Images(3)

Artillery Priming Horn

Dateca. 1770-1820

OriginEngland

MediumCow horn, wood (beech), brass and iron

DimensionsOverall:13 1/2" Diameter of base plug: 2 7/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1982-26

DescriptionOf typical British priming horn form, this example is made with a turned bottom, a handle-shaped filling hole plug and a brass tip set with a spring loaded spot cover. Two cast brass suspension rings are sent into the horn, one at each end.
Label TextWhile many Revolutionary soldiers carried their gunpowder in horns, the powder carried in this distinctive type was used to fire off cannons. The handle shaped piece of wood at the wide end is actually a plug, threaded into a filling hole. Its tip is covered by a brass fitting mounted with a spring-loaded cover, allowing the easy and neat dispensing of gun powder onto the vent of the cannon. Once primed as such, a burning piece of match was touched to the powder, which would ignite and discharge the cannon.

Priming horns of this form were used by both sides during the Revolution, and would have been employed in artillery units fighting on land and by naval gun crews fighting on the waterways.
MarkingsModern replacement stopper marked "F. W. 4-93."