IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE, FIRE-ARMS, & CARTRIDGES
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Westley Richards at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 27th
April 1868.
I, WESTLEY RICHARDS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE,
FIRE-ARMS, & CARTRIDGES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in ordnance, fire-arms, and
cartridges.
In constructing ordnance I employ an inner tube or liner, and I shrink or
force on to this exterior rings or tubes, as has heretofore been practised. Tho
inner tube or liner I make of steel or iron faced interiorly with steel in order
that it may be less liable to wear, and to be injured in firing than if it were
of iron; and further for the purpose of insuring that the inner tube or liner
shall be efficiently supported by the exterior rings or tubes, I split the tube
or liner from end to end before the exterior rings or tubes have been shrunk
or forced upon it, and I prefer that this split should follow one of the grooves
in the rifling of the piece, and that it should be inclined at a considerable angle
to a radius of the bore.
By this arrangement the inner tube or liner will be rendered capable of
expanding slightly, and nearly the whole strain of the explosion will fall on the
exterior rings or tubes, even should these not be perfectly fitted.
In constructing the barrels of fowling pieces and similar fire-arms, I employ
a thin steel tube, and I case the breech end thereof with iron, in order to give

page_text: to it the strength required to resist the strain of firing, but the end of the tube
which forms the muzzle of the barrel I leave uncased as it will not be exposed
in firing to a sufficiently severo strain to render this necessary. I case the
breech end of the steel tube, by lapping a band of iron around it and welding
it to the tube. In this manner I obtain a light and safe barrel with an interior
surface of steel which is not so liable to rust, and is less subject to wear than
an ordinary wrought-iron barrel.
In making cartridges for breech-loading fowling pieces, I place at the back
of the case of the cartridge a wad which is saturated with wax or other similar
material; the wad has a small hole formed in it, and a tube or long capsule is
passed through it; the tube or capsule is conveniently made of thin copper,
and is charged with fulminating material. At the back of the cartridge,
and behind the wad, a pin passes through the side of the cartridge, and its
lower end rests on the exterior of the tube or capsule containing the fulmina-
ting material. When the capsule is placed in the gun, and the gun is fired, tho
hammer strikes the pin, explodes the fulminating material, and ignites the
powder at the front end of the tube or capsule. By constructing cartridges in
this manner, the fouling of the exterior of the piece at the breech of the barrel
is avoided, the lubricated wad preventing the products of the explosion passing
back and escaping at the vent hole in the barrel, as they do more or less when
cartridges of the ordinary construction are employed. The powder is also
ignited near the middle of the charge and is consequently burnt more completely
than when it is ignited at the back of the charge.
In place of putting the fulminating material in a tube or capsule as above
described, it may be placed in an ordinary cap, into which the metal pin enters,
and the flash is then communicated to the charge by a passago through
the lubricated wad, and a tube of thin metal is fitted into this passage,
and thus as before the flame is conducted to the centre of the charge.