A GUN CARRIAGE OF THE SIMPLEST CONSTRUCTION, EITHER FOR LAND OR SEA SERVICE, CALCULATED TO REDUCE VERY CONSIDERABLY THE LABOUR OF WORKING THE GUNS, TO PRODUCE A SMOOTH AND EVEN RECOLL, AND PREVENT THE VIOLENT ACTION THAT TAKES PLACE IN COMMON CARRIAGES WHEN THE GUN IS FIXED; MUCH LIGHTER, LESS EXPENSIVE CONSTRUCTION, AND LESS LIABLE TO BE STRUCK AND SPLINTERED BY THE ENEMY'S SHOT. AS PRESENTING MUCH LESS SURFACE; WHEN APPLIED TO THE SEA SERVICE, IT ALLOWS, MOREOVER, OF A VERY
Year: 1808

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I
WILLIAM CONGREVE, of Garden Court, in the Temple, in the County of
Middlesex, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third,
did, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the
Twenty-fourth day of May, in the forty-eighth year of His reign, give
and grant unto me, the said William Congreve, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that 1, the said William Congreve, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of
years therein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick upon Tweed, my Invention
of "A GUN CARRIAGE OF THE SIMPLEST CONSTRUCTION, EITHER FOR LAND
OR SEA SERVICE, CALCULATED TO REDUCE VERY CONSIDERABLY THE LABOUR
OF WORKING THE GUNS, TO PRODUCE A SMOOTH AND EVEN RECOLL, AND
PREVENT THE VIOLENT ACTION THAT TAKES PLACE IN COMMON CARRIAGES
WHEN THE GUN IS FIXED; AT THE SAME TIME THE CARRIAGE IS OF MUCH
LIGHTER, LESS EXPENSIVE CONSTRUCTION, AND LESS LIABLE TO BE STRUCK
AND SPLINTERED BY THE ENEMY'S SHOT. AS PRESENTING MUCH LESS SURFACE;
WHEN APPLIED TO THE SEA SERVICE, IT ALLOWS, MOREOVER, OF A VERY

page_text: CONSIDERABLE REDUCTION IN THE SIZE OF THE PORT;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said
William Congreve, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said In-
vention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar
month after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by
the same (relation being thereunto had) may and will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said William Congreve, do hereby declare that my said Invention is
described in manner following (that is to say):
The different objects of the said mode of mounting guns are, 1. To
produce a smooth and uniform recoil; 2. To reduce the labour of
working the gun; 3. To diminish the weight of the carriage; 4. To
present less surface to the enemy's fire; 5. To keep the decks freer
and drier than in any other description of carriages; 6. To occupy less
space in every direction, so that, if required, four guns might be put
in the space of three, leaving the same intervals; 7. To be capable
of being better secured, by allowing ringbolts in the deck; 8. To in-
crease the power of traversing the gun, and at the same time to reduce
the size of the port. Now these objects are obtained upon the following
general principles, and by the following applications thereof, which it
cannot be lawfull for any person or persons to adopt or work upon in
the construction of any gun carriage whatsoever, and every such
adoption of these general principles will be deemed an infringement of
the said Patent.
General principles of action and construction: 1. The bringing the
centre of the trucks on which the cannon recoils either absolutely or
as nearly as possible into the horizontal plane of the axis of the piece,
by which an evenness of recoil is produced. 2y. The mounting the
trucks on which the gun recoils upon the trunnions of the gun, or
trunnions cast to answer the same purpose, as in the carronade car-
riage, by which above half the labour of working the said gun or
carronade is saved. 3. The forming a carriage capable of being con-
tracted into a smaller compass when secured than when in action, by

