Improvements in or relating to Machine Guns, their Carriages, and Appurtenances.
Year: 1896

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Machine Guns, their Carriages, and
Appurtenances.
I, EDWARD JOEL PENNINGTON, of The Motor Mills, Coventry, in the County of
Warwick, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
This invention relates to machine guns, their carriages and appurtenances, its
object being the construction of a motor vehicle with one, two or more machine guns
mounted upon it, and operated mechanically, either by the motor mechanism of the
vehicle, or by motor mechanism appropriated solely to the purpose of working the
gun or guns. Such motor apparatus should be a high speed engine, preferably an oil
motor, and of the Kane Pennington type; if it be arranged to propel the vehicle as
well as to work the guns, it is preferably provided with disconnecting gear, so
constructed as to enable it to be used for simultaneous propulsion and firing, or for
either of these operations separately, as may be desired. The guns may be of any
convenient type; if a single gun be employed it should be so arranged that the are
of fire can be 360°, but if two guns are employed they should be mounted en echelon
to obtain the advantages attendant upon that mode of mounting.
Conveniently the guns are placed on pivot mountings on the vehicle, and the
mechanism of the gun is connected to the motor mechanism by suitable gearing in
connection with driving shafts, which may be received in the pivots, the connections
being so arranged, if desired, that the guns may be readily dismounted from the
vehicle if necessary.
This driving gear for the gun in addition to, effecting the firing can, if desired,
be arranged to give an automatic traversing or lateral movement to the gun, within
limits determined by adjusting devices, and the gun may also receive from the motive
mechanism, an automatic movement of elevation and depression in addition to the
ordinary adjustment for elevation, which may be given by the customary appliances.
The carriage should preferably be constructed of tubes or otherwise made to
combine strength with lightness; its wheels, which conveniently may be three in
number, should have pneumatic or other elastic tyres, and he arranged to enable the
vehicle to be easily steered. Upon the carriage is a shield, which conveniently
should be bullet-proof, and be given a form such that the resistance it meets with in
passing through the air would be reduced to a minimum. In addition to this shield,
there may be others, as desired, upon the carriage or the guns. The rear face of the
shield may be utilised to carry cartridges, water cans or tanks, or a reserve of oil or
other appurtenances of the guns or vehicle.
Dated this 12th day of October 1896.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Machine Guns, their Carriages, and
Appurtenances.
I, EDWARD JOEL PENNINGTON of The Motor Mills, Coventry, in the County of
Warwick, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement:-
guns
This invention relates to machine guns, their carriages and appurtenances, its
object being the construction of a motor vehicle with one, two or more machine
mounted upon it, and operated mechanically, either by the motor mechanism of the
vehicle, or by motor mechanism appropriated solely to the purpose of working the gun
or guns. Such motor apparatus should be a high speed engine, preferably an oil
motor of the Kane Pennington type; if it be arranged to propel the vehicle as well as
to work the guns, it is preferably provided with disconnecting gear, so constructed as
to enable it to be used for simultaneous propulsion and firing, or for either of these
operations separately, as may be desired. The guns may be of any convenient type;
if a single gun be employed it should be so arranged that the arc of fire can be 360°,
but if two guns are employed they should be mounted en echelon to obtain the
advantages attendant upon that mode of mounting.
Conveniently the guns are placed on pivot mountings on the vehicle, and the
mechanism of the gun is connected to the motor mechanism by suitable gearing in
connection with driving shafts, which may be received in the pivots, the connections
being so arranged, if desired, that the guns may be readily dismounted from the
vehicle if necessary.
This driving gear for the gun in addition to effecting the firing, can, if desired, be
arranged to give an automatic traversing or lateral inovement to the gun, within
limits determined by adjusting devices, and the gun may also receive from the
motive mechanism, an automatic movement of elevation and depression in addition
to the ordinary adjustment for elevation, which may be given by the customary
appliances.
The carriage should be constructed of tubes or otherwise made to combine strength
with lightness; its wheels which may be three in number, should have pneumatic or
other elastic tyres, and be arranged to enable the vehicle to be easily steered, the
whole construction being such that the carriage can travel over rough ground such as
field artillery is often required to traverse. Upon the carriage is a bullet-proof shield
of a form such that the resistance it meets with in passing through the air is reduced
to a minimum. In addition to this shield, there may be others, as desired, upon the
carriage or the guns. The rear face of the shield may be utilized to carry cartridges,
water-cans or tanks, or a reserve of oil or other appurtenances of the guns or vehicle.
In the accompaning drawings I indicate how the invention may be carried into
practice, but do not bind myself to strictly follow these drawings, as the details of
construction may be modified without departing from the spirit of the invention.
Figure 1 is a side elevation and
Figure 2 a plan showing the general arrangement of the carriage guns and
mechanism, the guns being operated by or from the same motor or motors which
cause the vehicle to travel.
Figure 3 is a side elevation and
Figure 4 a plan of an arrangement in which the gun or guns are driven by a 4
different motor or motors from that which drives the vebicle.
Figure 5 is a side view of a protected road vehicle according to this invention.
Like letters represent like parts throughout the drawings.
In these drawings A represents any suitable tubular frame work carrying at one end,

