America’s quest for greater firepower isn’t a new phenomenon. In fact, the desire for increased firepower can be traced to the earliest days of the United States and the repeating flintlock designs of Joseph G. Chambers.
Multi-shot weapons were not unheard of in the late 18th century, but these leveraged several barrels that were discharged simultaneously — like the Nock volley gun or a “Duck’s Foot” multi-barrel pistol.
Chambers’ concept had something else in mind — a single-barrel flintlock that would discharge multiple shots with just one trigger pull. Impossible? Let’s dig a little deeper.
The Wonderful Machine
An interesting two-page document from 1815, contained in the Indiana University’s War of 1812 files, provides a description of the Chambers gun along with a pair of illustrations. The author/illustrator is unnamed.
Description of a machine invented by Colonel Chambers of Pennsylvania
This instrument is merely a common musket as represented above, with the addition of a lock placed near the muzzle of the piece, or as far as you wish the piece to be loaded with the touchhole of a communicating string or other contrivance to pull the trigger. This with tubical bullets with pipes as marked “3-3-3” of about an inch and a half long, of thickness of the bore, compose this wonderful destructive machine.
This repeating gun, as it is called, is first loaded in the common way, with powder, wadding of round shot, as shown in the No 1 figure.
No 2 represents the space for the powder and the new shot alternately to the end of the barrel. The charge nearest the muzzle is by the application of a lock fired off first, where the next ball being perforated with sealed powder, well rammed, instantly communicated the fire to the next charge and so on successively until it is stopped by the wadding on the ball in which is kept a reserve.
Thus, have I seen a flintlock with 25 loads in her at once and fired off one after the other. I have also seen seven barrels bound together and mounted as a swivel, the whole loaded and fired off 175 shots by quick succession, a person having hold of the tail of the swivel directing the same all around.
The above instruments have been of May last used on the American Men of War in their fortified places for the destruction of men, in the affair of Oswego they were used first, afterwards with Macomb against General Prevost at Plattsburgh, and at New Orleans. Their effects can be better comprehended than described, as the American government has been so very secret in this business that but few native trusty officers have any knowledge of them.
A Roman Candle-Type Weapon
Chambers’ patented invention was clearly impressive, and its applications were quickly apparent. Chambers quickly found eager buyers in his home state of Pennsylvania, and in the US Navy. The Council of defense of Philadelphia contracted for 500 muskets to be altered to use his multi-shot system — firing 12 shots each. Pennsylvania also ordered 20 of the Chambers’ type seven-barrel “swivel guns”.
Meanwhile, the US Navy ordered 200 Chambers muskets and 20 of the swivel guns. Vague references to “repeating pistols” can be found in period documents as well. The 100th Anniversary Catalog of the Edward K. Tryon Company (published in Philadelphia 1911) provides some background:
“A Mr. Joseph G. Chambers, of Pennsylvania, had patented the previous year a repeating arm that could be fired ‘in such a manner that by a single operation of the trigger it will discharge several loads in succession (six or eight), with a space between each sufficient to take another aim.’ The Secretary of the Navy considered them of great efficiency, and desiring to bring them into use, subsequently ordered a ‘repeating swivel’ (or7-barrel piece), to every 10 guns as the regular allowance for ships of the Navy.”
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The multi-shot muskets didn’t come cheap, and Chambers sent his sons to handle much of the musket conversion work, to provide much-needed training and technical assistance (an incorrectly loaded Chambers gun would be a disaster), and to defend their family’s intellectual property.
Pricing was noted to be $100 per swivel gun and $23 per musket. Delivery was to be within three months of the order date — February 16, 1814. The swivel guns were quoted to be of “British Marine Calibre” (.75-inch) and were to fire 224 shots each. The repeating muskets were described as having “barrels of American Calibre” (.69 caliber) and were to fire 12 shots each.
Chambers’ contracts continued through the end of war — with two granted in January 1815. Work on the Chambers system continued until at least the late 1820s, but as time went by the multi-shot systems seemed to fade from view and interest.
During 1842, the US Military considered which rifles to convert to the new percussion cap system, and since the Chambers guns were based on much older flintlock designs, the muskets were declared obsolete and broken up for parts. Very few examples survived, and the Chambers guns are now among the rarest of American firearms.
Subject of International Intrigue
The potential of the Chambers Gun concept made it the subject of discussion on both sides of the War of 1812. While there are no known descriptions of its use in combat, the growing amount of “product demonstrations” generated plenty of opinions among small arms experts from Philadelphia to London and beyond. Chambers’ American patents would be of little value, if a working example of his multi-shot flintlock modification fell into the wrong hands.
That is the case with a fellow named John Bland, and it strangely gives us some of the best descriptions of the Chambers technology. Bland was a Canadian who had worked in Philadelphia on the Chambers pistols, muskets and swivel guns. Shortly after the War of 1812 ended, Bland approached General Sir Gordon Drummond in Quebec and demonstrated a copy of a Chambers repeating pistol.