page_text: which a variety of good properties, not belonging to the common
construction of carriages, is produced. 4thly. The whole span of the
front of the carriage not exceeding the breadth of the gun across the
trunnions from the end of one trunnion to that of the other, by which
means the reduction of the port is effected, and the great increased
power of training the gun, the breadth not being more than half that
of an ordinary gun carriage.
Application of these principles: There are many modes of varying the
application of these general principles in the mounting of guns and
carronades to produce the above-mentioned objects, the principal of
which I shall herein describe; it will thereby be seen that any
deviation from these can only be a variation of parts without a real
difference, and must be founded on the same basis as to cause and
effect, therefore decidedly within the spirit and intention of this Patent.
The application of the first and second of these principles, viz', the
bringing the centres of the trucks on which the gun recoils absolutely
or nearly into the horizontal plane of the axis of the piece, is effected
either by casting the gun with four trunnions in the axis of the piece
(as in Plate 1), and applying the trucks upon these trunnions, the
whole recoiling on a traversing platform, or by putting trucks upon the
trunnions of a common gun, and supporting the after part of the gun
by a middle truck applied to the cascable, the whole also recoiling on a
traversing platform; (this application of the trucks to a gun is shewn
by the red lines in Plate 1); or it may be effected by means of a cast
iron, brass, or other cradle E, (Plates 2, and 3,) where the front of this
cradle is applied upon the trunnions of a common gun, which receive
also a truck upon each, the after part of the cradle being cast with
smaller trunnions to receive the after trucks, and being fitted with an
elevating screw, or, as in the case of the carronade, with a loop, (Plate 4,)
where the carronade is supported by a bolt passing through the lower
part of the cradle, and the cradle recoils either upon two or four trucks.
working on trunnions cast upon it; or it may be effected by placing the
trunnions of the gun on an upper skid, recoiling on the lower carriage,
with rollers or trucks, either on the the lower or on the upper skid.
Now it is evident that a vast saving of labour arises from this construction,
because, in the first place, little more than the weight of the gun

page_text: is to be run out, instead of the weight of gun and carriage, as in
common; and, in the second place, because the trucks are sure to
work upon an even surface instead of the irregularities of the deck; so
also it is evident that this construction insures an even and uniform
recoil, inasmuch as the cause of the jumping in a common carriage is
got rid of; that course being the height of the axis of the piece above
the centres of the truck, which, when the gun is fired, acts as a lever
to raise the fore trucks off the deck, and tumble the carriage over back-
wards. This lever, however, vanishes in the construction according to
this Patent, and the gun in recoiling has no tendency but to run back
in the true direction of the axis of the piece. This is one of the
principal objects of the Patent; the true cause of this mischievous
effect in the common construction of gun carriages has not hitherto
occurred to any one, nor can any effectual reinedy be applied but upon
this principle of construction, and no mere variation of form in a
carriage (if it be constructed on the principle of the approximation of
the centres of the recoiling trucks to the plane of the axis of the piece,
or in that of placing the trucks on the trunnions of the gun,) can avoid
the spirit and intention of this Patent. It cannot, therefore, be lawful
for any person to cast or make a gun with two sets of trunnions for
this purpose, nor to mount a common gun by placing trucks upon its
trunnions, and supporting the cascable by a third truck in the centre
fixed to the pomilion, nor to bring the recoiling trucks to coincide, or
nearly so, with the axis of the piece by the application of a cradle, or
the other means above described; nor by any similar means to produce"
the same effect, agreeable to the principle herein secured. The third
general principle of construction, or that of contracting the carriage
when secured, may also be effected in various ways. The profile
(Plate 2,) shews one mode, where the port B, folds back against A,
when the gun is not in action; this part is secured by the brace D.
The arm C, which keeps the gun in the centre of the port, and in its
true sweep, also draws back between the skids of the lower carriage;
the whole carriage then runs home to the side of the vessel. Plate 3,
exhibits another mode of effecting this, where the part B, also folds
back against A, and reduces the carriage to half its extended length.
The part B, is supported by legs, which form front legs to the carriage,

page_text: gun to
when required to move it from one part of the vessel to another; this
carriage when contracted does not occupy much more than half the
space of a common carriage, and it allows the muzzle of a short
project nearly as far from the sides as that of the long gun with the
common carriage. Plate 4, exhibits another node of contracting the:
lower carriage, where the part B, folds back by a hinge, and is sup-
ported by legs of the extremity of the carriage; these legs, however,
are detached from the part B, and do not, as in the last case, shut back
with it, but slide forward, being directed by the strong bars F, F,
moving in groves on the under part of the skid A; these bars secure
the joint when the gun is in action. It is evident that there are many
more ways of effecting this object, it is needless, however to enumerate
them; the general principle of a carriage made to contract and expand,
and the spirit of all the advantages dependant thereon remain un-
altered. This principle is, moreover, perfectly new, and is an integral
part of this Patent, whether the joint be vertical or horizontal, whether
the legs be attached or not, whether the contracting part fold up or
down, laterally, internally, or externally. The fourth general principle
of construction, viz, the reduction of the span of the carriage, is one
also of the greatest importance, and is thus effected by placing the
recoiling trucks on the trunnions of the gun, or on similar trunnions
cast on the cradle to produce the same effect, the path on which the
gun recoils is limited in breadth to the span of the trunnions, while by
bringing these trunnions into the plane of the axes of the piece, the
gun cannot fail to travel backwards and forwards with perfect security,
though the span is thus narrowed; by which it appears that this
principle also is an essential part of the present Patent. The advan-
tages resulting from this are very striking; it gives about double the
power of training possessed by the common carriage. The power of
traversing in the long gun, agreeable to this Patent (Plate 2,) is 90°,
whereas the sweep of the same gun with a common carriage is but
about 40°; so also the short gun and carronade, according to this
Patent, have each of them 70° traverse. The reduction of the span of
the carriage also either gives a greater interval between the guns, or
allows of four guns being placed in the room of three, with the same
intervals.

