IMPROVEMENTS IN REVOLVING FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Edwin Wallis, of Millman Street, Bedford
Row, Holborn, London, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN REVOLVING FIRE-ARMS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Edwin Wallis
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 12th March 1864.
I, CHARLES EDWIN WALLIS, of Millman St., Bedford Row, Holborn,
London, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN REVOLVING FIRE-ARMS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in forming the chamber piece of revolving fire-arms
containing the charges in the following manner:-Heretofore it has been the
practice to discharge the contents of each chamber by the hammer striking a
percussion cap placed outside of and in a line with each chamber, and further,
in making each chamber to contain only one charge. Now by this Invention
I propose to place two charges of powder and ball in each chamber and
discharge each separately by the following means, that is to say, around the
outside of the revolving piece I drill two holes in such a manner that the said
holes come over the powder of the two respective charges; in these holes are
two nipples which are acted upon by the sliding hammer, which hammer acts
in such a manner as to discharge the whole number of the outermost charges,
leaving those next to the closed end to be subsequently discharged by shifting

page_text: the slide of the said hammer; by which means, for example, an eight-chamber
revolver may be made to discharge sixteen charges without increasing the
diameter of the chamber piece.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Edwin Wallis in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 12th September 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
EDWIN WALLIS, of Millman Street, Bedford Row, Holborn, London, in the
County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Charles Edwin Wallis, Her special license that I,
the said Charles Edwin Wallis, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Charles Edwin Wallis, 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 for "IMPROVEMENTS IN REVOLVING FIRE-ARMS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles Edwin Wallis,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly
describo and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, 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 Charles Edwin Wallis, 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, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
My Invention of " Improvements in Revolving Fire-arms" consists in
adapting and applying to the revolving chambers of such fire-arms a second
row of nipples in addition to the ordinary single row, by which means a second
charge may be fired from each loading chamber instead of the single chargo

page_text: alone, as heretofore. In this manner the number of charges contained in the
revolving chamber may be increased without increasing the diameter of the
chamber. For this purpose a second or additional row of holes are formed in
the periphery of the revolving chamber, and over them a second row of nipples
are inserted, and the striking part of the hammer is moveable, so as to admit
of its being slidden into the required position for striking on the second or
hinder row of nipples after acting on the first or front row thereof.
Having thus stated the nature of the said Invention, I will proceed to
describe more particularly in what manner the same is to be performed by the
aid of the accompanying Drawings, in which are represented the parts above
alone, as heretofore. In this manner the number of charges contained in the
revolving chamber may be increased without increasing the diameter of the
chamber. For this purpose a second or additional row of holes are formed in
the periphery of the revolving chamber, and over them a second row of nipples
are inserted, and the striking part of the hammer is moveable, so as to admit
of its being slidden into the required position for striking on the second or
hinder row of nipples after acting on the first or front row thereof.
Having thus stated the nature of the said Invention, I will proceed to
describe more particularly in what manner the same is to be performed by the
aid of the accompanying Drawings, in which are represented the parts above
referred to
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 is an end view of the revolving chamber and the hammer; Fig. 2 is
a side elevation of the same as applied to a pistol; Fig. 3 is an end view of
the revolving chamber detached; Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the same; and
Fig. 5 is a longitudinal vertical section of the same with a portion of the
hammer. In theso several Figures the same letters of reference indicate
corresponding parts.
A is the revolving chamber, which is shown to contain eight loading cham-
bers 13, B, each of which may be brought into a line with the barrel in the
usual manner;
C is the ordinary row of nipples, one to each loading chamber;
C is a second or additional row of nipples inserted in the periphery of the
revolving chamber in front of the former row, each communicating with a part
of one of the loading chambers B in front of that part with which the nipple C
communicates. By this arrangement each loading chamber B may contain
two charges, one under each of the nipples C and C. The hammer is repre-
sented at D, being elongated so as to reach the front nipple C*. The striking
part d of the hammer is fitted into a dovetailed groove formed in the holding
part thereof to receive it, such sliding part being moved along the groove as
required by means of a projecting stud E. A spring is or may be inserted in
the groove for the purpose of keeping the said sliding part of the hammer in
its required position. It is preferred that the nipples should be inclined so
that the bammer may be caused to strike with full effect. It will be evident,
on reference to the Drawing, that with the striking part d of the hammer in
the position shewn at Fig. 2 the eight charges in the several loading chambers
under the nipples C may be fired in succession. Then, on sliding the part d
of the hammer over the nipples C the eight charges contained in the loading
chambers under these nipples may afterwards be fired. In this manner the

page_text: number of charges that can be fired from the chambers is doubled without
increasing the diameter of the revolving chamber; and it is obvious that by
lengthening the chamber and the hammer another row of nipples might be
adde:l. It is to be observed that although in the Drawing my Invention is
shewn as applied to a pistol, it is equally applicable to other kinds of revolving
fire-arms.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I hereby declare that what I claim as of my
Invention is the adaptation and application to the revolving chamber of the
kind of fire-arms described of a second or additional row of nipples combined
with the elongation of the hammer, the striking part of which is capable of
being slidden therein for the purpose of increasing the number of charges that
may be fired without increasing the diameter of the revolving chamber, as
herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Edwin Wallis, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Tenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
CHARLES EDWIN WALLIS. (L.S.)
Witness,
JOHN RICHARDSON,
Foreign Agent,
13, Kennington Terrace,
London, S.