Drummond was so impressed that he arranged for Bland to meet with the Royal armaments board in London and repeat the demonstration. Bland had intimate knowledge of the Chambers Swivel Gun as well, and this shows up in a British report in the late summer of 1815:
“The swivel consists of seven barrels exactly fitting to each other, each when charged contains 32 balls, making 224 in the whole which are fired off by one pull of the trigger by sevens in succession. There is sufficient time between each discharge to take a fresh aim which gives an opportunity of raking a ship’s deck as the discharge continues for nearly two minutes. As some time is taken up in loading it, it has been found more convenient to keep them charged for which can be done with the greatest safety, owing to the careful manner in which they are loaded. The first 217 balls communicate the fire to each other in repetition, the last 7 put in the barrels are blanks, and are fitted in so exactly with a well-greased patch that they are air tight and no danger can possibly come to the charges either from sparks of fire or dampness, there being but one touch hole to communicate the fire from the lock to the seven barrels and that being exactly fitted with a screw, which remains in until they are to be discharged renders everything perfectly safe when loaded they may be kept for many months before they are used. The American government having approved of arms on the above construction when for naval purposes allow six to each top, which prior to the commencement of an action are hoisted up and placed on sockets fixed to receive them. One man can lift them on the socket and work them in every direction, when fired they may be speedily removed and replaced by others — the whole of which will not require one minute. Six have been deemed quite enough for each top as they, when properly managed in action, are thought sufficient to clear any opposing ship’s decks and tops of their men. Supposing only two in each top of a ship with six men, they would in a short space of two minutes pour 1,344 balls on any part of the opponent’s ship’s deck with the same certainty of aim as a musket.”
In London, Bland met with Captain Dundas, the Assistant Inspector of Small Arms. While Dundas was not particularly impressed with the multi-shot flintlock pistol and found it unsuitable for military use, he did describe the “Roman Candle” action of the Chambers Gun in a September 1815 report:
“The repetition of firing is occasioned by the insertion of as many charges into the gun as it is made to fire which upon inflaming the powder in the flash pan are fired in succession at distances of four to five seconds from each other; the charge last put in is the first to be fired and so on until the whole number of charges are fired. This succession of discharges is continued by the vent of the gun being made in that part of the barrel, where the powder of the last charge is placed which upon ignition communicates by a means which I shall after describe, with charges of powder beneath the second ball, which is fired and so until the end.
“In order to prevent the communication of the fire of the first discharge to the remaining charges, the balls used are made so full by being covered by a linen patch as to leave no windage in the gun and requires much force to be carried down. There is a hole made in the ball which is filled with powder, and this holds the vent by means of which the after discharges are successfully made.
“This principle is in fact the same upon which that very common firework, the Roman Candle, is made from which fireballs are fired into the air.”
Elusive details of US Navy Service
The tremendous potential of the Chambers Swivel Gun to be a deck-clearing flintlock “machine gun” made it a welcome addition to American warships of the era. Unfortunately, hard evidence of the Chambers gun use, or even mounting on US Navy vessels, is very difficult to find.
For example, a sample of the unique Chambers projectiles exists in Sacketts Harbor, New York, site of the second largest American naval base of the War of 1812. A contingent of the USMC was stationed there, and the battle for control of Lake Ontario was one of the most important strategic operations of the war. Even so, no hard evidence exists that the US Navy corvette “General Pike”, or the fresh-water frigates “Mohawk” and “Superior” were fitted with Chambers Swivel Guns.
Theodore Roosevelt’s two-volume history “The Naval War of 1812” (1900 GP Putnam’s Sons) provides a brief mention of the Chambers swivel gun, in this case citing British author William James’ comments in“The Naval History of Great Britain” by William James, published in London, 1837.
Roosevelt references James’ volume often, but also frequently disregards his very pro-British commentary. Roosevelt writes: “This argument is quite on par with another piece of logic which I cannot resist noticing. The point he wishes to prove is that Americans are cowards.”
James wrote: “On her capstan the Constitution now mounted a piece resembling 7 musket barrels, fixed together with iron bands. It was discharged by one lock, and each barrel threw 25 balls. What could have impelled the Americans to invent such extraordinary implements of war but fear, downright fear?”
Roosevelt concludes: “Now, such a piece of writing as this is simply evidence of an unsound mind; it is not so much malicious as idiotic. I only reproduce it to help prove what I have all along insisted on, that any of James’ unsupported statements about the Americans, whether respecting the tonnage of the ships or the courage of the crews, are not worth the paper they are written on. On all points connected purely with the British navy, or which can be checked off by official documents or ships’ logs, or where there would be no particular object in falsifying, James is an invaluable assistant, from the diligence and painstaking care he shows, and the thoroughness and minuteness with which he goes into details.”
Roosevelt praises James for his detail on verifiable specifics of naval ordnance but derides him for his unfounded statements on his American opponents. In the end, it is a round-about way of confirming the Chambers swivel gun’s installation aboard the USS Constitution.
Conclusion
Now a historical footnote and a piece of firearms trivia, Joseph Chambers’ designs were an important indication of the future of American small arms. With origins in Chambers’ quirky repeating flintlock, American-born firearms designers Hiram Maxim and John Moses Browning would create modern center-fire machine guns before the end of the 19th Century and shape the destiny of American firepower.
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