Console percussion musket

Console percussion musket, an early Austrian percussion weapon, equipped with uniquely Austrian tube lock percussion mechanism. It was developed in 1835 for quick and cheap conversion of the existing flintlock weapons to new percussion system. It did not use the standard copper percussion caps for ignition, but originally developed percussion tubes. In 1835-1838 several thousand of flintlock rifles and cavalry pistols were converted to the Console system. In 1840 it was further developed into similar, but better Augustin musket.^[1][2][3]

The advantages of the percussion lock—called in Austria simply the "capsule lock"—led to its adoption in most European countries between 1825 and 1840, for military, hunting, and luxury rifles. In Austria, however, in 1830. the official military commission rejected the percussion cap as unsuitable for war and too small and tiny for the soldier's hands—although percussion caps were already produced in Austria at the time—and turned to chemical locks, where the primer was used in metal tubes, some of which could be inserted into the flash hole.^[4]

An original form of percussion lock was invented in 1830.^[5] by the Austrian tax official Giuseppe Console in Milan. Instead of the classical percussion cap, Console attached a piece of straw to a string and filled it with a mixture of potassium chlorate and blackpowder, making that way a primer tube. When subjected to the hammer blow, the primer tube would explode. Replacing straw with a cylinder of rolled copper sheet (10-15 mm long, 2-3 mm in diameter) attached to a wire suitable for gripping (and binding to the paper cartridge), Console developed a primer tube suitable for military use. He also developed a simple percussion lock, ideal for quick and cheap conversion of the large stock of the existing Austrian military flintlock weapons (600-700,000 muskets and rifles).^[4][5]

Console percussion lock retained most of the old flintlock parts: it needed only a new priming pan (iron groove with a short tube at the left side, next to the touch-hole) and a spring-loaded pan cover, with a protrusion (tooth) on the lower side. The old flintlock hammer could also be used, by clamping a piece of iron between its yaws instead of the flint.^[4][5]

The groove corresponded to the firing hole, and the sausage-shaped "igniter" (priming tube) was inserted into it and held in place by the pan cover. The blow of the hammer—the old cock remained, but with a piece of iron screwed in instead of the flint—on the lid caused the explosion.^[5]

Testing in 1835 showed that Console muskets were superior to flintlocks both in the rate of fire (12 to 5 shots respectively) and reliability. The rate of misfire for Console muskets was about 10%, compared to 20-30% for flintlock weapons. However, it was much worse than less than 1% for the standard caplock weapons of the day.^[6]

After repeated trials and testing of various Console lock models,^[4] Console's invention was adopted in 1838, and fitted to the flintlock rifles of the several Jäger battalions in Vienna, Moravia, and Tyrol. These were not new weapons, but converted old flintlock rifles, equpped with new Console percussion locks and named Hunting rifle M1838 (Jägerstutzen M1838)^[7]. Console percussion locks were also installed on some cavalry carbines, both rifled - Cavalry rifle M1835 (Kavallerie-Stutzen M1835)^[8] and smoothbore ones. In 1838, several thousand of the smoothbore M1807 flintlock carbines (Jäger-Carabiner M1807) received the Console tube lock and became M1838 Hunting carbines (Jäger-Karabiner M1838).^[7] From 1842 onwards, they were all converted to Augustin lock.^[5]

However, further production was suspended because Baron Augustin, who had meanwhile been appointed Director of Weapons Factory in Vienna, came up with an improvement to the Console lock, with which (by the imperial order of December 21, 1840) all rifles were to be equipped.^[4]

The fact that the spring-loaded lid often activated the easily detonated primer tube when closed prompted Baron Augustin, to incorporate a tooth into the lid that could be easily moved up and down. Thus, with a minor design change, the Augustin tube lock was created. Overshadowing Console's invention, it was initially introduced in 1840 as the "large Augustin tube lock" and produced by reconstructing the old locks. However, as early as 1842, it was delivered as a "small Augustin lock or machine lock" by the Brevillier company in Vienna, using a new process for hardened casting. The movable tooth in the pan lid underwent design changes in 1845 and 1846. All firearms in Austria from 1798 onwards received new locks.^[5]

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  Console musket tube lock, with pan cover open to show percussion tube inside.
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  Console musket lock closed and ready to fire.
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  Console musket lock fired: original flintlock hammer with a piece of steel in its jaws would strike the pan-cover and detonate the percussion tube in the pan.

• Németh, Balázs (2020). Early Military Rifles 1740–1850. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 25–29. ISBN 978-1-472-84229-9.
• Bogdanović, Branko; Valenčak, Ivan (1990). Puške: dva veka pušaka na teritoriji Jugoslavije [Rifles: two centuries of rifles in the teritory of Yugoslavia] (in Serbian) (1. ed.). Beograd: DP Sportinvest [u.a.] pp. 45–47. ISBN 978-86-7597-001-9.
• Dolleczek, Anton (1896). Monographie der k. und k. osterr.-ung. blanken und Handfeuer-Waffen [Monograph of the Imperial and Royal Austrian-Hungarian edged weapons and firearms] (PDF) (in German). Wien: Kreisel & Gröger. pp. 90–93, 119–120, 205.
• Teuber, Oscar; von Ottenfeld, Rudolf (1895). Die österreichische Armee von 1700 bis 1867 [The Austrian Army from 1700 to 1867] (PDF) (in German). Wien: Emil Berté & Cie und S. Czeiger. pp. 843–853.

• Augustin tube lock military rifle and the light infantry tactics of 1848-49