page_text: Rackett Trucks.-I shall now proceed to explain a new description
of truck which I have invented as a part of this construction of
gun carriages, and as included therefore in this Patent. It will be
seen under the above title in Plates 2, and 3, and is simply a cast
metal or other truck with an internal rackett, in which a rising pall
works; this pall may also serve for the linch pin, or an additional
linch pin may be given as a further security if necessary. Either two
or more of these trucks are intended to be applied to the cradle
(according to the nature of gun) to deaden the recoil, by their being
palled so as to rub in recoiling, yet to be free in running the gun out,
so that any degree of friction may be applied in the recoil without
increasing the labour of working the gun. This construction is no more
expensive than that of a common truck, and is equally strong and simple
in all its parts; nor can it be lawful for any one to adopt this truck,
either to gun carriages or by any other mode of application, as it is per-
fectly new in its construction, and is an essential part of this Patent.
Breechings. There are two plans for breechings included in this
Patent, according to the nature of the gun. The one (in Plate 2,)
leading from the front of the cradle passes over the roller at the side of
the ship, with two turns from thence to a roller on the rear of the
carriage, and then to the rear of the cradle. This breeching is always
tight, and by applying friction to the roller against the ship's side any
quantity of strain may be given to the breeching to counteract the
recoil gradually, and not by a sudden snatch, as with the common
slack breeching. This breeching may also be used to answer the
purpose of the bowsing and relieving tackles, by the application of a
winch to the roller on the rear of the carriage, and by taking off the
friction from the roller on the ship's side. The other breeching apper-
taining to this Patent is described in Plate 3, and is always kept tight,
and made to act against the recoil, by the application of a moderate
weight, working in a small trunk against the inside of the vessel, below
the deck on which the gun is mounted. These breechings may, I
conceive, be applicable with much advantage, both as to easing the
recoil and the labour of working the gun, although it is evident that a
gun mounted on the principles of this Patent may be used with the
common breeching.

page_text: Reduction of the Port.-This is a very important result from the com-
bination of the different principles on which this carriage is constructed.
A 24-pounder port may be reduced in width as follows: for the long
gun, from three feet three inches to two feet three inches; for the short
gun, from three feet three inches to two feet six inches. By this means
an additional timber may be placed one each side the port, so as greatly
to increase the strength of a ship's side, and at the same time very
much to protect the men from musquetry and
grape shot.
Materials of the Cradle and Carriage.-The cradle is made of cast
brass or iron, or of wood connected with screw bolts or otherwise; the
trucks of the cradle either of lignum vitæ or any other hard wood or
of metal. The lower carriage is constructed of wooden skids, or of
metal bolted and transomed together; but as there are so many
Drawings of all the parts with this Specification, it is needless to enter
into a moro minute verbal description.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Congreve, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eight.
WILLIAM CONGREVE (L.B.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifteenth day of June,
in the forty-eighth year of the reign of His Majesty King George the
Third, the said William Congreve came before our said Lord the King,
in His Chancery, and acknowledged the instrument aforesaid, and all
and everything therein contained and specified, in form above written;
and also the instrument aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor
of the Statute made in the forty-fourth year of His said Majesty's
reign.

page_text: The red Lines shew another Mode of applying the Principle of this Patent by placing Truck A, on the Trunnions
of a common Gun and Supporting the Cascable by a small Truck B fired to the Pomilion, by the adjustment of which,
the elevation, or depression is regulated.
B The Black lines Suppose a double Trunnioned Gun seen in Plan- The red Lines suppose a common Gun seen in Profile.