IMPROVEMENTS IN AUTOMATIC Repeat- ING FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Francis Humbert, of Watford, Hert-
fordshire, Land Agent, and David Joy, of Middlesbro', Yorkshire,
Engineer, for the Invention of “IMPROVEMENTS IN AUTOMATIC Repeat-
ING FIRE-ARMS.”
Scaled the 16th October 1874, and dated the 22nd April 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Francis
Humbert and David Joy at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 22nd April 1874.
We, CHARLES FRANCIS HUMBERT, of Watford, Hertfordshire, Land
Agent, and DAVID Jox, of Middlesbro', Yorkshire, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AUTOMATIO
REPEATING FIRE-ARMS," to be as follows:-
Our Invention has for its object the protection of growing crops or
fruit from the depradations of birds or game and the detection of tres-
passers or poachers, and consists of a machine automatically firing off

page_text: charges of gunpowder or other explosive, and this machine consists of a
series of barrels, with the usual appliances of nipples and caps for
igniting their contents and a series of hammers actuated by springs,
which are relieved one after the other at given intervals by a weight or
spring, the action of which is governed either by a float supported in a
suitable vessel by a liquid which is allowed to pass off and so to lower
the float, or by a piston moving in a cylinder, which is filled with a
fluid or liquid, the egress of which is checked at will to regulate the
rapidity of the following explosions; or instead of using a series of
hammers we use one or more hammers passing over the barrels, the
weight or spring which actuates the letting off gear also cocking the
hammer or hammers; or we use a fan as the retarder for the action of
the weight or spring, coupling it to the letting off action by clockwork;
or wo use a pendulum for the same purpose; or we drive the letting off
gear direct by the wind by a small windmill; or we combine any of the
above arrangements.
'
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Francis Humbert and David Joy in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 22nd October 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, CHARLES
FRANCIS HUMBERT, of Watford, Hertfordshire, Land Agent, and DAVID
Joy, of Middlesbro', Yorkshire, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of April, in the year.
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said Charles Francis Humbert and David Joy, Her
special licence that we, the said Charles Francis Humbert and David Joy,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Charles Francis Humbert and David Joy, our 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

page_text: Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
Man, an Invention for." IMPROVEMENTS IN AUTOMATIC REPEATING FIRE-
ARMS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Charles
Francis Humbert and David Joy, our executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of their
hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Scal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the

page_text: In Figure 1 is shown a machine partly in section consisting of a
number of barrels a, a, with ordinary nipples b, b, for igniting the
charges by the explosion of gun caps struck by the hammer c, c, one
opposite to cach barrel; these hammers are actuated by spiral springs
d, d, and are held in the position of compression by the projections e, e,
on the heads of the hammers; these projections catch into the small
reccesses f,f, in the cases in which the hammers and their springs slide.
A trigger bar having a hooked trigger at the end g' passes down
between two rows of hammers, as above described, and releases them
consecutively by pulling the pins e, e, out of the reccesses f,f. This
trigger bar is fixed to a float h of sufficient weight when unsupported to
overcome the resistance of releasing the pins e, e, but as it floats in a
fluid, for convenience, say water, held in the cylinder j, it only sinks
and releases the hammers as the fluid is allowed to escape from the
cylinder j; this is regulated to the speed due to the required number of
reports by using various caps / screwing into the bottom of the cylinder,
and these various caps have small holes through them of various sizes,
according to the speed at which the fluid is to be allowed to pass. In
using this machino the barrels which are formed in one solid piece are
taken out, loaded, and capped, the trigger bar with the float is drawn to
the top and locked by the bolt 1, the cylinder is filled with water by the
hole, in the float, the hammers are then pressed down in succession,
notching into the reccesses f, f, the barrels are then replaced and the
machine is suspended by the handle z at the top. When it is required
to commence action the bolt is drawn and the float h sinking the barrels
are successively discharged by the trigger g'.
1
In Figure 2 the barrels a, a, are, as before, in one piece, but in this
machine they form one side of a frame between which and the other side
a¹ slides a box z, z, carrying one or more hammers c, c, set in a row and
actuated by the springs d, d. As this box slides down between the
frames drawn by a weight attached at the hook o, inclined planes p, p,
of various lengths on the various hammers are drawn over the corre-
sponding inclines r,r, cast on the barrel piece, and, so raise and let fall
in succession the hammers which are made of suitable lengths in falling
to strike the nipples successively. The speed of the machine is here
controlled by its being attached by a piston rod a to the piston t, which
in passing down the cylinder « has to press the fluid contained in the

page_text: cylinder from the bottom over to the top through the port v, which is
regulated by the hand wheel w.
In witness whereof, I, the said David Joy, for and on behalf of
myself and the said Charles Francis Humbert have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of October One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-four.
DAVID JOY. (L.S.)