Patent GB-191203506-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in Mechanism for Laying Ordnance.
Inventor: MANDICH ALEXANDER
IPC: F41A27/24
Filed: 1912-02-12
Granted: 1913-05-13
Abstract: 3506. Mandich, A. Feb. 12. Field carriages.-Relates to guns with independent line of sight in which means are provided for traversing the barrel independently of the sight-line, and consists in the combination of (1) a main traversing-gear, mounted in a frame turning on the wheel-axle, and so connected to the barrel and the sight-line that the sight-line participates in the traverse for pointing, with (2) two auxiliary traversing- devices, one designed to correct automatically during ranging for the drift of the projectile, and the other to correct for the inclination of the wheel-base. In the form shown diagrammatically in elevation in Fig. 1 and in plan in Fig. 3, the gun-barrel 10 is mounted on a vertical pivot 14 turning in a sleeve 11 on the wheel-axle 2. The rear end of the barrel is supported by a sector 16 curved concentrically to the pivot 14 and pivoted on an elevating- screw 5 engaging internal screw-threads in a frame 3 which turns on the wheel-axle 2 about which it may be swung by elevating-gearing (not shown). Journaled in this frame so as to be incapable of axial motion is a screw 25, upon which a block 17 rides as a nut. Sliding in this block is a tongue 18, which is universally jointed to the barrel at its upper end on pivots 19, 21, so that as the block 17 is traversed by the screw 25, training movement is imparted to the barrel. The sight-line 4 is carried by a mounting pivoted at its forward end to the frame 3, and engaging at its rear end a screw 30 integral with the training-screw 25; the pitches of the two screws are such that the sight-line 4 and the barrel 10 turn through the same angle as the gun is trained by the screw 25. The gun is elevated for range independently of the sight-line by means of the screw 5. During this elevation, the correction for drift due to rifling is automatically imparted to the barrel by the co-operation of the contiguous curved surfaces 12, 13 of the sleeve 11 and frame 3. In a modification, this correction is imparted by pivoting the rear end of the sighting-mount to a rod sliding parallel to the screw 25, and integral with a nut on this screw having curved surfaces engaging corresponding surfaces on the block 17, which is in this case smoothbored. To correct for the inclination of the wheel-base, a spirit-level 24 is adapted to turn on a pinion 20 in a rod 26 mounted on the screw 25; the pin 20 is pivoted on a pin 22<11> to a link 22, in turn pivoted on a pin 33<11> to a rod 23 integral with the pivot-nut 21, which rides on a screw 19 journaled to the tongue 18. When the wheel-base is inclined, the level is adjusted horizontal by rotating the screw 19 by any suitable gearing after the gun is elevated ; the pivot 21 is thereby brought into the vertical plane through the axis of the barrel in its unelevated position and the required correction thus made. A modification of this device is described suitable for a gun provided with toothed-sector elevating-gear. A modified form of the invention is described in which the upper end of the elevating-screw 5 is directly pivoted to the frame 3, and the tongue 18 is replaced by a range elevating-screw pivoted at its upper end to a loose ring on the gun barrel. and turning in a screwed sleeve mounted in the block 17, which sleeve may be rotated for imparting range elevation to the barrel by means of any suitable bevel-gearing.