IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING FOWLING PIECES AND RIFLES
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edwin Hughes, of 36, Brook Street, Kennington
Road, Lambeth, in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of
HAYZNA Dang AND DYDING"
Scaled the 7th September 1875, and dated the 9th April 1875.
รุ
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edwin Hughes at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th April 1875.
I, EDWIN HUGHES, of 36, Brook Street, Kennington Road, Lambeth,
in the County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING FOWLING PIECES AND RIFLES,”
to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in breech-loading
fowling pieces and rifles, and is applicable to arms in which the barrels
are mounted on an axis, so that for loading the muzzles may be
depressed and the open breeches raised above the breech plate to receive
the cartridges.

page_text: The hand lever employed to withdraw the bolt or bolts and release the
barrels is arranged to work on an axis between the locks, and on or in
a line with the axis of the tumblers, or nearly so. The tumblers have a
limb or arm projecting from their side to come in front of the hand
lever, and on the hand lever is a corresponding projection, so that by
the same operation of the hand lever which unlocks the barrels both
hammers are raised to full cock, and in consequence of the tumblers and
the hand lever moving around the same centre the thrust upon the
tumblers is direct and an easy action is obtained, and but little power
has to be applied beyond that requisite to overcome the main springs
connected with the tumblers and the spring of the hand lever.
The stem of the bolt employed for locking the barrels is bent upwards
to carry it above the working parts of the locks, and bring it into posi-
tion to engage with a projection on the hand lever, so that the turning
of the hand lever shall withdraw the locking bolts at the samo time that
it raises the hammers to full cock.
The axis on which the hand lever turns may be hollow and receive
into it the ends of the axes of the tumblers, one on either side.
The tumbler axes pass through the lock plates and receive outside
hammers of the ordinary form, thus making a self-cocking gun to strike
the nipples outside, whereas heretofore self-cocking guns have been
made with strikers to strike inside, and consequently fouling has accu-
mulated in the lockwork.
The gun can be made with the ordinary back action locks if required,
with a projection on the tumbler to receive the pressure of the lever that
releases the bolt of the gun, the lever working in a line with the axis of
the tumbler as before described, or the gun can be made with all the
lockwork on the trigger plate, and imitation locks with the tumbler axis
passing through the lock plate to receive the hammers; or it can, if
desired, be made to strike inside the lock plate in the same manner as
ordinary self-cocking guns are now made.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edwin Hughes in the Great Scal Patent Office
on the 9th October 1875
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWIN
HUGHES, of 36, Brook Street, Kennington Road, Lambeth, in the
County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-eighth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Iler heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Edwin Hughes, Her special license that I, the
said Edwin Hughes, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Edwin Hughes, 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 BREECH-LOADING FOWLING
PIECES AND RIFLES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Edwin Hughes, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
should
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
par-
ticularly 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 Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edwin Hughes, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say
-
This Invention has for its object improvements in breech-loading
fowling pieces and rifles, and is applicable to arms in which the barrels
are mounted on an axis, so that for loading the muzzles may be depressed
and the open breeches raised above the breech plate to receive the
cartridges.
The hand lever employed to withdraw the bolt or bolts and release the

page_text: barrels is arranged to work on an axis between the locks, and on or in
a line with the axis of the tumblers, or nearly so The tumblers have a
limb or arm projecting from their side to come in front of the hand
lever, and on the hand lever is a corresponding projection, so that by
the same operation of the hand lever which unlocks the barrels both
hammers are raised to full cock, and in consequence of the tumblers and
the hand lever moving around the same centre the thrust upon the
tumblers is direct and an easy action is obtained, and but little power
has to be applied beyond that requisite to overcome the main springs
connected with the tumblers and the spring of the hand lever.
The stem of the bolt employed for locking the barrels is bent upwards
to carry it above the working parts of the locks, and bring it into posi-
tion to engage with a projection on the hand lever, so that the turning
of the hand lever shall withdraw the locking bolts at the same time that
it raises the hammers to full cock
The axis on which the hand lover turns may be hollow and receive
into it the ends of the axes of the tumblers, one on either side.
The tumbler axes pass through the lock plates and receive outside
hammers of the ordinary form, thus making a self-cocking gun to strike
the nipples outside, whereas heretofore self-cocking guns have been
made with strikers to strike inside, and consequently fouling has accu-
mulated in the lockwork.
The gun can be made with the ordinary back action locks if required,
with a projection on the tumbler to receive the pressure of the lever that
releases the bolt of the gun, the lever working in a line with the axis of
the tumbler as before described, or the gun can be made with all the
lockwork on the trigger plate, and imitation locks with the tumbler axis
passing through the lock plate to receive the hammers, or it can if
desired be made to strike inside the lock plate in the same manner as
ordinary self-cocking guns are now made.
In order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect. I will proceed in describe the Drawings here.

