IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH LOADING SMALL FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Tranter at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th December 1881.
William Tranter, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Gun Maker.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH LOADING SMALL FIRE-ARMS."
My Invention has reference to breech loading small fire arms of the kind called
drop down guns; and my said Invention consists of the construction and com-
bination of parts herein after described for cocking the hammers of the said guns
by the raising of the breech ends of the barrels from the break off for loading.
By my improvements the requisite tension of the mainsprings for discharging the
gun is partly obtained by the opening and partly by the closing of the barrels.
I will describe my Invention as applied to a double barrel gun having internal
hammers. In constructing cocking mechanism according to my Invention, I
arrange upon the trigger plate, the two internal bammers of the gun, the said plate
carrying the main springs and the sear and discharging mechanism, the hammers
being connected with the mainsprings in the usual way.
The upper sides of the mainsprings are connected with a swivel attached to the
lever for raising the hammers. The arms of the said lever are nearly at right
angles to one another. The vertical arm of the lever is situated near the breasts of
the hammers and the said vertical arm has a cross head which crosses the breasts
of the hammers. The other arm of the lever which proceeds towards the barrels,
is, slightly curved upwards and passes between and is jointed to the fork of the
swivel. The extreme end of the curved arın of the lever is inclined on its under-
side. By lifting the curved arm of the lever, its vertical arm is moved towards the
hammers and the cross head acting upon the breasts of the hammers lifts them to
full cock, the main springs being compressed. When the curved arm of the lever
is depressed the main springs are further compressed the vertical arm is removed
from the cocked hammers and the latter are free to be discharged.
The lever described is acted upon by the barrels for cocking the hammers and
for taking the cocking lever out of action in the following manner.
In the back lump on the underside of the barrels, is a recess open at the front of
the lump. In this recess the extreme end of the curved arm of the cocking lever
works. Below the opening in the recess is an incline which when the barrels are

page_text: fully opened, bears against the inclined end of the curved arm of the lever. The
configuration of the opening in the said recess is such that on the rising and falling of
the breech ends of the barrels, it gives a rising and falling motion to the curved
arm of the cocking lever at the same time permitting of the required curvilinear
motions both of the barrels and cocking lever.
The action of the cocking mechanism is as follows:-When the barrels are
unfastened the rising of the breech ends of the barrels causes the opening in the
recess in the lump to operate upon the end of the curved arm of the cocking lever,
lifting the said arm and consequently moving backwards the vertical arm which
last named arm through its crosshead lifts the hammers to full cock. Just before
the barrels are fully lifted to open the gun, the recess in the lump leaves the end of
the curved arm of the cocking lever, and the incline below the recess now bears
upon the inclined end of the said curved arm and supports the lever.
On closing
the barrels the curved arm of the cocking lever is depressed the edge of the recess
in the lump again engages with the said curved arm and the vertical arm is with-
drawn from the hammers which are thus left in their cocked positions. As the
curved arm of the cocking lever is depressed by the action of the lump on the
barrels, the said lever operating through the swivel slightly compresses or cramps
-the upper arms-of-the-two-main-springs.-