IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Sir John Scott Lillie, Companion of the Most Honor-
able Order of the Bath, of Pall Mall, in the County of Middlesex, for the
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Sir John Scott Lillie at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st July 1854.
I, Sir JOHN SCOTT LILLIE, Companion of the Most Honorable Order of the
Bath, of Pall Mall, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature
of the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE-ARMS" to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in using one or more barrels with revolving breeches
(that may supply each barrel with any required number of ball cartridges) upon
a rest, platform, or gun carriage, so as to be discharged in rapid succession, &
when discharged, replaced by others ready loaded, thus maintaining a con-
tinuous fire without interruption for an indefinite period, the barrels being
arranged on pivots, swivels, &c., to enable them to be pointed in any required
direction; and in attaching bayonets to such other barrels, when used separately
upon the ordinary musket stock, by means of a spring joint near the muzzle
and underneath the barrel, to form a right angle when half shut, and thus
serve as a rest to keep the barrel steady while in the act of firing, for which
purpose the bayonet should from 4 to 5 feet in length. When not required
for such purposes, this bayonet may be shut like a pocket knife, with the point
resting on the stock of the musket.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Sir John Scott Lillie in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
20th January 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Sir JOHN
SCOTT LILLIE, Companion of the Most Honorable Order of the Bath, of Pall
Mall, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Sir John Scott Lillie," Her special license that I, the said Sir
John Scott Lillie, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Sir John Scott Lillie, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention of "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN FIRE-ARMе," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the.
said Sir John Scott Lillie, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
scal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said. Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the
same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Sir John Scott Lillie, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :--
These improvements consist in providing portable rests, so as to insure a
better aim for troops in action with small arms. For this purpose, I attach a
bayonet or sword to a musket by means of a hinge and metallic band or
slide, which, by means of a thumb spring, will move from the centre to the
muzzle, as represented in the accompanying Drawing, this hinge or joint being
so arranged as to enable the point of the scabberd to rest on the left breast or
hip of the soldier, and thus serve as a rest while in the act of firing; (or if
a sabre bayonet is used, the point may rest on the ground, and when this
bayonet or sabre is required for offensive purposes, it can be turned to the
front on a pivot, and the metallic bend eased by a thumb spring, made to
slide forward, and be made fast in like manner when-close to the muzzle.

page_text: I propose also to enable one man to fire several barrels simultaneously from
a rest, by attaching these barrels to a drawer or platform, and passing a bar
through the trigger guards, with a handle at right angles, like the letter T, or
two handles, one at each end of this bar. When the handles are pulled, this
bar will press on the triggers, and thus cause a simultaneous discharge. If
these barrels are placed about a foot apart, and each provided with a revolving
cylinder, a succession of discharges may be kept up for any given time.
For this purpose, 1 propose placing any given number of shelves on a gun
carriage, and making the drawers to which these barrels are attached slide on
rollers from the sides of this carriage into these shelves, so as to enable these
drawers to be removed and reloaded as often as required by the requisite
number of men placed at the sides for that purpose, while the men employed
in firing stand between the shafts or alongside the pole; or a platform may be
fixed on a parapet without a carriage for these ranges of barrels.
And having now described my Invention, and the best means of putting the
same into execution, I wish it to be understood that I do not confine myself
to guns, pistols, or any particular description of fire-arms, or to any particular
distances at which they may be placed apart on the platforms herein referred
to; but what I claim as my Invention, and intended to be protected by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,―
First, the manner of thus firing single barrels from portable rests.
Secondly, the mode thus described of firing several barrels simultaneously
from rests.
In witness whereof, I, the said Sir John Scott Lillie, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
J. S. LILLIE.
(L.S.)