page_text: Figure 3 is a side view, and Figure 4 is a plan of the breech-piccc.
Figuro 5 is a side view, and Figure 6 is a plan of the trigger plate.
The trigger plate has formed upon it a central lump or projection a¹ in
which is a slot through which the head of the hand lever passes.
A side view of the hand lever is shewn at Figure 7, and a front view at
Figure 8. The hand lever works upon a hollow steel pin inserted into
the hole b¹ in the lever, and into corresponding holes in the two sides of
the slotted lump a¹ The trigger plate and the hinder part of the lump
are also slotted at a, a, to receive the triggers shewn at Figuro 9.
The hole a¹* in the lump a¹ receives the pin on which the triggers turn;
a³ is a hole to receive the screw by which the trigger spring is fixed.
This spring (which is clearly seen in Figure 1) passes between the
triggers; it is slit longitudinally, so that its two limbs may operate indo-
pendently on the two triggers, and the free end of cach limb turns
outwards at a right angle and enters a hole c drilled in the side of the
trigger; a, a, are holes to receive screws by which two standards are
fixed to the trigger plate; a side view of one of these standards is
shown at Figure 10, and a plan at Figure 11. The two standards arc
right and left, but otherwise similar; d² is a hole in the standard
for the passage of the tumbler axis for which the standard forms
the outer bearing, the inner bearing being in the hollow axis of the
hand lever.
A side view of one of the tumblers is shewn at Figure 12, and a front
view at Figure 13, the tumblers are right and left. a, a, are two
studs screwed into the trigger plate, the sear pins pass through them into
the lump a'.
Figure 14 is a side view, and Figure 15 is a plan of one of the scars,
the sears are right and left. a, a, are recesses formed at the bottom of
the grooves in the trigger plate which accommodate the sear springs,
one of which is clearly shewn in Figure 1, projections on the under side
of the sear springs enter the recesses aª, and the bends of the springs arc

page_text: the same studs also confine the main springs at one end, the other end
in each case being connected with the tumbler by a swivel in the usual
way. The bends of the main springs are received into another lump a³,
formed upon the trigger plate. One of the main springs is clearly
shewn in Figure 1; a¹** is a tapped hole in the lump a¹ to receive the
scrow & which passes through the tang of the breech piece, and the
wooden stock binding all firmly together; a, a, are holes receiving
screws connecting the trigger plate with the under side of the breech
picce; and a¹ is a hole receiving a screw which connects the hinder end
of the trigger plate with the stock. On the top of the lump a³ is fixed
by a screw the spring e for tho hand lever; it is connected with the lever
by a swivel.
J
When the hand lever is forced forward it carries round the tumblers
with it, as arms f¹, f¹, of the tumblers abut upon the sides of the notch
or recess in the hand lever; thus the hammers which are fixed in the
usual way upon the squares of the tumblers are raised to full cock, and
they are retained there by the scars until they are liberated by means of
tho triggers. At the same time that the hand lever raises the hammers
it draws back the locking bolt to release the barrels and allow the
breeches to be opened.
Figure 16 is a side view, Figure 17, an end view; and Figure 18, a
plan of the locking bolt. The locking bolt works in a passage cut for
it in the breech piece, and at ¹ it catches the locking projection fixed
on the under side of the barrels. The bolt also gives motion to the
rotary lock, which is a cylinder turning on a central stud fixed in the
breech piece; it has bayonet grooves cut in it, one on either side. Pro-
jections on the under side of the barrels pass down into these grooves
and then the partial rotation of the rotary lock causes the projections to
pass into recesses from which they cannot escape until the rotary lock
is again turned partly round The rotary lock takes its motion from
the locking bolt by a pin upon it entering the oval recess /³.
Figure 19 shows the lock plate, which in the arrangement shown
carrics none of the working parts, although the parts of the lock
may be mounted upon the lock plate without departing from my
Invention.

page_text: front action locks and lie within slots formed in the underside of the
breech piece, the plate which carries the lockwork being carried
forward under the breech piece to support the springs
-
What I claim is the construction of self-cocking fowling pieces and
rifles, with a hand lover having its axis in a line with the axis of the
tumblers, or nearly so, and acting upon the tumblers to cock the
picce at the same time that it withdraws the locking bolt which secures
the barrels and allows the barrels to fall, substantially as described.
I also claim the construction of brocch-loading fowling pieces and
rifles, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edwin Hughes, have hereunto
set my hand and scal, this Seventh day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.