U.S. patent #8956 was granted to William W. Marston & Frederick Goodell on May 18, 1852 for this cartridge. It was intended to be used in a breech-loading single shot firearm of Marston's design, for which he received U.S. Patent 7443 on June 18, 1850. His guns used a lever to draw back the breech block which allowed loading a cartridge into the right side of the frame.

Marston created a separate-primed cartridge, meaning it incorporates a powder charge and ball, but depends on a percussion cap to ignite the powder. The case is constructed of a blue paper tube with a leather base. This base has a small hole in the center to provide a pathway for ignition of the powder charge, but also sealed the breech and served to swab out the bore when it was pushed through the barrel ahead of the following shot.

Examples of Marston's cartridges are quite rare, and were known to be made in .31, 36, .54, .58, and .70 caliber with cases of various lengths intended for use in rifles or pistols.

This example offered here is in excellent condition. The small lead bullet has an old catalog number written on it. The blue paper tube and leather base are in fine condition. This is a short cartridge intended for a pistol.  [jet] [ph:jet]

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