IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE-ARMS AND IN ARTILLERY AND PROJECTILES FOR THE SAME
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Coope Пaddan at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 31st July
1863.
I, JOHN COOPE HADDAN, of Bessborough Gardens, Pimlico, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of tho
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE-ARMS AND IN ARTILLERY AND PROJECTILES
FOR THE SAME," to be as follows:-
My improvements embrace the so rifling fire-arms and artillery by cutting
away the whole or nearly the whole of the circumference of the cylindrical
bore as to produce in transverse section the form which would result from
rounding off or filling up the angles of a geometrical plane figure of three or
more sides, the sides being straight or very slightly convex, or concave curves or
approximations to curves formed by straight lines, the intention being to use
soft metal or expanding projectiles (or those having expanding backs) of a
circular form in transverse section to bear against or touch and be supported
only by the flats or straight or nearly straight surfaces of the so rifled bore
during loading, and in the breech before firing, and the curves of the bore being
of such dimensions as to allow space for windage only, and no more than may
be readily closed by the expansion of the projectile when discharged and than
is requisite to ensure rotation, and the altering or adapting existing "Enfield"
rifles by so cutting away the "lands," or the shoulders or angles of the grooves,
as to leave or produce a rifled bore of form or section as above set forth; and
(as a modification of the form above set forth) the cutting grooves or cuts, the

page_text: ends of which shall meet or nearly meet each other at places equidistant from
a common centre, and form supports for a circular projectile, as above explained,
and shall leave between such supports spaces for windage and for the expansion
of the projectile to close the windage and ensure rotation; and the formation
of the rifled bores in accordance with any of the improvements above set forth
in combination with a progressive or slackening or non-uniform amount of
twist or inclination in respect of the length of the arm or cannon, the intention
being that the soft metal projectile when expanded during discharge shall fit
or be supported the more perfectly by reason of the torsion of the projectile
resulting from the want of uniformity of the rifle twist; but I intend in some
cases to adopt an uniform amount of twist or inclination. For cannon of steel
or forged metal I intend a further improvement or improvements consisting
in the forging them with trunnions of a diameter about equal to the external
diameter of the cannon at the trunnions, and of such comparatively narrow
width as not to require of necessity that the casting should havo projections
upon its block or mass left or cast for the purpose, whereby in the process of
forging there will result a less destruction of or interference with the fibre or
structure of the metal. Such trunnions may if desired be circular on only the
lower or under side, or otherwise not completely circular, but only so far as the
bearing or support in the carriage (so as to turn therein) may require, and in
such event to this feature may be added the improvement of constructing the
trunnion on the upper side with a circular recess concentric with the external
circular form on the under side, into which recess may fit a corresponding
holding-down piece attached to the carriage, thus converting the trunnion into
one of an incomplete annular form, and forming a new description of bearing.
Also my improved trunnions will or may have or take a bearing or seating
partly or completely across the under side of the cannon, and may be either
cylindrical, or conical, or stepped, and may be mounted in bearings to cor-
respond accordingly.
Also my improvements embrace the so shaping, forming, or constructing
projectiles to be used with oval-bored rifled cannon that they may have a shape
(in transverse section) which will permit the contacts or touching places
between or on the projectile and on the bore (at the time that the centering
effect of the rifling or twist is taking place) to be extended contacts or
touching places, that is to say, parts of the projectile and of the boro accurately
fitting each other over positive lengths of the curves on the transverse section
(instead of as heretofore at points or lines only, or at such limited extensions
of points or lines only as may have been the effect of manufacture failing to
produce the precisely mathematical result), and that the said shape between

page_text: the extended contacts or touching places shall be of or shall follow such curved
or other lines lying within the completely corresponding lines or shape of the
oval bore as to afford the desired degree of windage for loading. The whole
of the surfaces or the bearing portions of the surfaces of the above-mentioned
projectiles may be galvanized or coated with copper if desired.