Category: Hex Bore blog

You are here: Home > Research > Hex Bore > Hex Bore blog The cased Whitworth military target rifle B101 recently re-surfaced. This rifle was recorded by the Whitworth Research Project in […]

Pattern 1863 Enfield-Whitworth Short Rifle of which something over 8,200 were manufactured during 1863 and 1864 for trials. If you own such a rifle, or the 1862 Enfield-Whitworth, please get in touch.

The Hex Bore project has a good archive / library of Whitworth research material, but now and again something new surfaces.

‘The Guns of the Ironclad “Riachuelo” and Their Alteration to the Armstrong System’ is a treatise by Duarte Huet Bacellar Pinto Guedes, First Lieutenant of the Brazilian Navy.

One of the great joys of archival research is handling original 19th century documents.

Following Sir Joseph Whitworth’s death in 1887, ‘Sir Joseph Whitworth & Company’ was restructured.

Misunderstanding of figure of merit has resulted in exaggerated claims of Whitworth rifle accuracy.

The finely engraved semi-military rifle C778 was sold by Rock Island Auction Co., 20 May 2023. There was a batch of these engraved rifles with spur trigger guard made around this time (c1862). This particular rifle was formerly in the George W. Wray Jr. collection, Atlanta History Center. It was subsequently sold by Poulin Auction Co, Fairfield, ME, USA, in October 2019.

From the ‘Hex Bore’ Whitworth library: ARMY (WHITWORTH GUNS). Correspondence respecting the Trial of the Whitworth Guns, between the War Office, the Admiralty, and the Whitworth Company, with the Report of the Ordnance Select Committee. 1867.

Appendix 19 of the Report of the U.S. Department of Ordnance, 1882, is a ‘Report on European Ordnance and Manufactures.’ It extends over 50 pages of text plus 30 single page plates. English and French ordnance of the period and various systems of construction are covered. Included is a short section on Whitworth’s Guns, with breech loading gun details and including Whitworth’s own remarks on early trials and gun construction.

Today, the digitisation of books and archive holdings is welcomed by researchers, allowing access to material that may be hard to find or even otherwise unobtainable. However, it’s always nice to acquire a new book – ‘Miscellaneous Papers on Mechanical Subjects’ by Joseph Whitworth (London. 1858).