Improvements relating to Machines for Charging or Filling Cartridges into Feed Belts or Bands for Automatic or Machine Guns.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application. 27th Feb., 1896
Complete Specification Left, 27th Nov., 1896-Accepted, 2nd Jan., 1897
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements relating to Machines for Charging or Filling Cartridges
into Feed Belts or Bands for Automatic or Machine Guns.
We CHARLES SALMON, Thames View Erith Kent, Inspector of Machinery R.N.
and HENRY STODDARD BISHOP, Inglewood Belvedere Kent Engineer do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
The object of these improvements is to perfect; and simplify the design,
construction, and effeciency of machines for charging belts or bands; hereinafter
called belts; with ammunition or cartridges; hereinafter called cartridges. These
improvements refer more particulary to Specification 19227/91 and the chief
features of improvements consist of the following.
An improved method of opening the pockets; which receives and hold the
cartridges; immediately preceding the operation of pushing the cartridges into
said pocket of belt. For this purpose we employ a plunger, which when it has
entered a certain distance into said pocket; to which is given a rotary movement
in addition to its to and fro motion. This rotary movement has the effect of more
completely opening the pocket, and at the same time prevents the point of the
plunger pierceing the webbing or material of which the belts are made.
An improved cartridge plunger or ram, carrying or provided with a separater
on its front end. This improvement relates more particularly to rimmed cartridges,
which when falling down in a hopper have a tendency to engage one with the
other, through the medium of their rims. For this purpose the ram is provided
with a fan tailed projecting piece, slightly in advance and above the front end.
An improved resistance or thrust piece to hold the belt up to its work while the
cartridge is being pushed into its pocket. For this purpose we employ a hinged
stop, which falls immediately in the front side of the belt and prevents the belt
moving sideways while the cartridge is being pushed into the pocket. The hinge
is provided to enable this said piece to rise up and allow the belt strips to pass
underneath. At each impulse during the working of the machine, this piece
returns to its place by gravity or by aid of a spring in time to take the resistance
or thrust on belt us before described.
a
An improved method of giving reciprocating movement to the feed pawl,
which pawl is used in existing machines to propel forward the belt, as it receives
its cartridges one by one. For this purpose we provide or mount on the hand
lever axis pin a disc cam, said cam engage with a roller lever on one end of
a rocking shaft, which shaft is provided at the other end with a lever. To this
latter lever the feed pawl is hinged. It will thus be evident that during each
revolution of the disc cam on its axis, a rocking movement is given to the aforesaid
rocking shaft which in its turn works the pawl.
An improved method of obtaining a reciprocating motion for the rotary plunger
and cartridge ram. These plungers or rams are mounted; as ou existing machines;
on a common shaft, and the cartridge rain is provided with a grooved crosshead
or link piece into which gears a stud fixed or forming part of cam disc, and pro-
jecting from its face. This stud may be provided with a guide block or friction
roller as desired.
Dated this 25th day of February 1806
C. SALMON.
H. S. BISHOP.

page_text: Improvements relating to Machines for Charging or Filling Cartridges
into Feed Belts or Bands for Automatic or Machine Guns.
We, CHARLES SALMON, Thames View, Erith, Kent, Inspector of Machinery R.N.
and HENRY STODDARD BISHOP, Inglewood, Belvedere, Kent, Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the samu is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
This invention relates more particularly to improvements in machines of the
kind described in the Specification of Letters Patent No. 19227 dated the
6th Nov. 1891 granted to Francis Edward Dyke Acland, Louis Silverman and
Benjamin Orman and has for its objects to provide improved means for opening
the pockets in the belt to receive the cartridges; to ensure that, when rimmed or
flanged cartridges are used, only one cartridge at a time shall be thrust from the
hopper by the pusher or ram which acts to push the cartridges into the aforesaid
pockets, to provide improved menus for preventing the lateral movement of the
belt as the cartridges are thrust into the pockets by the aforesaid pusher or ram;
and to provide improved means for imparting movement to the feed mechanism for
carrying the belt through the machine au for imparting movement to the
aforesaid cartridge pusher and the belt pocket opener.
In the accompanying drawings we have illustrated a belt filling machine
provided with our various improvements which we will now proceed to more
fully describe.
Figure 1 is a side elevation of the machine,
Figure 2 is a plan, and
Figure 3 is a vertical section taken approximately on the line 1. 1. of Figure 1.
Figure 1 shows the belt pocket opener detached from the machine.
In Figures 2 and 3 the cartridge hopper has been removed.
A is the body of the machine; and A' is a bracket extending downwardly
therefrom this bracket is provided with a clamping scraw B by which the
machine can be firmly connected to a suitable support when in use.
C is a rectilinear reciprocating rod or har to which is connected at one end the
cartridge pusher D and at the other end the pocket opener E. The pocket
opener consists of a cylindrical portion or stem e nnd of a rectangular or blade
portion e whose front part is so bent as to produce a twist in the blade at e².
Fixed to the body of the machine is a vertically disposed plate Fhaving therein
a rectangular opening or horizontal slot (Figure 3) through which the pocket
opener works when motion is imparted to it by the reciprocating rod or bar C.
The aforesaid twisted portion of the said pocket opener causes the latter to perform
a partial rotary movement as the opener slides to and fro through the rectangular
opening f.
The stem e of the pocket opener is connected to the rod or bar C by a socket
picce e in which the opener is free to perform its partial rotation. There are
collars on the said steme between which the socket piece c can slide
independently of the pocket opener and thus permit the latter to pause at the end
of each of its strokes. The helt to be filled is fed through the machine trans-
versely to the axis of the pocket opener and in front thereof. By constructing
Said pocket opener in the manner above stated it will enter the pockets in the
belt flatwise, that is to sny with the front part of its blade horizontal, and as
it advances into the pocket it will perform its partial rotation and thus distend
the pocket ready to receive a cartridge. This manner of opening the pockets

