The Civil War’s Smith Carbine: The case for rubber
Just before the US was torn apart by the disaster that was the Civil War, a New York doctor by the name of Smith invented a nifty carbine that fired a rubber-cased bullet. This gun has proven to be much more poplar now than it ever was then.
Dr. Gilbert Smith of Buttermilk Falls, New York, had an enduring interest in tinkering with firearms and between 1855 and 1857, he took out no less than three patents (14,001, 15,496, and 17,644) for an ambitious new military rifle. He had 300 of these ‘Smith rifles’ made up for testing by the Army, some of which were reportedly passed on to the Pony Express. The military tried the Smith at the Washington Arsenal in the spring of 1860 and liked it enough to accept it placing an order for several thousand (after all, there was a war coming).
But more about that later. Let’s look at the gun.
Read the rest in my column at Guns.com