the water proofing ?
My take on it , and I have no supporting documentation for it. But my take on it is that the protrusion is possibly a progression of the self priming design and any water proofing derived from it was just an added benefit .
If we look closely , many of these type of locks, have the protrusion drilled as in the V pan Manton or notched as Pauly and Moore did . Thus with the frizzen closed , powder from the loading of the main charge can enter the pan .
The protrusion on the bottom of the lid , would then reduce the volume of the pan .
Thus you end up
* being able to have the flash hole at the top of the pan .
* Powder being forced to the bottom of the pan and held low in the pan by the protrusion
* Reduced amount of powder from the back of the main charge continuing to work its way into the pan while in the carry .
Which would happen to a greater existent with a pan of larger volume/ without the protrusion . Thus moving the main charge farther away from the pan as the pan continued to fill until such time as it reached its capacity.
