Also known as: Hotchkiss patent 13679.
| Number | U.S. Patent 13,679 |
|---|---|
| Year | 1855 |
| Inventor | Andrew Hotchkiss |
| Covers | The three-part Hotchkiss rifled projectile |
The Hotchkiss patent
United States Patent 13,679, issued to Andrew Hotchkiss in 1855, set out the projectile that became the Hotchkiss system: a rifled-cannon projectile in which a soft lead ring was held between an iron body and a movable base, so that firing forced the base forward and expanded the lead into the rifling.
This three-part construction was one of the most successful rifled-projectile designs of the Civil War, and the patent is the founding document of the Hotchkiss projectiles.
On this site
Sources & further reading
- CivilWarArtillery.com research archive: patents, manuals, catalogues, and reference pages.