The Mechanical Era

Chapter 91 The Trigger And The Barrel

?While Duesenberg was making black powder for the flintlock musket for Kant, on the Middletown, near the edge of downtown, a smithy was busy trying to make the metal components of Kant's weapon.

The smithy was a brick-stone building, with no paint visible. It was connected to a much larger building and had its own distinguished chimney that puffed smoke constantly. Inside they found a dirty environment, with the walls and floor covered in layers of dust and soot. Up on the walls were tools in a smith used.

In the middle, sitting on the stool, was a man with short curly hair, but a long curly beard that featured no mustache. His eyes, placed on his oblong face, were mud-brown. He wore an acorn-gray hemp tunic, which went well with the dust and soot, along with iris root leggings. He also had a pair of brown calfskin boots that matched his gloves and apron.

The guy went by the name of Paul. Paul Windsor. There were others in the smithy working there. They were mainly focused on building stuff for the other clients. These people who worked a the smithy are part of the family or just apprentices who wanted to gain some skills. In front of the stool was a table, with a blueprint of the revolver placed on it.

The man clearly thought for a minute before continuing on how to proceed. He decided to make, what he thought of as, the easiest part of the weapon; the barrel. Being just a long smooth metal tube, it won't be that hard to do.

He grabbed a mandrel of the proper diameter, which is like a long rod, a flat piece of iron, a hammer, and iron tongs, and got to work. He held the piece of iron and first smacked it around the mandrel. Once it was finished, he took another piece of iron and smacked it around the mandrel. He did this until almost the entire rod was covered.

Then, grabbed it with the tongs, he held it out in the forger, increasing the temperature of the iron. By heating the iron to a high enough temperature in the forge, it allows the smith to seam weld, which means connecting the separate iron pieces, to one smooth barrel.

Before he cools it down, using another rod and tong, he makes a little hole for the trigger mechanism. After that, he cools the barrel down in a bath of water, completing one part of the gun. He then keeps it separate in a box, and moves on to the next part; the trigger mechanism.

The trigger mechanism, as detailed in the blueprint, is made up of a series of parts when assembled, which will work together that allows the gun to fire its projectile. The parts in question are; the trigger, the sear, the tumbler, the hammer, the flat spring, the frizzen, the pan, and the lockplate, along with a few nails and spings.

When the trigger is pulled, it pivots up due to a pin on the top left of the trigger. As the trigger pivots up, it pushes upward on the sear on the right end and has the left end go down. This causes the sear to come out of the notch, also known as the second notch. As the sear comes out, the flat spring will pivot the tumbler down on the left end, driving the hammer forward down on the frizzen.

As the hammer comes down, this causes the piece of flint to hit the frizzen. As the frizzen is angled in a specific way, the flint will slide down the flat slope of the frizzen, causing it to pivot backward due to a hinge on the right.

As the frizzen pivots out of the way, it uncovers the pan, in which the priming charge is in place. The priming charge is a separate charge made of black powder. As the sparks are being created with the interaction of the flint sliding down on the metal, it will ignite the priming charge.

This priming charge is connected to the barrel thanks to the tiny hole made, allowing the black powder inside it to ignite. To make sure that all of them work in tandem, the lockplate is used to connect and help hold each part together.

To make sure that the gun can fire again, the tumbler has two notches. When the hammer is pulled back, the sear comes over to the lower notch, which is called the first notch; entering the half-cock position.

Due to its shape and angle, it makes it impossible for the trigger to pivot, preventing another shot from being accidentally fired. A safe mode for the flintlock musket, if you will. After reloading the priming charge and the weapon itself, the hammer can be pulled back into full-cock position, for allow firing another bullet.

With that information in mind, the smithy started working on the small parts. Using his trusty tools, he starts beating, heating, and forming all the necessary components together. It takes a while to do so, with many attempts leading to failure. Yet, with each failure, he improved, and by the end of the workday.

p?nd?`no??1--?o? The sun was now starting to set. The other workers of the smithy had already left a few minutes ago. Paul himself had finished working on the components, making enough for one flintlock musket, but that was all he needed for now.

He will send the components to the artists tomorrow. Paul was sure that, when the Petersons help build the weapon itself, they might encounter some problems in the component itself. Therefore, he deemed it wise to send the items for only one musket, so that if any criticism comes in regard to the components, he can make adjustments.

Before heading back into his home through a wooden door, he deposits the metalwork into a chest. He then wipes the sweat off his face with a clean hemp cloth and heads back inside his home. His work, however, was still not finished.

With a quill in his right hand, a bottle of ink in his left, and a piece of paper laying in front of him on the top of his desk, he started detailing all the ways he made the metal components; the barrel and the trigger mechanism.

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