CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCKS FOR MUSQUETS, PISTOLS, FOWLING PIECES, CARRIAGE GUNS, AND EVERY SPECIES OF FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1806

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
FRANCIS PLACE, of Charing Cross, in the Parish of Saint Martin
in the Fields, in the County of Middlesex, Taylor and Mercer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third
did, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland; bearing date at Westminster, the
Twenty-first day of March, in the forty-sixth year of His reign, give
and grant unto me, the said Francis Place, my exors, adññors, and
assigns, His especial licence that I, the said Francis Place, my exors,
adiiors, and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England and Wales, and the Town of Berwick upon Tweed, my
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCKS FOR MUSQUETS, PISTOLS,
FOWLING PIECES, CARRIAGE GUNS, AND EVERY SPECIES OF FIRE-ARMS;" in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me,

page_text: the said Francis Place, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar
month after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by
the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I,
the said Francis Place, do hereby declare that my Invention and
improvements are described by the Drawings, Figures, and expla-
nations hereunto annexed, and by the following description, that is
to say:
Fig. 1, is the interior of a musquet lock, on my improved principle,
at half cock. A, is the tumbler; B, the sear; the half cock bent in
the tumbler is cut sufficiently deep to form a right angle with the centre
of the tumbler and sear pin or screw. C, is the trigger, forming a right
angle from the trigger pin to the sear screw or pin, by which construc-
tion any force, however great, applied to the trigger will fall upon the
trigger pin and the screw or pin of the scar, thereby effectually prevent-
ing the lock from going off at half cock. The proper place for fixing
the trigger is half the distance between the shank of the sear and a line
drawn perpendicular to the centre of the tumbler. Fig. 2, is the same
lock at full cock; the full cock bent being at such distance from the
centre of the tumbler as will form a right angle with the centre of the
tumbler and the sear pin or screw, the full cock bent being held by
the upper nose of the sear. In this view the shank of the sear B, has
passed beyong the horizontal part of the trigger C. The trigger being
now drawn back will describe a segment of the circle D, D, and will
instantly detach the sear from the tumbler, and thus compleat the
action of the lock without the possibility of it catching the half cock
bent of the tumbler. Fig. 3, is an in-ide view of a musquet lock at
half cock upon yet more simple principles, the sear having one nose
only, the full and half cock bent being at the same distance from the
center of the tumbler, as in Figs. 1, and 2, the sear nose forming an
obtuse angle with the centre of the tumbler and the sear pin or

page_text: screw, the trigger being the same as in Fig. 1, thereby insuring the
safety of the lock, as before described. Fig. 4, is the same lock at full
cock; the center of the tumbler and the sear nose forming a right
angle with the sear pin or screw. Fig. 5, shews the position of A, B,
and C, at the moment the lock is fired. Fig. 6, is a musquet lock
with the half and full cock bent both at the same distance from the
centre of the tumbler, as in locks on the common principles. A, is
the tumbler; B, the sear; C, the trigger, hanging on the same centre
as the sear, or on some part of the red line between the sear pin or
screw and the shank of the sear; the trigger may be formed as at
Fig 1, 2, and 5. Locks on this construction are much more secure
at half cock than those made on common principles, and less expensive
to manufacture. Fig. 7, is a musquet lock with the sear on the upper
part of the tumbler. A, is the tumbler; B, the sear; C, the trigger;
the part of the scar marked E, must be sufficiently elastic to cause the
sear nose to fall into the bents, and if the part of the sear marked D,
be likewise elastic, it will be impossible to pull off the lock at half cock,
or to break the bent or sear nose. The part E, may be made without
being elastic, in which case the sear may be cut off, 1, and a screw
inserted to serve as a pivot, the sear being lengthened out as a spring
to G; the trigger pin may be put in any part of the red line. My
Invention further extends to the repairing of broken tumblers and
sears by screwing to an iron or steel tumbler or sear a piece, as Fig. 8,
and 9; A, is the tumbler; B, the screw; C, the piece with the new
bent or bents, as screwed in. Fig. 10, is a sear repaired in the same
manner; A, is the sear; B, the screw; C, the piece screwed in.
Thus, any tumbler or sear may be repaired without fire by any common
workman in any place; it will prevent the expence of new tumblers
or sears, and admits of steel bents to iron tumblers or sears; the
bents in this case will be cut the proper way of the steel, an advantage
which cannot be obtained by any other method. The action of the
sear may be produced by a common sear spring, as at Fig. 10.
Fig. 11, is a sear with the spring or tail proceeding from the back part of
the pin hole. Locks constructed on these improved principles combine
the desirable advantages of simplicity, strength, and security, at a less

page_text: expence than locks made on the common principles; the simplicity
consists on their being one limb or piece of mechanicism less than in guin
locks made on the most improved and simple principles now in use.
It is impossible to break the bents of the tumblers of these locks at half
cock, the pressure being more towards the centre of the tumbler tlian
in any other gun lock; the sear nose is likewise rendered stronger than
in gun locks constructed on other principles, the pressure being in a
line with the sear screw or pin; should the scar nose be broken off
when at half cock, no accident can happen, the upper nose of the scar
instantly fixing itself in the second bent of the tumbler, for which sce
Fig. 1. This lock therefore has an advantage, in point of security,
not possessed by any other other gun lock whatever, and locks made on
these principles are very superior in strength, the power being resisted
by the center of the tumbler and the screw of the scar, and not across
the scar nose or bents of the tumbler, as in locks constructed on com-
mon principles. The tail or spring of the scar cannot be deranged, it
not being possible to overstrain it, or even to force it to the extent
which has been frequently found to injure the scar spring of other
locks; and these improved locks will admit of being shorter than those
in common use, by which an additional strength is gained in gun
stocks, they being less excavated to admit the lock; and they are
perfectly secure at half cock, the trigger being made to act at right
angles with the sear screw or pin, see Fig. 1, and 3, and thus the more
power exerted to pull off the lock the firmer it becomes; neither can any
derangement happen in consequence of this exertion, the force being
resisted by the sear screw. These locks may be put to any gun on the
old construction by a trifling alteration in the stock. The scar spring
in these locks is merely to put the sear nose into the bents, it needs not
therefore be very strong; locks on this construction will be perfectly
safe at full or half cock, even if the sear spring were removed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Francis Place, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Nineteenth day of April, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and six.
FRANCIS PLACE. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Nineteenth day of
April, in the year of our Lord 1806, the aforesaid Francis Place came
before our said Lord the King, in His Chancery, and acknowledged
the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained
and specified, in form above written. And also the Specification afore-
said was stampt according to the tenor of the Statute made for that
purpose.
Inrolled the Nineteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and six.