IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING SMALL-ARMS
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Plumb Clabrough at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 12th September 1878. A communi-
cation from abroad by Julius Bluemel, of San Francisco, in the United States.
of America, Gunmaker.
JOHN PLUMB CLABROUGH, of the Firm of Clabrough Brothers, of Birmingham, in
the County of Warwick, Gun Manufacturers. "IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING
SMALL-ARMS." [A communication from abroad by Julius Bluemel, of San Francisco,
in the United States of America, Gunmaker.]
The said Invention consists of the improvements herein-after described in those
kinds of breech-loading small-arms commonly called drop-down guns.
The said Invention consists, first, of the arrangement or combination of parts
herein-after described for cocking the internal or concealed hammers of the said
drop-down guns, and for actuating the locking bolt by which the barrels are locked
down, the said bolt taking into the lump on the under side of the barrels.
In constructing the said mechanism according to this Invention a hand lever is
jointed to the tang of the break-off, the said hand lever having motion in a hori-
zontal plane. The pin or axis of the said hand lever passes through and projects
from the under side of the tang, the end of the said projecting axis turning in a
bearing at the back of the break-off. The bottom of the said projecting axis of the
hand lever carries a horizontal arm at right angles to the said axis. This arm when
in its normal position lies parallel to the back face of the break-off. The rear end
of the sliding bolt, by which the barrels are locked down, is situated at the back of
the break-off, and the said rear end is provided with a lump or enlargement which
nearly crosses the back of the break-off. Against a shoulder on the said
enlargement of the bolt the horizontal arm of the axis of the hand lever bears.
The advance motion and snapping action of the bolt is effected, and the hand lever
returned to its normal position on the tang by means of a coiled spring in the body
of the gun acting against a rod fixed on the rear end of the bolt. When the hand
lever is turned aside to unfasten the barrels for re-loading the gun the horizontal
arm on the end of its axis, moving towards the butt of the gun, operates upon the
shoulder of the lump at the rear end of the sliding bolt, and withdraws the said
Povine 271

page_text: bolt. As the bolt is withdrawn the rod attached to it compresses the coiled spring
in the body, and when the hand lever is loosed the pressure of the said spring gives
the advance or locking motion and snapping action to the bolt, and causes the hand
lever to be returned to its normal position on the tang.
The internal hammers of the gun are supported by the trigger plate, the said
hammers being situated at the back of the break-off and immediately behind the
rear end of the sliding bolt. On the upper part of the enlargement on the sliding
bolt is a projecting or cocking piece for cocking the said internal hammers on the
withdrawal of the said bolt. When the bolt is withdrawn in the manner herein-
before described its back motion causes the projecting or cocking piece on its rear
end to bear against the upper parts of the hammers and raise them to full cock, the
said hammers being retained in their cocked positions by sear levers of the kind
herein-after described engaging with bents in the tumblers of the hammers; thus
the withdrawal of the sliding bolt to unfasten the barrels at the same time cocks
the hammers.
The said Invention consists further of the following arrangement of the parts of
the lock mechanism of drop-down guns having internal or concealed hammers
The said hammers are jointed to and carried by the trigger plate, the said trigger
plate also carrying the mainsprings of the hammers. That part of the trigger plate
behind the hammers is made into a double box, each box containing a sear lever,
the upper arms of the triggers being situated and working in the said boxes. The
inner arms of the sear levers are cranked or bent nearly at right angles to the outer
and longer arms of the said sear levers, and under the said longer arms of the sear
levers the upper arms of the triggers are situated. The upper faces of the longer
arms of the sear levers are flush with the tops of the boxes in which they work,
and a flat spring or springs fastened to the top of the trigger plate bears or bear on
the said longer arms of the sear levers near their joints. When the triggers are
pulled they act upon the long arms of the sear levers, and withdraw their inner
short arms from the bents in the hammers, and the latter are discharged by the
action of their mainsprings.
By this arrangement of the lock mechanism the parts are made very compact,
easy of access, and readily repaired.