Improvements in Fire Arms.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 23rd June, 1897-Accepted, 21st Aug., 1897
Improvements in Fire Arms.
We, LOUIS ESTEVAN GREEN DE WOOLFSON of 26 Saint John's Hill, Shrewsbury, in
the County of Salop, Surgeon, and SAMUEL SMALLWOOD of 4 and 5, Mardol,
Shrewsbury in the County of Salop, Gunsmith, do hereby declare the nature of our
said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
The object of our invention is to provide means whereby the hammers of fire arms
may be released without the use of the usual triggers, such improvements being
intended to be known as "
triggerless."
According to our invention, we cause the sear of the fire arm to be operated by a
lever suitably pivoted within the action, the lever being provided with a pin or bolt
capable of being pressed externally to release the hammer.
The arrangements of the lever and bolt is necessarily varied to suit the particular
construction of lock to which the invention is applied, as hereinafter described.
And in order that our said invention may be particularly described and ascertained,
reference is hereby made to the accompanying drawings in which similar letters of
reference indicate corresponding parts. Such drawings are only intended to illustrate
the application of the "triggerless" principle to various well known constructions
of actions.
Fig. 1 is a sectional elevation of a Lee-Metford action illustrating the application
of our improvements thereto.
Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation of a double barrel gun;
Fig. 3 is a sectional elevation of a double barrel hammerless gun;
Fig. 4 is a sectional elevation of a rook rifle ;
Fig. 5 is an elevation of a gun illustrating the application of our improvements
externally instead of internally.
Fig. 6 is a section on the line X-X of Fig. 2.
Our invention consists in substituting a press button action for the usual trigger
movement, the button being preferably operated by the thumb, such pressure not
being detrimental to the sureness of the aim.
Referring to Fig. 1, a is the button fixed to the upper end of a rod, pin or
bolt b, the lower end of which pin is pivoted to the lever c suitably pivoted at d to
an extension plate fixed to the action plates. This lever c acts upon a rocker e
pivoted to the action plates as shown which in turn operates the sear f, the latter
being common to the Lee-Metford class of rifle.
In Figs. 2 and 3 a double barrel action is shown in which the lever c is formed at
one end with steps c¹ c² which act upon the extensions of the sears f, as shown
in Fig. 6.
These steps enable either or both barrels to be discharged at will, the button a
being pressed partly home for one barrel and right home for both barrels. The
depth of the steps is sufficient to enable one barrel to be discharged without
disturbing the sear of the other barrel firing mechanism.
Fig. 4 illustrates a rook rifle converted to the "triggerless" principle. a is the
button which is shown fixed to one end of the lever c (but which may be provided

page_text: with the pivoted pin or bolt as shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3), the other end of the
lever c acts on a rocking lever or sear f as will be readily understood, from the
drawings, an anti-friction roller g being sometimes provided on the sear.
Fig. 5 illustrates a method of converting a box arranged rifle action into a
triggerless action. Our improvements in this case are shown applied externally, the
lever c, carrying the button a being pivoted to a plate h which is fixed to the side of
the gun by screws or other means as shown. i is a lever pivoted to the plate at k
the lower end of which lever is turned at right angles thereto and carries a roller k
which in turn acts upon the trigger.
In using ordinary fire arms with triggers the tendency on pressing the trigger is to
lower the elevation of the fire arm; such defect we overcome by our arrangement the
action for firing being only that of grasping the stock.
In all the arrangements illustrated the mechanism is released by applying pressure
to the button a, but in order to prevent accidental pressure being applied we provide
a sliding bolt as shown in Figs. 1 and 3 capable of locking the button and
preventing the latter being accidentally driven inward.
In Fig. I such sliding bolt is shown disengaged and in Fig. 3 the bolt is shown in
a "Safe or engaged position.
"
We are aware that press buttons are used for discharging certain forms of air guns
and we wish it to be distinctly understood that we lay no claim to the application of
such buttons to our guns, the essence of our invention being the construction of and
adaptation to guns and rifles with the means for discharging same without the use of
the usual trigger.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
claim is :-
we
1. In fire arms, the combination with the ordinary hammer and sear mechanism
of a releasing mechanism operating substantially as herein before described and
illustrated by the drawings.
2. In releasing mechanism for fire arms, the application of use of a lever c, capable
of acting upon the sear f, provided with a press button a and with or without
the pin or bolt b, substantially as described and illustrated by the drawings.
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3. In releasing mechanism for fire arms, the application and use of the
triggerless" principle, as described, in combination with the steps c¹ c² on the
lever c whereby one or both barrels of a double barrel fire arm may be discharged at
will, substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated by Figs. 2, 3 and 6 of the
drawings.
In fire arms, the combination with our improved releasing mechanism of the safety
sliding bolt arranged to engage the button a of the releasing mechanism, operating
substantially as and for the purpose specified.