Rifled Breech Loader - Overview

Overview

The major problem to be solved with breechloading artillery was obturation : the sealing of the breech after firing to ensure that none of the gases generated by the burning of the propellant (initially gunpowder) escaped rearwards through the breech. This was both a safety issue and one of gun performance : all the propellant gas was needed to accelerate the projectile along the barrel.

The second problem was speed of operation : how to close the breech before firing and open it after firing as quickly as possible consistent with safety.

Two solutions were developed more or less in parallel : The "screw breech" block and "sliding wedge" or "sliding block".

At the time of development of the first modern breechloaders in the mid-19th century, gunpowder propellant charges for artillery were typically loaded in cloth bags, which combusted totally on firing. Hence, unlike with a metal rifle cartridge, the breech mechanism itself somehow needed to provide obturation.

The early "screw" mechanisms for sealing the breech consisted of threaded blocks which were screwed tightly into the breech after loading, but the threads themselves were insufficient to provide a gas-tight seal. This was further complicated by the need to screw and unscrew the breech as quickly as possible : this was met by the "interrupted thread" breech block, where the block circumference was alternately threaded and left unthreaded at a slightly smaller diameter to allow the whole block to be fully inserted and rotated a fraction to lock it. Hence if the block circumference was divided into two sets of threads and gaps, the block only needed to be rotated ¼ turn to lock it instead of several turns. The tradeoff was that only ½ the block's circumference was threaded, reducing the security accordingly.

The other possibility of sealing the breech was to enclose the propellant charge in a metal cartridge case which expanded on firing and hence sealed the breech, leaving the breech-block merely needing to lock the cartridge case in place. This was more easily accomplished by sliding the block in behind the cartridge case through a vertical or horizontal slot cut through the rear of the breech : the "sliding wedge" or "sliding block" breech.