AN EFFECTUAL SECURITY TO PREVENT THE ACCIDENTAL DISCHARGE OF FOWLING PIECES, WHICH INVENTION IS UNCONNECTED WITH THE LOCK, AND APPLICABLE TO ALL KINDS OF FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1813

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
RALPH SUTTON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Brass
Founder, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, in and.
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster; the Twenty-fourth day of December now last
past, for Himself, His heirs and successors, did give and grant unto me,
the said Ralph Sutton, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His special
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Ralph.
Sutton, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, and every of them, by myself and
themselves, and by my or their deputy or deputies, servants or agents,
or such others as I, the said Ralph Sutton, my exors, admors; or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times hereafter during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend my Invention of
"AN EFFECTUAL SECURITY TO PREVENT THE ACCIDENTAL DISCHARGE OF
FOWLING PIECES, WHICH INVENTION IS UNCONNECTED WITH THE LOCK, AND
APPLICABLE TO ALL KINDS OF FIRE-ARMS," within that part of His United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His Dominion
of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to me,

page_text: the said Ralph Sutton, my exors, adññiors, or assigns, or any of them,
should in my or their discretion seem meet; in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Ralph Sutton, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and scal, particularly to
describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be perforined, and to cause the same to be inrolled
in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more
fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said Ralph Sutton, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by
the Plans or Drawings hereunto annexed, and the following description
(that is to say):
My said Invention consist of a moveable hoop (which I call a guard
hoop) of platina, or any other metal, which said guard hoop is let into
the breech pin of the fowling piece a sufficient depth to allow of the
said guard hoop being in substance about one sixteenth of an inch,
(care being taken that it does not project above the sides of the breech,
so as to prevent the lock from fitting close to the barrel of the fowling
piece. The said guard hoop is perforated with a hole the size of or
rather larger than the touch-hole in the breech, and is moved over the
touch-hole (so as to completely cutt off all communication between
the prime and charge of the fowling piece, or the perforation in the
guard hoop remains in a direct line with the touch-hole in the breech,
so as to form the communication by means of a stud fixed on the top
or side of it, or by a pin communicating with it through the stock, to
the under side of the fowling piece. In the under side of the guard
hoop a longitudinal opening is made, sufficiently large to allow of the
guard hoop being moved as much as to effectually cover the touch-hole
in the breech; and to prevent the possibility of the priming in the pan
communicating with the charge in the barrel a small pin projecting
from the barrel through the longitudinal opening of the guard hoop
forms the stop to the guard hoop, and prevents its moving any farther

page_text: than intended.
The Invention may be applied to a double barrel
fowling piece, by means of one or more small studs or teeth projecting
out of one guard hoop into the other, so that the moving of one effects
the movement of both. And for the better understanding my Invention,
I have annexed Drawings thereof, and subjoined the following explana-
tions: Figure 1, represents the barrel of a fowling piece, in which a,
is the groove in the breech to receive the guard hoop. Figure 2, the
guard hoop, in which is the hole through which the communication
between the prime and charge takes place; c, the stud to move it by,
when fixed on the barrel. Figure 3, another view of the guard hoop,
which shows at d, the longitudinal opening in which the projecting pin
from the barrel works, and forms the stop. Figure 4, a view of the
guard hoops for a double barrel fowling piece. From a view of this it
will be evident that by moving the guard hoop e, by touching the stud
f, the guard hoop g will move at the same time. Figure 5, shews a
fowling piece with the communication cut off, by means of the solid
part of the guard hoop intervening between the pan and the barrel.
Figure 6, a fowling piece with the communication restored.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ralph Sutton, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fourteen.