Maltese Lift

[Mike]

Hi

 

I`ve read a couple things about the Maltese Lift system.

 

The things i could find about this is, that you will need less BP and also slower BP.

 

But i can`t find a really god descriptition how it is constructed.

All i could find, is that it looks like the lift cup gets spiked. Is this all?

 

Also does anyone have information about this way of lifting shells? How does the fuse get ignites, just by the lift or does it get connected to the Fuse/Spollette?

[AdmiralDonSnider]

My knowlegde is very limited, but they seem to construct a spiked cylinder similar to the break of a shell which is filled with hand granulated powder (polverone) and spiked just like a shell. This seems to help build up pressure. I don´t know anything about the actual construction.

The main fuse/spolette of the first break is usually on the upside of the whole shell and ignited by the leader, the fire of which is passed to the lift by the passfire pipe.

Edited March 26, 2013 by AdmiralDonSnider

[Algenco]

It isn't a "lift cup"

They use a BP maroon along with a rolled newspaper "sabot"

The newspaper is sandwiched between 2 pieces of plywood, upon firing the paper compresses sealing the mortar

[Mumbles]

If you check out passfire, there is some good information and a tutorial there. Passfire doesn't really use what most people would think of a polverone though. It's not an unmilled green powder. It's milled and uses fairly decent charcoal. I have reason to believe that this is largely unnecessary though, and is probably just what the FPAG was shown. Every club and village in Italy and Malta has their own special way of doing things, which can vary quite dramatically at times.

 

Algenco and AdmiralDonSnider have described it pretty well. On the big shells that this is most useful for, the shells are certainly top fused. The polverone is filled into essentially a cylinder shell casing with a hole in the side to accept the passfire. It is closed up and spiked vertically and horizontally as normal. This is placed under the shell, and a sabot is placed between the lift maroon and the shell. The sabot can be made of many things. I generally see newspaper or old cotton clothing like t-shirts and jeans. I've always seen a plywood disk between the maroon and the sabot material. The second plywood disk between the sabot and the shell is variable. The plywood is usually pretty snug to the gun, so there is often a little notch in it or slide taken off to as to allow the passfire to have a little more room and prevent from being pinched. This whole thing is attached to the bottom of the shell, and the passfire is run from the spolette on top of the shell down into the lift maroon. The whole thing is wrapped up in a final wrap of paper, and the main leader is run into the bucket around the spolette.

 

There are a few caveats you should probably be aware of before you get too invested. First and foremost, this really only works for large shells. Well, the ability to use less lift only works for larger, heavier shells. The method is time consuming, and probably not worth it if the chances are low that the shell will rupture in the gun from lift forces or you're not really saving any BP. These are both true of smaller shells. I probably wouldn't consider using this method until somewhere between 5 and 10lbs. The other caveat is that there are really no rules of thumbs for how much lift to use. Passfire has some examples which are helpful. Others in the field who have some experience also sort of get a knack for how much is required. That comes with experience and testing though. It's really the only way to know how much lift of your quality of lift is required. Also, while this method puts less force on the shell, it is likely to generate higher mortar pressures. When dealing with the large, heavy shells that this method is useful for it might be common sense, but these types of shells should probably be fired from steel only.

[Mike]

Ok, i think i`ve understood how it works.

 

Thanks