IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE, AND IN THE MODE OF WORKING THE SAME
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Hunt at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 8th
April 1868.
I, THOMAS HUNT, of 19, Godolphin Road, New Road, Hammersmith,
in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of my said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE, AND IN THE MODE OF WORKING
THE SAME," to be as follows:-
My improvements have for their object the solidity of construction
and safety of a muzzle-loader with the facility for cleaning and loading
of a breech-loader, and are applicable to both central and muzzle pivoting
guns.
Also improvements in the mode of supporting and training guns of the
ordinary construction, so as to make them central or muzzle pivoters,
and may be described as follows:-
I make the gun in two or more separate parts, one of which consists
of so much of the breech end of the gun as is occupied by the charge
and projectile or shot, and which I call the firing chamber, and the
other part is the remainder of the gun, which I call the guide cylinder;

page_text: or this latter may be in two or more separate parts according to the
size of the gun or other circumstances requiring such a modification.
To the firing chamber is attached a pair of trunnions which work in
fixed or moveable bearings in the gun carriage, and upon each trunnion
is a coupling rod, the other end of which is secured upon trunnions
or projections on the guide cylinder, each coupling rod having the
means at one or both ends of lengthening or shortening its length.
The object of the rods is to connect the firing chamber and guide
cylinder together, and the means of adjusting their length is for the
purpose of enabling the nozzle of the firing chamber to be inserted
in the rear of the guide cylinder, or vice versa. Upon one or both
of the firing chamber trunnions I key an endless screw wheel or segment
of a wheel, to which is geared an endless screw or worm fixed upon
the coupling rod and free to move with it when the trunnions are
in moveable bearings; and when in fixed bearings it may be attached
to the gun carriage or coupling rod, the object of which is to turn
the firing chamber over vertically upon its trunnions about a half of a
revolution, so that its nozzle shall be placed during the operation of
cleaning and loading in about the same position as its breech during
the time of firing. The firing chamber may be turned over by an
endless chain or belt upon a wheel keyed on the trunnion and over
a pinion attached to the coupling rod or gun carriage, or any other
sufficiently powerful means may be used. The vertical movement of
the firing chamber may be obtained by screws or hydraulic pumps,
but any other sufficiently powerful mechanical means may be used.
To one or more pairs of trunnions or projections on the guide cylinder
I attach screws, hydraulic pumps, or other sufficiently powerful
mechanical means for elevating that portion of the gun in connection
with the firing chamber, and also for supporting it during the time
that chamber is disengaged from it. These latter trunnions or pro-
jections do not work in vertical guides in the gun carriage, the latter
being only the base of support of the screws or other means employed
to elevate the gun.
With respect to the above description of gun, or guns of the ordinary
construction, I make them muzzle pivoters by the simultaneous action
of the before-mentioned screws or pumps, &c., and central pivoters
by the action only of those under the guide cylinder or forward portion
of the gun, the firing chamber or breach trunnions remaining quiescent.

page_text: With guns of the ordinary construction two or more supports may
be adopted, the action of the machinery being the same.
Again, with respect to muzzle-loading guns of the ordinary con-
struction and supported upon one pair of trunnions only, I propose in
cases where there is ample vertical space, and where it is inconvenient
or undesirable to load the gun in its ordinary way and position, to turn
it over vertically on its trunnions by the mentioned machinery, so that
its muzzle shall occupy about the same position during the loading as
its breech at the time of firing, and I also use the same machinery for
training or aiming the gun.