AN IMPROVEMENT OR IM- PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF THE GUARDS AND TRIGGER PLATES OF RIFLES AND OTHER SMALL ARMS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Isaac Hollis, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT OR IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF THE GUARDS AND TRIGGER PLATES OF
RIFLES AND OTHER SMALL ARMS."
Sealed the 16th October 1861, and dated the 1st May 1861.
-
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Isaac Hollis at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the.
1st May 1861.
I, ISAAC HOLLIS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer,.
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT
OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF THE GUARDS AND TRIGGER PLATES:
OF RIFLES AND OTHER SMALL ARMS," to be as follows:-
The guards and trigger plates of rifles and other small arms are ordinarily
made separately or of two pieces of metal and are either connected together
before being fixed to the stock, or are separately screwed to the stock.
My Invention consists in making the guards and trigger plates of rifles
and other small arms in one piece, by which method of manufacture great
facility in finishing the trigger plate and inside of the guard is secured; guards
and trigger plates made according to my Invention are more easily kept clean
than those made in the ordinary manner, as the junctions at which dirt accumu-
lates in the common kinds of guards and trigger plates are absent in guards and

page_text: trigger plates made according to my Invention. The manufacture of guards and
trigger plates according to my Invention is less costly than the ordinary
manufacture.
In manufacturing guards and trigger plates according to my Invention, I
make them by the process of casting when I make them of brass, or of cast 5
or of malleable cast iron, and I make them by forging or stamping when I
make them of iron or of steel; I finish them by filing or cutting as in the ordi-
nary manufacture.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Isaac Hollis in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 26th
October 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ISAAC
HOLLIS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Isaac Hollis, Her special licence that I, the said Isaac Hollis,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Isaac
Hollis, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for. "AN. IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF THE GUARDS AND TRIGGER PLATES OF RIFLES AND OTHER
SMALL ARMS," upon the condition (amongst others) that. I, the said Isaac
Hollis, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my or their or one of their hands and seals, should, particularly describe, and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Isaac Hollis, do hereby declare, the.
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly. described and ascertained in and by the following statement,
thereof, that is to say:-

page_text: The guards and trigger plates of rifles and other small arms are ordinarily
made separately or of two pieces of metal, and are either connected together
before being fixed, or are separately screwed to the stock.
My Invention consists in making the guards and trigger plates of rifles.
and other small arms in one piece, as herein-after described and illustrated in
the accompanying Drawing, by which method of manufacture great facility in
finishing the trigger plate and inside of the guard is secured.
Figure 1 of the Drawing represents in side elevation a guard and trigger
plate of a rifle or small arm made in one piece according to my Invention,
a trigger being shewn in connection therewith; Figure 2 is a plan of the
same, and Figure 3 is a vertical longitudinal section of the same."
a is the guard, and 6 is the trigger plate, the said guard and trigger
plate being made of one piece of metal, as represented in the section,
Figure 3. On the trigger plate b; a pin or projection c is made in one
piece with the other parts, in a. slot in which projection c the trigger d
works, being jointed at fin the said slot. An opening or passage g is made
in the trigger plate 6 immediately above the guard a, through which the
trigger d works, as seen in the several Figures of the Drawing. The com-
bined trigger plate and guard is secured to the stock of the rifle or small arm
by screws passed through holes h, h, in the trigger plate b, as is practised in
securing ordinary trigger plates.
In manufacturing guards and trigger plates according to my Invention, I
either make them by the process of casting, or by forging, or by stamping.
When the said guards and trigger plates are made of brass, or of cast iron
or malleable cast iron, I make them by the process of casting, and when they
are made of wrought iron or of steel, I make them by forging or by stamping.
The trigger plates and guards made in either of the ways described, are
finished by filing or cutting as in the ordinary manufacture. The manufac-
ture of guards and trigger plates according to my Invention is less costly than
the ordinary manufacture.
As the processes of casting, forging, stamping, filing and cutting which
I employ in' carrying my Invention into effect, are well known and commonly
practised I do not consider it necessary to describe the said processes.
Guards and trigger plates made according to my Invention are more easily
kept clean than those made in the ordinary manner, as the junctions at which
dirt accumulates in the common kinds of guards and trigger plates are absent
in guards and trigger plates made according to my Invention.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I claim

page_text: as my Invention the improvement or improvements in the manufacture
of the guards and trigger plates of rifles and other small arms, herein-before
described and represented in the accompanying Drawing, that is to say,
making the said guards and trigger plates in one piece, instead of making
the said guards and trigger plates separately, and afterwards connecting them
together.
In witness whereof, I, the said Isaac Hollis, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
Witness,
JOHN BROWN.
ISAAC HOLLIS. (L.S.)