ewmail15
08-07-2021, 01:08 AM
I was working on my Merrill tribute website today, particulary building out the structure for a hopefully historical translation of Russian documents related to Merrill's time at the St. Petersburg/Sestroretsk Armory & Arsenal (or vice versa). Was a long time in receiving photos of the microfilmed documents, and still holding out hope that my efforts to find translation volunteers will pay off. For now, they're just Cyrillic Russian cursive pages collecting virtual dust. Three I believe were Merrill's draft letters to the official in charge at Sestroretsk.
I noticed tonight that the "reference card" sent by the Archives Institution Director for the second set of documents had the following:
Google translation - "For the record, that the Sestroretsky Arms Factory's archive fund has a case "On the preparation of weapons charged from the state part of the Meryl {Merrill}, Prips {Prince?} and Obtwrabeur {Lamyer} system for comparative experiments of the Armory" for 1857-1867, which contains 135 sheets, many of which - with turnovers."
I took the Russian text for the translated "Prips" text and used that for my search string "Prips breechloader 1856", and not far down the search results list was this link - Prince?s Breechloading Rifle ? The Armourers Bench (https://armourersbench.com/2019/01/12/princes-breechloading-rifle/). I couldn't find a real translation match to Prince, but the historical timeline really plays into the possibility his rifle could have been part of the Russian trials. This is the very first time I've ever heard of Prince and his patents and breechloader. I need to contact folks at The Armourers Bench... The video in the link is really awesome.
My Russian contact is going to head back to the St. Petersburg Archives this month, if all is still open access over there. His mission will be to: (1) capture about 30 photos of original Merrill documents that were too faintly microfilmed, (2) check with the archivists there for a Mr. Lamyer from Bremen {Germany I figure; Obtwrabeur}, as the relatively new history sleuth in me is trying to solve the engraving on the Claud Fuller Merrill, Latrobe & Thomas patchbox, and (3) find out if the Prince breechloader was indeed part of the Sestroretsk trials. With google translator, I realized obtwraTeur in German is obturator in English. Eric.
I noticed tonight that the "reference card" sent by the Archives Institution Director for the second set of documents had the following:
Google translation - "For the record, that the Sestroretsky Arms Factory's archive fund has a case "On the preparation of weapons charged from the state part of the Meryl {Merrill}, Prips {Prince?} and Obtwrabeur {Lamyer} system for comparative experiments of the Armory" for 1857-1867, which contains 135 sheets, many of which - with turnovers."
I took the Russian text for the translated "Prips" text and used that for my search string "Prips breechloader 1856", and not far down the search results list was this link - Prince?s Breechloading Rifle ? The Armourers Bench (https://armourersbench.com/2019/01/12/princes-breechloading-rifle/). I couldn't find a real translation match to Prince, but the historical timeline really plays into the possibility his rifle could have been part of the Russian trials. This is the very first time I've ever heard of Prince and his patents and breechloader. I need to contact folks at The Armourers Bench... The video in the link is really awesome.
My Russian contact is going to head back to the St. Petersburg Archives this month, if all is still open access over there. His mission will be to: (1) capture about 30 photos of original Merrill documents that were too faintly microfilmed, (2) check with the archivists there for a Mr. Lamyer from Bremen {Germany I figure; Obtwrabeur}, as the relatively new history sleuth in me is trying to solve the engraving on the Claud Fuller Merrill, Latrobe & Thomas patchbox, and (3) find out if the Prince breechloader was indeed part of the Sestroretsk trials. With google translator, I realized obtwraTeur in German is obturator in English. Eric.