AN IMPROVED BAYONET WHICH WILL ALSO SERVE AS A DIGGING IMPLE- MENT
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Robert Lake, of the "International
Patent Office," No. 8, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Consulting Engineer, for the Invention
of "AN IMPROVED BAYONET WHICH WILL ALSO SERVE AS A DIGGING IMPLE-
MENT." A communication from abroad by Colonel Edmund Rice,
of the United States Army.
Sealed the 8th January 1869, and dated the 17th November 1868.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said William Robert Lake,
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration on the 17th November 1868, pursuant to the 9th
Section of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ROBERT LAKE, of the "International Patent Office," No. 8, Southampton
Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Consulting
Engineer, send greeting..

page_text: WHEREAS, I am in possession of an Invention for "AN IMPROVED
BAYONET WHICH WILL ALSO SERVE AS A DIGGING IMPLEMENT," and have
petitioned Her Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made
solemn Declaration that it has been communicated to me from abroad
by Colonel Edmund Rice, of the United States Army.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Robert Lake, do hereby
declare that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and
seal, fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, in and by the following
Statement, reference being had to the accompanying Sheet of Drawings
forming a part of this Specification.
In actual warfare as conducted with modern fire-arms, such as
repeating breech-loading and telescopic rifles, the bayonet as an
implement of attack or defence has become almost useless from the
fact that bodies of opposing troops very rarely meet in such proximity
as to enable either party to be harmed by such a weapon.
Yet as
there is need of such a weapon in occasional hand-to-hand conflicts
it has not been deemed advisable to abandon it in arming troops, and
the primary object of this Invention is to so construct a bayonet that
it may be adapted to a two-fold purpose, namely, as a direct offensive
and defensive piercing weapon, and as an excavating or intrenching tool.
The need of a hand implement forming one of a soldier's accoutre-
ments ready at all tinies for use to excavate pits and build slight
earthworks or embankments has been fully shown in recent conflicts,
where without such tools troops have been exposed and rapidly shot
down, while upon similar occasions where excavating implements were
at hand a few minutes work has served to provide troops with earth-
works, giving complete protection both against bullets and larger
projectiles, and in this Invention this tool is made one of a soldier's
accoutrements by combining it with a bayonet, or by making the
bayonet blade trowel-shaped and with a piercing point.
The Drawings represent an implement embodying my Invention.
A shows the bayonet in perspective; B is a side élevation; and
C an end view of the said bayonet; D is a front view; E is a side

page_text: elevation; and F an end view of the said bayonet showing a modified
form of finger guard with a tompion; G and H show other forms of
finger guards.
The handle a of the bayonet is made with provision for slipping it
upon and locking it to the end of a musket or rifle barrel, and is
united to the blade 6 by a shank c, the construction of the handle
and shank being the same or substantially the same as in the common
bayonet. The blade 6 is made trowel or spade shaped except that
its body is preferably curved transversely as seen at C and F, the better
to adapt it for use in retaining earth upon its surface, and it will. be
obvious that by bringing the front end to a point as seen in the
Drawings the implement may be as readily used as an offensive and
defensive weapon in hand-to-hand encounters as when made in the
long slender form of the common bayonet. The said implement is
stiffened by a dorsal rib or brace d and a finger guard e may run from
the blade to the shank as shown. The blade and shank may be
made from a bar or blank drawn into shape by hammering or rolling,
or the blade may be riveted or brazed to the back piece d, but it is
considered preferable to forge the shank blade and back piece from
one piece of metal, the handle being welded to the shank. In connection
with the finger piece the bayouet may be made with a tompion f to
close the bore of the barrel for the exclusion of dirt and other extraneous
matters. This tompion may be fixed to a bar hinged to the finger
guard so as to turn up therefrom as seen at H or may form a part of
or be fixed directly to such guard as seen at G, (one end of the guard
itself turning up). It may also be fixed to a piece sliding on the guard
(part of the guard being hinged) as seen at A, B, C, the end of the
slide seen at A, B, C, or of the hinged part of the guard seen at G
projecting into a slot in the inner face of the bayonet when the guard
is turned up.
Having thus fully described the said Invention as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondent, I claim,-
A bayonet with a blade formed in the shape of a trowel or spade,
having a piercing point substantially as shown and described.
Also in combination with such a bayonet a finger guard substantially
as shown and described.

page_text: Also in combination with a bayonet a hinged or sliding tompion
substantially as shown and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Robert Lake, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE. (L.S.)
Witness,
THO. N. PALMER,
Clerk to Messrs. Haseltine, Lake, & Co.
8, Southampton Buildings,
W.C.