AN IMPROVED REVOLVING BATTERY
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Sir John Scott Lillic, Knight and Companion of the
Most ITonorable Military Order of the Bath, of 105, Pall Mall, in the
County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED REVOLVING
BATTERY."
Scaled the 9th February 1864, and dated the 11th August 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Sir John Scott Lillic
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th August 1863.
I, Sir JoHN SCOTT LILLIE, Knight and Companion of the Most IIonorable
Military Order of the Bath, of 105, Pall Mall, in the County of Middlesex,
lo hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED REVOLVING
BATTERY," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of an improved construction of revolving or rotating
battery, by means of which a rapid and continuous succession of discharges
may be effected.
I propose to fix upon a platform or gun carriage a series of rifle or other
barrels or ordnance barrels, open at the breech end, about a foot or other
convenient distance apart, according to the size of the barrels, and to apply to
cach a twenty-shot (more or less) revolving cylinder or chamber, working on
a spindle or central shaft, and being caused to rotate by means of a winch
handle and toothed gearing, or by other equivalent apparatus, in order that
one person may bring each rotating chamber in line with the barrel ready for
discharging the series which have previously been loaded. Each chamber is
provided with a nipple to receive a cap, which will be brought under a
hammer, elevated by excentries and levers, actuated by the gearing and
released by a tumbler and sear spring, whereby the chamber will be discharge.l.

page_text: The whole series of rotating chambers may be actuated by one person
simultaneously by means of a shaft extending the entire length of the battery,
and furnished with pinions at requisite positions to gear into the rotating
toothed wheels of each respective series of chambers. By these means a
multiplicity of shots may be discharged in a few seconds from one battery, so
as to concentrate the fire upon an enemy's vessel or fort, or otherwise. The
battery or any part thereof may be elevated or depressed, or moved laterally
by means of screws or other ordinary methods, in order to regulate the
line of fire.
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 11th February 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Sir JOHN
SCOTT LILLIE, Knight and Companion of the Most Honorable Military Order
of the Bath, of 105, Pall Mall, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Sir John Scott Lillie, Her special licence 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 for "AN
IMPROVED REVOLVING BATTERY," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Sir John Scott Lillie, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their bands and scals, should
particularly describe 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 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 :-

page_text: My Invention consists of an improved construction of revolving or rotating
battery, by means of which a rapid and continuous succession of discharges
may be effected.
In order to explain the best means I am acquainted with for carrying my
said Invention into practical effect, I now proceed to describe the same as
completely as possible.
I form a cylinder of any required number of gun barrels of any calibre, and
place it on a platform, deck of a ship, or gun carriage. These barrels may
be muzzle-loaders, or open at both ends, so as to be loaded at the breech;
when thus loaded this cylinder is caused to revolve by means of a winch
handle turning a spindle or central shaft, and by toothed gearing, cams, or
other equivalent apparatus, which will also give motion to the hammer for
striking the percussion caps of each cartridge as the barrel to be fired arrives
in front of the solid metallic breech to which the hammer is fixed. As these
barrels are discharged they may be re-loaded by hand, or by cartridges passed
horizontally through a hopper. When guns of great calibre aro loaded at the
muzzle, they should be strongly secured in a metallic breech similar in shape
to our largest howitzers, and discharged by means of nipples in the usual
When a battery of six musket barrels, for instance, with a twenty-
shot chamber or cylinder attached to each is required, these chambers may be
caused to revolve in the same manner, discharging one hundred and twenty
shots in a minute from a gun carriage. When these chambers are discharged
they can be replaced by others ready loaded, and the barrels elevated,
depressed, or traversed right and left to regulate the line of fire, as in ordinary
field pieces. The men thus employed can be protected by portable iron
musket-proof screens.
In witness whereof, I, the said Sir John Scott Lillie, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourth day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
Witness,
ALEX. PRINCE,
Agent for Patents,
4, Trafalgar Square,
Charing Cross.
J. S. LILLIE. (L.S.)