IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS AND CARTRIDGES
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Charles Conybeare at the.
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th May 1865.
I, JOHN CHARLES CONYBEARE, of Coulsdon Grange, near Croydon, in the
County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS AND CARTRIDGES," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in breech-loading fire-arms
and cartridges. In the construction of breech-loading fire-arms I employ at
the rear end of the barrel a chamber of sufficient length to contain the charge;
this chamber is hinged or jointed at the back and at the upper part thereof to
a breech plate or false breech fixed to the stock, and to receive the cartridge
it turns up into an inclined position. When shut down the fore end of the
chamber makes a close joint with the back of the barrel, and this joint is not
made directly across the axis of the barrel, but at an angle thereto to allow
the chamber to turn upwards about its joint for loading, as before mentioned.
I sometimes also employ within the chamber a lining tube, and this at the
end projects from the mouth of the chamber at its lower part, but at the
upper part it does not project, the lining tube not being cut off to the same
bevel or angle as the chamber; this projecting tube when the chamber shuts

page_text: down enters the bevilled rear end of the barrel; thus except at the top the
joint is covered, and no escape can take place except by a circuitous course.
In order to actuate the chamber I employ a hand lever jointed to the
stock a short distance in advance of the chamber; this lever is slotted, and a
projection from the chamber enters the slot.; there is a spring catch which
retains the lever when the chamber is in position for firing.
In place of arranging the chamber to turn on a hinge joint, I in some
cases arrange
the chamber with guides working in guide grooves on the stock,
so that it may-rise and fall vertically, and I actuate the chamber by a slotted
lever as in the former case, and it is similarly locked by a spring catch.
In some cases I fix, or hinge, or joint the chamber to the stock, and fit it
to the barrel with a spigot and faucet joint. The barrel is retained in one
and the same plane by guides attached either to the chamber or to the stock,
which guides work into receiving eyes attached to the barrel, and I make this
barrel move endwise on the stock so as to be continuous with the chamber or
discontinuous either by means of a rack on the barrel gearing with a pinion,
having on its axis a handle which when the barrel is in position for firing is re-
tained by a spring catch, or by a hand lever jointed to the stock a short distance
in advance of the chamber; this lever has jointed to it a link which attaches
to the moveable barrel by a screw, and when the lever is raised this link
actuates the barrel, (which is compelled to move backwards or forwards in one
and the same plane by guides,) and is separated from the chamber as the lever
is raised, and is brought home to the chamber when the lever is depressed.
The guides I prefer are two pins each about three inches long bedded in the
stock, and working into two corresponding eyes fixed to the under side of the
barrel somewat similar to those through which the ramrod of old-fashioned
fowling pieces passes, but the guides may be of other form, and may be attached
to the chamber when it is not desired to elevate the chamber. This lever
may either be arranged so as to push the barrels, say 3 inches forward, leaving
the chamber in position, or the lever may be so arranged as only just to slide
the barrel forward from the mouth of the chamber, and the lever being fitted
with a spring or with a double link attached to the chamber, may be made to
raise the chamber so soon as the barrel by being pushed forward admits of the
chamber rising. Both these arrangements for sliding the barrel forward and
backward endwise are applicable not only to guns having a detached chamber
to receive the charge, but also to guns in which the cartridge is placed in the
end of the barrels, and in which the barrels are then brought tight home
against the stock, and so fired.
The cartridges for breech-loading fire-arms (which are also suitable for

page_text: other fire-arms) I make to carry their own priming. I place at the back of
the cartridge tube a disc of glass, pottery, wood, compressed paper, or other
suitable material, around its edge the fulminating composition is applied,
and this is covered by a ring also of any suitable material to which
the cartridge is fitted. The fulminating composition may be placed on the
inner side of the ring instead of on the disc; this inner rim of the base of the
cartridge may be made to serve instead of a separate ring. The cartridge is
fired by a plunger which descends into the chamber, being forced down by
the hammer through a hole in its upper side; this plunger strikes the base of
the cartridge, and by the blow explodes the fulminating material on the disc,
or on the edge of the disc ring; or, in place of arranging the fulminating
material around a disc in this manner I dispense with the outer ring, and
form a notch at the side of the disc, and lodge the fulminating material in this
notch. In order to guide the cartridge into its place in the chamber so as
to bring the notch with fulminating material truly under the plunger for
exploding it, I employ a blade projecting from the centre of the back of the
chamber, and I make a corresponding slit or passage in the disc at the back
of the cartridge; the end of the blade is pointed and enters this slit, and as
the cartridge is pushed on into the chamber it brings it truly to its place even
if it be not quite accurately placed at first.
It is convenient to have two notches with fulminating material on opposite
sides of the disc; I sometimes effect the same object by a guide fixed to the
inside of the chamber or chamber tube, and working into one of the two
cartridge notches. I also sometimes make the disc with a single round aper-
ture in the centre, into which a sharp pin protruding from the centre of the
back end of the chamber works; round this central aperture the explosive
material is placed; the plunger falling on the disc makes the inner edge of
the central aperture to impinge on the central pin, and so ignites the charge.
I also sometimes place sufficient powder behind the disc to insure the
explosion carrying out the dise and cartridge; I also sometimes fix a doubled
wire round a portion of the disc and cartridge tube from the back with the
ends in front, so that the cartridge case should it not be properly blown out
may be pulled out thereby.
These cartridges are applicable not only to guns with a separate loading
chamber, but also to those in which the cartridge is placed in the extremity
of the barrel, the central pin in that case protruding from the stock or false
breech which closes the barrel when it is brought home ready for firing.
Sometimes I dispense with the cartridge disc, and place the fulminating
material round the inside of the base of the cartridge tube, and I place a

page_text: sharp pin projecting from the upper part of the back end of the chamber;
this pin enters the cartridge just within its outer case, and the plunger in its
fall forces the prepared inner rim of the cartridge tube against the pin, and
fires the charge.