IMPROVEMENTS IN WORKING GUNS AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Macintosh, of North Bank, Regent's Park,
in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN WORKING GUNS AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Macintosh at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
27th March 1869.
I, JOHN MACINTOSH, of North Bank, Regent's Park, in the County
of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN WORKING GUNS AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH,"
to be as follows:-
The object of my Invention is to obtain protection when working
guns, and consists of mounting guns on hinged or jointed frames con-
nected with springs which balance the gun, so that when the gun is
fired it recoils to a lower position (taking with it the frame) for loading,

page_text: SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, and of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, by the said John
Macintosh in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th October 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
MACINTOSH, of North Bank, Regent's Park, in the County of Middlesex,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the
thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors
give and grant unto me, the said John Macintosh, Her special licence
that I, the said John Macintosh, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said John Macintosh, 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 WORKING GUNS AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said John Macintosh, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, 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 performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within seven calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Macintosh, 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 :-
The object of my Invention is to obtain protection when working
guns, and consists of mounting guns on hinged or jointed frames con-
nected with springs which balance the gun, so that when the gun is

page_text: fired it recoils to a lower position, taking with it the frame for loading,
and is retained by a stop, which when removed the action of the springs
bring up the gun to its firing position.
One method of obtaining protection when working guns is seen by
reference to the annexed Drawing.
A represents the gun mounted on a jointed or hinged frame or
carriage B secured to a platform or turntable C; b, roller. The power
employed for raising the gun is the resilient force of vulcanised india-
rubber acting either by compression or distension; in the former case I
use blocks of solid or porous rubber, and in the latter I use bands, shewn
These bands are secured to the
in the Drawing and marked a, a.
frame in the position indicated, and are sufficiently distended to retain
the gun in its elevated position until fired, when the recoil increases
the distension of the springs and the frame descends without jerking
to the position shown by the dotted lines, where it is held by a pawl for
loading. Upon the removal of the pawl the gun rises by the power of
the springs to the firing position.
Another method of obtaining resilient force is by using the power of
the recoil to actuate the piston of an air cylinder, thus producing a
vacuum within it, the power of which may be employed in any of the
well known for raising the gun.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, what I claim
is, substantially the methods of lowering and raising guns herein-before
described; firstly, by the use of the jointed frame or carriage; secondly,
by the use of india-rubber springs; and, thirdly, by the power of a
vacuum produced by the recoil.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Macintosh, have hereunto
set my hand and scal, this Twenty-seventh day of March, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine.
JOHN MACINTOSH. (L.S.)