Civil War Cannon Primer Wire Earrings, Proceeds Benefit Artillary Battery, FREE shipping

Description

Want a part of History? Well, kinda. We belong to a Civil war Re-enacting Artillery Battery. The ladies of the battery came up with a cool idea. There are these things called Primer Wires that are discarded when the cannon is fired. We are making cool earrings with them. Not many people can say they are wearing a part of a 3" ordanance rifle cannon! The primer wire is brass and measures approx 1 3/4". Total drop is approx 2 1/4". Earrings you receive may vary from the ones pictured. If you would like to see the current ones we have, please convo me and I will send you a picture to choose from.

Free shipping to continental US, if other, please convo me with shipping charges.

The upkeep of a workable cannon can be quite costly. Proceeds from these earrings will benefit this. We attend many re-enactments during the year. Some include Gettysburg, Cedar Creek, Pymatuning, Frenck Creek, Hale Farm,and many more. Please visit our battery website: www.cushingstaylorsbattery.org
Thank you for viewing.

What is a Friction Primer?

The primer consists of a brass tube, open at one end. At the closed end, a small hole of about the same diameter of the tube is drilled to one side, and short length of similar tubing is inserted and soldered into place. Opposite this short length of tubing is a hole to receive the priming wire, which is a length of brass wire with a flattened and serrated end. The short tube is lined with a friction powder similar in composition to the head of a friction match, and the priming wire is inserted through the head of the primer and into the short tube, which is then crimped to hold the end of the serrated wire in place. The long end of the priming wire is twisted into a loop.
The head of the primer is then sealed with shellac, and when dry the main body of the primer is filled with musket powder, the open end being sealed with wax. In use, the primer is simply placed in the vent hole of the piece, with the lanyard hooked to the loop of wire at its head. When the lanyard is pulled, the serrated end of the priming wire ignites the friction composition, which in turn sets off the musket powder in the body of the primer, which flashes down the vent to set off the main charge. The effect is almost instantaneous. Before the introduction of the friction primer, many pieces were equipped with a lock mechanism to use percussion caps, similar to those used to fire muskets.

Added on Nov 04, 2009

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