Editing Wadding

{{Short description|Material used in guns to seal gas behind a projectile}}
{{otheruses}}
{{More footnotes|date=April 2023}}

[[Image:Flejtuch czproch.JPG|thumb|Modern made waddings out of leather and jute]]

'''Wadding''' is a disc of material used in [[gun]]s to [[mechanical seal|seal]] gas behind a [[projectile]] (a [[bullet]] or [[round shot|ball]]), or to separate the [[propellant]] from loosely packed [[shot (pellet)|shot]]s.<ref>[http://homestudy.ihea.com/glossary_fa.htm#w "Glossary of Firearms Terms".] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231730/http://homestudy.ihea.com/glossary_fa.htm#w |date=2016-03-03 }}</ref>
Wadding can be crucial to a gun's efficiency, since any gas that leaks past a projectile as it is being fired is wasted. A harder or more carefully designed item which serves this purpose is often called a [[Sabot (firearms)|sabot]]. Wadding for [[muzzleloader]]s is typically a small piece of cloth, or [[cartridge paper|paper]] wrapping from the [[cartridge (weaponry)|cartridge]].{{citation needed|date = March 2015}}

==Shotguns==
[[File:Shotgun-shot-sequence-1g.jpg|right|thumb|A series of individual 1/1,000,000-second exposures showing shotgun firing shots and wadding separation]]
In [[shotgun shells]], the wadding is actually a semi-flexible cup-shaped [[sabot (firearms)|sabot]] designed to hold numerous much smaller-diameter sub-projectiles (i.e. [[shot (pellet)|shot]]s), and is launched out together as one payload-carrying projectile. This minimizes chaotic collisions of the shots with the bore wall and with each other, allowing the [[internal ballistics]] to be more consistent.  After leaving the [[muzzle (firearms)|muzzle]], the wadding loosens and opens up in flight, allowing the much [[density|dense]]r shots to be [[inertia]]lly released and scattered. The same function is served when shooting [[shotgun slug|slug]]s.

==Model rockets==
Wadding is used in [[model rocket]]s to protect the [[parachute]] when it ejects. Without the recovery wadding, the parachute would melt because the ejection is by a small [[solid-propellant rocket|solid-fuel engine]], which gets so hot that it melts the glue almost immediately.{{citation needed|date = March 2015}}

==Effects==
Burning wadding may have ignited the fire that led to the explosion that destroyed the [[French ship Orient (1791)|''Orient'']] at the [[Battle of the Nile]] (''q.v.''). The father of [[Robert Morris (financier)|Robert Morris]], "Financier of the American Revolution," died as the result of being wounded by flying wadding from a ship's gun that was fired in his honor.<ref>[[Charles Rappleye|Rappleye, Charles]] (2010). ''Robert Morris: Financier of the American Revolution''. New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 10. {{ISBN|978-1-4165-7091-2}}.</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Ammunition]]