IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR WORKING HEAVY GUNS OR ORDNANCE
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Josiah Vavasseur, of Gravel Lane, Southwark
Street, in the County of Surrey, Engineer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR WORKING HEAVY GUNS OR ORDNANCE."
Sealed the 20th July 1869, and dated the 4th February 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Josiah Vavasseur at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th February 1869.
I, JOSIAH VAVASSEUR, of Gravel Lane, Southwark Street, in the
County of Surrey, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR WORKING HEAVY GUNS OR
ORDNANCE," to be as follows:-
For working heavy guns the guns are usually mounted on a carriage
capable of recoiling or moving back along a bed or slide, the recoil
being impeded by a compressor or apparatus for impeding the recoil by

page_text: friction. Such an arrangement was described in the Specification of a
Patent granted to me on the 25th day of July 1866 (No. 1935).
My present Invention relates to the running-out gear for running out
the
gun after it has been driven back along its bed by the recoil, or for
moving the gun and carriage along the slide for drill or other purposes.
For this purpose I mount on the gun carriage an axle carrying a toothed
pinion or pinions gearing into a rack or racks fixed to the bed or slide
upon which the carriage recoils, such racks being by preference formed
by cutting slots in metal plates fixed to the slide or bed. Near each end
of this axle is a toothed wheel, which during the recoil of the gun is
loose upon the axle, but which when the gun is to be run forward or
moved is made fast therewith by a clutch. With the toothed wheel gears
a pinion, which is actuated by a crank handle, so that when the toothed
wheel is fast on its axle the gun may be run forward by turning this
crank handle. At the front end of the carriage are two rollers, so
arranged that when the carriage is down on the slide ready for firing
these rollers are just clear of the slide, and take no part of the weight.
At the rear end of the gun carriage is another axle which passes from
side to side of the carriage; the ends of this axle or shaft are slightly
excentric to the shaft itself; on these ends are mounted rollers, which
by turning the axle can be forced down on to the slides or ways upon
which the gun carriage moves. This lifts the gun and carriage clear of
the slide, and throws the whole weight of gun and carriage on the
rollers at the front and rear end of the carriage; this allows the gun
and carriage to be readily and easily moved along the slide or bed. The
act of thus turning the axle which carries the rear rollers also forces the
toothed wheels into gear with the clutches fixed upon the axle which
carries them. To effect this I prefer to mount each toothed wheel
loosely upon the axle, so that it can revolve freely and also slide endwise
along it. On each end of the axle is fixed a cone corresponding with
conical recesses in the bosses of the toothed wheels, so that if the wheels
be moved endwise along the axle the cones will enter the recesses, and
the wheels will be made fast with the axle by friction. To thus move
the toothed wheels to and fro along the axle each toothed wheel is
formed on the side opposite to the recess with a long boss, around which
is a collar with a screw thread on its exterior, which screw threads work
into corresponding nuts fixed to the sides of the gun carriage; thus by
turning the screw collar the toothed wheels can be moved endwise along

page_text: the axle, and be thus forced into gear with the friction cones fixed on
its ends. In order to turn the screw collars when the rollers on the
axle at the rear end of the gun carriage are forced down an arm on each
of the excentric ends of the axle which carry the rollers is by a link
connected with an arm on the screwed collars; one or both of the
excentric ends also carries a socket to receive the end of a handspike
by which the axle may be turned. In place of thus making the toothed
wheel fast or loose upon its axle, by the act of turning the axle which
carries the rear rollers the turning of this axle might be arranged to
throw the pinion with which the toothed wheel gears either into or out
of gear with such toothed wheel; or in place of this toothed wheel and
pinion, friction gear might be employed; in this latter case the toothed
wheels will be fixed upon the axle, and no friction cones would be
necessary.