page_text: which I prefer to make the back, a single driving wheel B, and at the other end two
steering wheels C. The driving wheel is operated by preferably two of the well-known
Kane-Pennington oil motors D, though other motors may be employed, and as all
the above parts may be varied at pleasure and do not individually constitute part of
the present invention, it is not necessary to further describe them.
As shown in Figures 1 and 2, upon each end of a shaft E, which may be the engine
shaft or some other shaft driven by the engine, is a pulley E¹, connected with the
shaft by a clutch E. The palley E, on the one end of the shaft is geared by a
band F directly with a pulley whence another band F passes round a pulley F,
secured upon the driving spindle G¹ of the rear gun G. Similar pulleys (F1 and F²)
and bands (F and F3) are provided for working the front gun G3, but instead of the
band F being carried to the other pulley E', it passes round a palley E, secured upon
a pin E fixed to the lower front part of the frame A. The pulleys E' and E are
geared together by the band E.
The clutch E may be applied or withdrawn by any convenient clutch lever or
other mechanism E' so as to cause the operation of the gun mechanism or not as
required. The belting or other means employed for connecting the engine with the
gun must be provided with ample accommodation to allow of the movements of the
gun necessary to command the full field for which the gun is adapted.
As shown in Figures 1 and 2, two sets of gun-driving apparatus are employed,
the pulleys being arranged in different lines so that the guns may be mounted
en echelon, one behind the other should this be required to economise space or for
other purposes.
As shown in Figures 3 and 4, each gun may be driven by an independent
engine I-or one engine may be employed for both guns, the power being taken
from the engine by a flexible shaft J or other equivalent means.
Ample space is provided for the necessary stores of oil water etc., and these may be
arranged wherever found most convenient.
Figure 5 is a side view of a protected road vehicle that is a vehicle adapted to run
on ordinary roads or across country without the provision of any special track or road
bed, provided with power-driven machine-guns according to this invention.
The belt K of protective armour may be of any desired thickness or of varying
thicknesses and carried as high up or as low down as may be desired. It is preferable
however to carry it as near the ground as possible so as to protect the wheels, and as
high up as may be necessary to protect the operators of the vehicle who may be
further protected by the usual shields employed with machine guns.
The power of the motor and the strength of the framing, wheels and other parts
would be proportioned to the weight of the protective armouring, and the other
necessities of the cases. It will be appreciated that single-firing guns can be used
with such a vehicle as is here described in addition to or instead of machine guns,
but for many reasons I attach more importance to the use of machine guns which
would place less strain upon the vehicle when fired, would be lighter weight to move
about, and would be vastly more useful in border and frontier warfare for which
vehicles such as this are peculiarly suited.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is;-
1. The combination with a machine gun and a motor of mechanism for connecting
the two so arranged as to allow of the necessary movements of the gun while being
driven by the motor.
2. The combination of a machine gun a motor and a flexible shaft for the purpose
described.
3. The combination with a motor-driven road vehicle of a power-driven machine-
gun.
4. The combination in a protected vehicle of a machine gun and a motor adapted
to drive both the vehicle and the gun.

page_text: 5. The combination in a protected road vehicle of a machine gun a motor to drive
the vehicle and a separate motor to drive the gun.
6. A protected road vehicle propelled by a motor contained within it.
Dated this 18th day of February 1807
EDWARD JOEL PENNINGTON.
Boult & Wade,
Agents for the Applicant