Williams Cleaner?

[Carolina Tom]

I dug this in the Lowcountry of SC, on a historic property with a lot of Civil War activity.

Any assistance with the ID is appreciated. I believe it is a fired Williams cleaner with the disc still in it. I don’t recall seeing anything like this before. I thought the disc burned up when the bullet went down the barrel.

It weighs 27.4 grams. The disc is .54” in diameter.

It looks like it has/had rings on it.



Looks like it impacted something head on.



Thanks for looking.

 

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[Fullstock]

That’s what it is, cool find!

 

[Carolina Tom]

That’s what it is, cool find!

Thanks Fullstock!

That’s great news.

 

[SanMan]

The disc may be refereed to as a gas check

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

SanMan wrote:
> The disc may be refereed to as a gas check.

According to Mr. Williams' US-Patent application's description, the purpose of the disc on the base of a Willaims "Bore-Cleaner" bullet was to compress the saucer-shaped thin zinc disc under it, thereby flattening the zinc saucer outward to grip the gunbarrel's rifling grooves upon firing, thus causing the bullet to spin on its axis. The fact that the now-expanded zinc disc also has the effect of scraping gunpowder ash out of the rifling was an unintentional side-effect -- but it gave this bullet its "bore-cleaner" nickname.

Carolina Tom wrote:
> I thought the disc burned up when the bullet went down the barrel.​

The thick base disc was made of a "hardened-lead" alloy -- it wouldn't burn up. Being a lead alloy, it doesn't produce the classic white lead-oxide patina you see on the bullet's pure-lead main body.

Lastly... three versions of Williams "Bore-Cleaner" bullets were issued, known as Type 1, 2, and 3. Type 1 shows up in mid-1862 battlesites, Type 2 in very-early 1863 sites, and Type 3 in late-summer 1863. Sidenote: the Type 3 Williams was not issued in time to get used at Gettysburg, so if somebody is selling a Type 3 as a Gettysburg battle relic, do not buy it. As we old-timer relic collectors say, "Pay for the relic, not the story."

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Carolina Tom, because you said you weren't sure your find is a Williams "Cleaner" bullet, I'll risk boring some of the audience with very basic ID-info for those bullets.

All Williams "Bore Cleaner" bullets are .58-caliber, and all are yankee-made. Yours appears to be the Type 3 version. See the photo below, showing all three types. (Note, the thin saucer-shaped zinc disk is mostly corroded away in the third bullet.) The Type 1 had no hardened-lead disc "thumbtack" in its base, which allowed the thin zinc saucer-shaped disc to pull off during firing. The Type 2 added the base "thumbtack" to prevent that problem. But testing showed the bullet was now too heavy, so its main body was shortened, and has one less body-groove than the first two versions.

But the troops thoroughly disliked the Type 2 and 3 versions. Reportedly, the base-disc tended to come loose and remain stuck deep in the gunbarrel when you tried to unload the rifle by pulling the WC out with a bulletworm. Consequently, the troops threw them away in droves. That is proven by the fact that in some of the Atlanta Campaign yankee camps and trenches,

when the Williams was issued at a 1-to-10 ratio,​

we dig almost as many unfired Williams Type 3 bullets as unfired standard 3-groove minies. At one point the ratio was 3-in-10... but due to the troops rejection, it was being discontinued as the war approached its end.

Although your bullet is badly smashed, you can still confirm which type of WC it is by weighing it on a Jeweler's Scale.
WC Type 1: 546 grains / 35.38 grams
WC Type 2: 560 grains / 36.29 grams
WC Type 3: 455 grains / 29.48 grams
​

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Nice find Tom, congrats.

 

[Joe-Dirt]

Nice save Tom!!

 

[Ripcon]

Nice fired Williams Cleaner!

 

[BLK HOLE]

Very cool find Tom. I am still looking for my first WC, got my fingers crossed

 

[civil_war22]

Carolina Tom, because you said you weren't sure your find is a Williams "Cleaner" bullet, I'll risk boring some of the audience with very basic ID-info for those bullets.

All Williams "Bore Cleaner" bullets are .58-caliber, and all are yankee-made. Yours appears to be the Type 3 version. See the photo below, showing all three types. (Note, the thin saucer-shaped zinc disk is mostly corroded away in the third bullet.) The Type 1 had no hardened-lead disc "thumbtack" in its base, which allowed the thin zinc saucer-shaped disc to pull off during firing. The Type 2 added the base "thumbtack" to prevent that problem. But testing showed the bullet was now too heavy, so its main body was shortened, and has one less body-groove than the first two versions.

But the troops thoroughly disliked the Type 2 and 3 versions. Reportedly, the base-disc tended to come loose and remain stuck deep in the gunbarrel when you tried to unload the rifle by pulling the WC out with a bulletworm. Consequently, the troops threw them away in droves. That is proven by the fact that in some of the Atlanta Campaign yankee camps and trenches,

when the Williams was issued at a 1-to-10 ratio,​

we dig almost as many unfired Williams Type 3 bullets as unfired standard 3-groove minies. At one point the ratio was 3-in-10... but due to the troops rejection, it was being discontinued as the war approached its end.

Although your bullet is badly smashed, you can still confirm which type of WC it is by weighing it on a Jeweler's Scale.
WC Type 1: 546 grains / 35.38 grams
WC Type 2: 560 grains / 36.29 grams
WC Type 3: 455 grains / 29.48 grams
​

I’ve got the type one. I think I shared it years ago, I’ll have to look it up. Mine was discarded, and never fired so it’s patina unlike the regular white patina of the other minies is different. The WC I’ve got is a brownish color. You can see in some areas where there is a little white but mostly a brownish shiney patina

 

[ivan salis]

yep