✅ SOLVED Another Friction Primer?

[Smilodon]

Hit this site previously and found what could not be 100% identified as a friction primer. Went back yesterday and found what I hope can be identified for sure as a friction primer and hopefully will shed some light on the previous post. Also found a fairly large size piece of copper that is probably just scrap but wanted to post it just in case. I also included the previous photo from the other post of the possible section of friction primer.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[TheCannonballGuy]

Your new find is a "typical" civil war era cannon friction-primer. On your specimen, the short tube which was on the side of the main tube near the top is broken off.

The photo below shows the full form of "typical" civil war friction-primers. With this type, there is usually no visible difference between Confederate-made and yankee-made ones. Note, the primers in this photo are in non-excavated condition. Also, they are unfired. Fired ones will be missing the twisted "pull-wire" (which got pulled out of the primer during firing).

I seem to see the broken stub of the pull-wire in the hole on your primer, which indicates it is an unfired one, with some of its parts broken off.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Upon close inspection of the "twice-enlarged" photo of the primer, I see the pull-wire is entirely missing. That doesn't absolutely mean it is a fired one, but is most likely is a fired one.

The copper looks like sheet-copper "sheathing" that I've dug at river and Seacoast locations. It was typically used to sheathe a wooden boat's hull, to keep water-worms from eating into the hull. Also, because copper is poisonous to bacteria, "pond-scum," and other water-life, it keeps them from attaching to the boat's hull. Of course, your sheet-copper might not have been used on boat's hull. That is jjust one of its uses.