morris "inside lock" musket

[runes]

Looking for info on the Morris Confederate inside lock musket.
Features a small oval lockplate not much bigger than the hammer.
Very few were made.
Morris also made a breachloading carbine, a much different design.

[tonyb]

What I found on the net........

G.W. Morse was a very clever inventor, and invented one of the earliest systems to convert .69 caliber muskets to breechloaders using self contained center fire cartridges. The Morse conversions were made in small numbers with about 54 completed at Springfield in 1860-61. About 600 more, in various stages of completion, were destroyed when the Confederates burned Harpers Ferry in 1861. The start of a war is not a good time to try to switch to a new (and unproven) rifle and ammunition. The fact that these conversions were being actively pursued certainly refutes the nonsensical claims that the U.S. Army Ordnance Department refused to consider new ideas. Morse's second notable small arms invention was your type of Morse Carbine. These were made at South Carolina's state owned facility in Greenville, SC, which made guns exclusively for use by South Carolina Troops (much as North Carolina hoarded arms for its militia) rather than for general issue through the Confederate Ordnance Department. Of course, these took a special center fire cartridge which was made in small numbers, so tight control probably made good sense at a time when logistics support was chaotic at best, and often lacking entirely. Morse's third invention was the 'Morse's Inside Lock Musket" with only about 140 rifles and muskets produced. While the stock and barrel were of conventional design, the lock mechanism was totally unique and involved a minimum number of parts to simplify manufacture. These too were made at South Carolina's State Works in Greenville. Morse's final contribution was his design of a metallic cartridge which had a separate head section attached to the cylindrical case body with the joint sealed by a tiny bit of rubber. This was used for a very brief period for .45-70 trapdoor ammunition, and the Ordnance Department eventually was forces to pay ex-Confederate Morse royalties for the use of his patented design. Had Morse worked in the industrialized Connecticut River valley with the resources to pursue and market his inventions, he may have ended up with many more successful arms, and better recognition for his inventive genius. Interestingly, his original 1856 patent for breechloading arms was used by Whitney in the Whitney-Burgess-Morse lever action rifles made circa 1879-1882.

Morse carbine Only about 1,000 were made and they are very much desired by collectors of Confederate arms, as only a small number seem to have survived. Many were probably lost when South Carolina's capitol at Columbia was burned by Sherman's troops, while it was being used as an arsenal for state owned arms. Flayderman's Guide recognizes three variation with the least valuable worth $6,500 in NRA antique fair condition and $15,000 in NRA antique very good condition. Those marked Morse on the right side he places at $7,000 and $20,000 in those condition levels.

[runes]

Tonyb, thanks for the quick reply.
I stand corrected on the spelling of Morse.
My intention is to reproduce the inside lock for myself and I have failed
in my search for drawings, or even a picture.

[Southron Sr.]

I would go to the Patent Office website and see if you can pull up any patent drawings of Morse's "Inside Lock" musket locks. Sometimes, the Patent Drawings are very similar to what was eventually manufactured.

If all other attempts to find out how the "innards" of a Morse Inside Lock lock worked, you could always simiply get some spare parts for the repro Smith Carbine and make up your own version of a Morse Inside Lock lock using those Smith parts.

GOOD LUCK!

[runes]

Thanks southron
I did indeed check google patents and did not come up with the "inside lock"
Southern patents were few and far between, no help there.
The smith lock is a good idea, and I do have an original to go by.
I actually saw one of the inside lock muskets as a lad, (about 55 years ago).

[R. McAuley 3014V]

Not everything is available over the Internet, and it's just a matter of finding where the patent was applied, if such a patent application was filed, and where any drawings may be discovered. If I was pursuing this project, I would concentrate my efforts with locating the George Woodward Morse personal papers and working from there. But certainly one thing you must complete is a working bibliography of all the various sources, so you can keep the patent data sorted out and not get patents confused.

http://www.myoutbox.net/popchapx.htm

http://books.google.com/books?id=BQYLAQ ... &q&f=false (http://books.google.com/books?id=BQYLAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA271&lpg=PA271&dq=George+Woodward+Morse,+inventor&source=bl&ots=Bhxk2we-EV&sig=QFjx8A4fRC2yLC2LpimlrMt-Tiw&hl=en&ei=4CUHTKuwGMH68AabzYF1&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CC8Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q&f=false)

http://books.google.com/books?id=T1AEAA ... nt&f=false (http://books.google.com/books?id=T1AEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA46&lpg=PA46&dq=George+Woodward+Morse+patent&source=bl&ots=_duWvIjpeD&sig=nyiZGl08zA2qXWImtcNy2JQYoEU&hl=en&ei=nCcHTPzmOYH98Aaexelh&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CDkQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=George%20Woodward%20Morse%20patent&f=false)

[Bruce Cobb 1723V]

There was a article done in one of the old 1970 / 80's American Rifleman magazines. It showed an exploded view. The whole action was wrapped up in a single trigger guard assembly and looked very close to a Remington rolling block trigger guard assembly.