Cartridge

Cartridge, a bag or case of powder, attached or unattached to the projectile, and suitable for use as the charge for a heavy gun or small-arm. For heavy guns cartridge cases were anciently of paper, parchment, or flannel; they are now of silk. For small-arms they were anciently of greased paper, and at the time of the Indian Mutiny it was alleged that one of the causes of trouble arose from the Hindoo Sepoys - who hold the cow sacred - being required to bite off the ends of cartridges which were greased with beef fat. Modern breech-loading small-arm cartridge cases are usually of brass, with or without an iron head. The head is in most types pierced at the axis, or centre, so that it may receive the fulminating cap and the anvil on which the cap is to be struck by the hammer or pin of the piece.