Ix- PROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Rock Cooper at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 21st July
1864.
I, JOSEPH Rоск COOPER, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Gun
Manufacturer, do bereby declare the nature of the said Invention for " Ix-
PROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of the improvements in breech-loading fire-arms
herein-after described, by which improvements cartridges of the ordinary kind
may be used with the fire-arm, and the fire-arm be loaded if required at the
muzzle instead of at the breech. I make a prolongation at the end of the
open breech of the barrel, the prolonged part being open at top. The said
prolonged part is somewhat longer than an ordinary cartridge. In the said
prolonged part a bar slides, the said bar passing through a slot in the end of
the prolonged part. The figure of the bar and of the slot in the end of the
prolonged part is such that when the bar is brought into one position it can
be drawn through the said slot, but when it is turned into a position at right
angles to the former its end crosses the slot and it cannot pass through the
said slot. The extreme back end of the bar is reduced in size, and is
made cylindrical, the said cylindrical part occupying the slot when the bar is
pushed home. A lever or handle for turning the bar is fixed to the cylin-
drical end of the bar. The front end of the said bar carries a cylindrical
charge chamber capable of sliding into the breech end of the barrel, the barrel

page_text: being recessed to receive it. The internal diameter of the said charge chamber
corresponds with the internal diameter of the barrel. The nipple for the per-
cussion cap is fixed on the side of the said charge chamber and near its back
end. The said back end of the charge chamber is provided with a convex
screw, and the breech end of the barrel is provided with a concave screw of
the same size. A portion of the screw on the charge chamber, as well as that
of the breech end of the barrel, is cut away, so that when the charge chamber
is pushed home into the barrel the cut-away portion of one of the screws
is in a line with the uncut portion of the other screw, and the charge
chamber passes freely into the barrel. By turning the charge chamber
through an angle of ninety degrees the screw threads of the charge chamber
engage in those at the breech end of the barrel and the said charge chamber
becomes firmly locked in the breech end of the barrel. In this position of the
charge chamber the end of the rod by which the charge chamber is moved
crosses the slot in the end of the prolonged part, and the charge chamber is
supported by the said rod as well as by the screws described. The action of
the several parts is as follows:-In order to load the fire-arm the lever or
handle at the rear end of the sliding bar is raised, and the said bar brought
into such a position that it can be withdrawn through the slot at the end of
the prolonged part of the barrel. The screw of the charge chamber is by the
same motion disengaged from that of the barrel. The handle is then drawn
back and the charge chamber withdrawn from the barrel into the prolonged
part of the breech of the barrel. By now depressing the handle without
giving it a motion of rotation, the charge chamber is raised from the said pro-
longed part and its open end makes such an angle with the barrel that the
charge can be readily introduced into the said charge chamber. The handle
is now raised, pushed forward, and then turned, by which means the charge
chamber containing the charge is depressed into the prolonged part, pushed
into the barrel, and locked there. By the partial rotation for effecting the
locking of the charge chamber in the barrel the nipple is brought under the
raised hammer; and a percussion cap having been put on the nipple the fire
arm is ready for discharge. The nipple cannot be struck by the hammer
excepting when the charge chamber is locked in its place. When the charge
chamber has been pushed into the breech end of the barrel and locked therein
in the manner before described, the fire-arm can be used as a muzzle loading
fire-arm, the cartridge or charge being introduced into the charge chamber
from the muzzle end of the barrel. The two methods described of fixing the
charge chamber, that is to say by screwing and by making the end of the rod
cross its slot, may be used separately as well as combined. In place of making

page_text: the charge chamber engage in the barrel by the use of screws as described,
studs or projections on the one may be made to engage in slots or grooves in
the other with the same effect. The last described kind of engagement may
also be applied to the rear end of the rod in place of that herein-before de-
scribed. My Invention is applicable to double as well as to single barrelled
fire-arms.