page_text: prevents the opener from piercing the webbing or material of which the belt is
composed.
The cartridges lie one above the other in a hopper G from which they are
pushed one by one by the pusher D which reciprocates below the hopper and
advances with a cartridge to insert it into the opened pocket of the belt as the
pocket opener retires. The pusher is provided at its inner end with an inclined
lip or fan-tailed piece d which acts to separate the lowermost cartridge in the hopper
from the one above it. This construction of pusher is especially useful when
rimmed or flanged cartridges are being filled into a belt, because it has been found
that the flanges of the cartridges are liable to get one behind the other as the
cartridges descend in the hopper and without some device for separating them the
nose of the pusher acts upon two instead of only one of the cartridges whereby
the satisfactory working of the machine is impaired. The aforesaid inclined lipd,
as the pusher advances, acts upon the flange of the cartridge that is immediately
above the lowermost one and elevates it a sufficient distance to ensure that it shall
not be pushed forward by the advancing pusher.
Pivotally mounted in the aforesaid stationary plate F, at h, h, is a thrust piece H
having a stop at its inner or free end and normally kept pressed downward by
a blade spring 2. The thrust piece H lies in proximity to the left hand edge
of the belt as the latter passes through the machine and serves to prevent the belt
from shifting laterally during the thrusting in of a cartridge into a pocket by the
cartridge pusher. In order to permit of the "belt strips" freely passing the
thrust piece, the latter is provided with an inclined or cam-like portion h³
(Figure 3) against which the belt strips strike as the belt passes along. By so
doing they momentarily raise the thrust piece which falls again under the action of
its spring after the belt strip has passed by. Instead of controlling the thrust
piece by a spring it may act by gravity.
I is the feed pawl by means of which the belt is caused to travel intermittently
through the machine. This pawl is pivoted to an arm I which is carried at the
end of a rocking shaft 12 mounted in a bearing i. The opposite end of this shaft
is provided with a projection 13 which is adapted to be acted upon by a disc cam J
mounted on a shaft j which is revolved by the crank handle j' to work the machine.
Within the bearing i the shaft I is surrounded by a spiral spring which acts to
keep the projection 13 constantly pressed against the periphery of the disc cam.
The edge of the disc cam is so shaped that as it revolves it imparts to the shaft [2
the requisite rocking movement to cause the pawl to feed forward the belt at the
proper times.
To give to the rod or bar C its rectilinear reciprocating movement we provide
the said cam with a pin or stud J' projecting from its inner face and entering a
vertical groove D' formed in a piece D on the cartridge pusher. The said pin or
stud J is preferably provided with a slide block which reciprocates vertically in
the groove D' as the cam revolves and thus imparts reciprocating movement to the
rod or lever C carrying the cartridge pusher and the pocket opener.
This machine works in a similar manner to that described in the specification
of the aforesaid Letters Patent and therefore does not require any further
explanation.
Having now particularly described aud ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim in a cartridge belt-filling machine, is :-
1. The flattened pocket opener adapted to partially rotate to open the pockets
for the reception of the cartridges substantially as described.
2. The construction of the cartridge pusher with an inclined lip which during
the working of the pusher acts to separate the lowermost cartridge in the hopper
from the one above it, substantially as described.
3. The hinged or pivoted thrust piece for preventing the belt from shifting

page_text: laterally during the insertion of a cartridge into a pocket substantially as
described.
4. The means for imparting movement to the feed pawl by a ram which also
acts as a crank plate to reciprocate the rod or bar carrying the pocket opener and
the cartridge pusher substantially as described.
5. The improved machine for charging or filling feed belts with cartridges,
having its parts constructed arranged and combined to operate substantially as
described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
D:07h of November 180c
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicants.