Improvements in the Construction and Attachment of Vent Sealing Tubes for Firing Ordnance.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Sept., 1892-Accepted, 29th Oct., 1892
געJUII L
Improvements in the Construction and Attachment of Vent Sealing
Tubes for Firing Ordnance.
I, HENRY CAPEL LOFFT HOLDEN Captain of the Royal Artillery Royal
Arsenal Woolwich London S.E. do hereby declare the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
In order to obtain a means of firing ordnance which either are not or else cannot
be conveniently fitted for the ordinary vent sealing tubes, I employ a tube which
can be adapted to be fired either by frictional, electrical or percussion means as in
ordinary gun tubes, but which differs from these latter in being so constructed as
to form its own means of attachment to the exterior of the vent.
The simplest form of tube according to my invention consists of a suitably.
shaped metal body or case containing the arrangements for igniting the explosive
material in the tube that is screwed on to the vent projecting from the gun; the
screw thread of the vent being a male and that on the tube a female one, and this
said screw thread may be either of the interrupted form with a view to render the
fixing of the tube in position and releasing it again more expeditious, or of the
ordinary continuous form as shown in the attached sheet of drawings; another
form of tube consists of a metal body with a suitably shaped flanged head;
portions of this flange are cut away as far as the body of the tube on either side,
and the vent head is also cut away in a similar manner and to the same extent, so
that by placing the vent sealing tube in the vent and turning it through an angle,
so that the sides of the flange on the tube and those on the vent head coincide,
the tube is firmly fixed in position and supported. The interior arrangements in
this form of tube are similar to those in the tube first described.
In order that my invention may be fully understood, I shall now proceed more
particularly to describe the same and for that purpose shall refer to the several
figures on the annexed sheet of drawings the same letters of reference indicating
corresponding parts on all the figures.
Figure 1 represents in section and Fig. 2 in elevation one form of tube
according to my invention, whilst Figs. 3 and show the same fixed to the vent
of a gun.
In these figures A is the metal body of the tube having a screw thread
cut at C whereby it is fixed to the vent, D is the male thread on the vent of the
gun and G the metal of the gun itself, B is the drawbar to which the lanyard used
to fire the tube is attached and E represents the friction composition and explosive
with which the tube is charged.
Figures 5 6 and 7 show another form of tube with flanged head having two
portions of the flanges F cut away, so as to be capable of being placed in the
vent head H, which is screwed on to the end of the vent D and cut away in a
similar manner to the tube; and then by the tube being turned through an angle
so that the remaining portions of the flanges on it, coincide with the portions of
the head not cut away, it is firmly locked in position for firing.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is;
The improvement in construction and attachment of vent-sealing tubes for firing
ordnance. whereby the same are attached to the vent by means of a continuous ox

page_text: interrupted screw thread or by an interlocking joint or its equivalent substantially
as and for the purpose herein before described.
Dated this Twenty-fourth (24th) day of September 1892.
HENRY CAPEL LOFFT HOLDEN,
Captain, Royal Artillery.