IMPROVEMENTS IN SMALL ARMS AND ORDNANCE, AND IN SIGHTS FOR THE SAME, PART OF WHICH MAY BE USED FOR. MEASURING DISTANCES
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Mansfield Turner and Edward
Thomas Loseby at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 17th June 1862.
We, MANSFIELD TURNER, of Wigston, in the County of Leicester, Lieu-
tenant Colonel in Her Majesty's Volunteers, and EDWARD THOMAS LOSEBY, of
Wood Street, in the City of London, and of Leicester, in the County of
Leicester, Horologist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN SMALL ARMS AND ORDNANCE, AND IN SIGHTS FOR THE SAME,
PART OF WHICH MAY BE USED FOR. MEASURING DISTANCES," to be as follows:-
The object of the first part of this Invention is to enable plain or smooth-
bored guns to discharge shot, whether spherical or other shaped, with the
accuracy of rifle-bored guns, and to allow of the part which spins the ball
being quickly renewed at a small expense. This is accomplished by a twisted
rod or "spit" passing down the bore of the gun, which is secured at the bottom
of the breech in such manner that it can be removed when required. This
rod may be either square, polygonal, ratchet, or any other form suitable for
causing the ball to follow the twist of the rod and to spin on the gun being
discharged.
The second part of our Invention relates to small arms, its object being to
remove certain defects which exist in rifles as usually constructed with the
wooden stock which extends along the barrel, and is bound to it by bands or

page_text: other fastenings. The defects of this arrangement are, that as the barrel and
wood expand unequally, both with change of temperature and with moisture,
the barrel becomes curved downward by heat, and upward by wet, whereby
the ball is thrown out of the path indicated by the sights. Now we overcome
these defects by substituting metal for the ordinary wood support for the
barrel.
The object of the third part of our Invention is to prevent the vibration to
which rifle barrels are liable when "short stocked," on account of the barrel
not having the wood to stop vibration by acting as a damper, as in the long-
stocked rifles, and also to diminish vibration in ordnance. This may be
effected in different ways to suit the different kinds of arms. One plan, which
we prefer in small arms, is to place a metal rib or girder under the barrel,
so as to occupy the position of the wood in the ordinary long-stocked rifles.
Another plan is to make the gun with two barrels and place one above the
other. A third method is to envelope the barrel in a metal casing. Whatever
plan is used, either for small arms or for ordnance, the metal serving as the
damper is not united to the barrel so as to form a part with it, but is left
with the surfaces of the barrel and damper touching each other so that they
may stop vibration, the points of contact along the barrel being so selected
as to destroy vibration in the most perfect manner.
The fourth part of our Invention consists in the construction of a telescopic
sight for ordnance and small arms, which may also be used for measuring
distances. The telescope has a narrow band extending across the eye piece on
the edge of which fine-pointed teeth are cut, with deeper notches to distinguish
the fives and tens; this band is placed in the focus of the eye piece, so that an
observer can see the teeth distinctly as opaque points, and be enabled to
make any parts of an object in the field of the telescope to coincide with one
or more of these points. The telescope is attached to a frame, which allows it
to be elevated, to suit the range, by a screw movement. The frame including
the telescope and other parts of the sight may be detached from the cannon
or small-arm, and placed in the pocket. To aim with the sight, the telescope
is adjusted to the proper elevation for the range, with the notches horizontal,
and the object brought to coincide with the proper point along the scale to
allow for the effect of wind on the shot. To use the sight for measuring the
distance of an object, the size of the object must be known, and the number of
teeth over which it extends then gives its distance. It is preferred to place
the telescopic sight at the side of ordnance and small arms, so as not to
interfere with their ordinary sights. When used for ordnance it is made to
swing so as to keep it vertical.

page_text: The fifth part of our Invention consists in the employment of a screw motion
for elevating the sliding bar of the ordinary back sight, in the use of a spring
catch to fasten the guard on the fore sight, and of a hollow square for
key to obviate the projection of a solid square, also in the employment of a
globe sight.