IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE AND IN COLLED BARRELS AND TUBES FOR ORDNANCE AND OTHER FIRE ARMS."
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Palliser, of Earl's Court Square, South Kensington,
in the County of Middlesex, Knight, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
ORDNANCE AND IN COLLED BARRELS AND TUBES FOR ORDNANCE AND OTHER
FIRE ARMS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Palliser at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 2nd January 1880.
WILLIAM PALLISER, of Earl's Court Square, South Kensington, in the County of
Middlesex, Knight.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE AND IN COILED BARRELS
AND TUBES FOR ORDNANCE AND FIREARMS."
My Invention relates to the construction of ordnance so as to obtain great
strength and durability by the use of comparatively cheap material and simple
workmanship, and to means of increasing the strength and tenacity of the coiled
barrels or tubes employed in these and other firearms, and of preventing the
formation in these of circumferential openings, such as occasionally results from
imperfections in the welding together of their successive convolutions, or from
fractures at the screwed jointings of successive lengths of tube. For this purpose I
construct a heavy gun in the following manner :-I provide an inner tube of coiled
wrought iron, and I enclose the breech portion of this tube in a steel socket which
is made to extend along it some distance beyond the length occupied by the charge.
The exterior of this socket has a screw thread cut on it, or is roughened by
circumferential grooves, and over it is fitted a cast iron external casing which
extends to the muzzle of the gun, enclosing within its hinder portions the steel
socket and its lining tube, and within its front portion the length of lining tube
that extends beyond the socket. This cast iron casing may be put on in two ways.
According to one mode it has a screw thread cut in the hinder part of its bore, and
into this the steel socket having the lining tube inserted in it is screwed from the
breech. Otherwise the steel socket, whether it has the screw thread on it, or is
merely roughened by grooves, is placed with the lining tube which it partly
encloses in the mould, and the iron casing is cast upon them. When the latter
mode is adopted, the internal tube should be kept cool by a current of air through
it. In cases where the cast iron casing is of considerable thickness, the inner iron
tube is made in two lengths, the front length being screwed into the mouth of the
steel socket and the iron cast on both, and the hinder length being introduced into
the steel socket from the breech after the iron has been cast on it. For breech
loading guns on the transverse slide or wedge principle, the steel socket is made to

page_text: welds are sound the pressure on the successive convolutions in the powder chamber
tend to move them laterally in relation to one another, thus giving rise then to
objectionable coil marks. To prevent these results I employ bars of such section
that when they are coiled their successive convolutions overlap and interlock with
each other, so that there is no straight joint through the body of the tube, and that
one convolution cannot be forced apart from another without fracture or great
distortion of the material. The bar which I employ for this purpose has a section
somewhat resembling the letter Z, that is to say, it consists of a middle body with a
front and back projecting rib, each of these ribs having its edge inclined, bulged, or
projected inwards, so that when one convolution is coiled on another, the front rib
of the second overlies the back rib of the previous convolution and the projecting
lip of the one is engaged behind that of the other, thus effecting an interlocking as
well as an overlapping of the successive convolutions.
Although I have described a simple form of bar applicable for the purpose of my
Invention, it is to be understood that instead of a single rib with its projecting lip,
there may be several such ribs arranged like steps at each side of the middle body
of the bar, so that each of these ribs at the front of the one convolution overlaps and
interlocks with a corresponding rib at the back of the other.
According to a modified construction the tube or barrel may be made of double
thickness, each thickness consisting of a coiled bar of a trough shaped section, or
having a middle body with a rib projecting at each edge. The bar of the outer
thickness being coiled in an inverted attitude over the coils constituting the inner
thickness so as to break joint, the projecting ribs of the one enter the intermediate
hollows of the other, and thus the convolutions of the one thickness are made to
overlap and also to interlock with those of the other. Sometimes coiled tubes,
whether of the ordinary kind, or of the kind constructed as above described, are
made in separate lengths, which are jointed together by screwing the end of one
tube, which is reduced in diameter and projects as a spigot, into the mouth of the
next tube, which is enlarged in diameter to form a socket for the reception of
the spigot. In forming the screw threads for such socket and spigot portions
of the tubes, I cut behind the last thread a rounded hollow, the bottom of which in
the case of the spigot is of somewhat smaller diameter than the bottom of the screw
thread, and in the case of the socket is of somewhat greater diameter than the
bottom of the screw thread. The threads are thus made to have the character of
relieved threads, rendering the metal of the tubes less liable to fracture, where it is
weakened by the cutting of the thread.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section of a breech loading gun constructed according to
my Invention. A is the inner tube of coiled wrought iron; B is the steel socket
enclosing the hinder portion of the A tube, and C is the cast iron casing, which may
be either screwed on the socket B or cast on the socket and tube as above described,
and may be strengthened at its breech end by a ring c shrunk on. The screw
thread of the socket B is in relief and stops a little short of the breech end of the
casing, a thin ring b being inserted to occupy the space in which the thread is
wanting. This ring b may be shrunk on the socket and may be of considerable
length, so as to allow of sufficient metal for stretching under the longitudinal strain.
To prevent relative shifting of the tube A and the casing C longitudinally, a ring
D is screwed into the casing at its muzzle to bear against a shoulder formed near
the mouth of the tube A. The portion B' of the socket B extended behind the
breech end of the casing is slotted transversely to receive the sliding breech piece
employed in breech loading guns on the transverse slide or wedge principle; Fig.
is a section of part of a coiled tube, the bar which is coiled being according to my
Invention of such a section E, that each convolution partly overlaps and interlocks
with the preceding convolution. For this purpose the section E of the bar is made
somewhat of the form of a letter Z with a front and back flange, terminating in

page_text: each case with an inwardly projecting lip e, the lip and the hollow between it and
the body of the bar being so shaped that the lip of each convolution enters the
hollow of the next. For a coiled tube of double thickness the coiled bar is of the
trough like section F, shewn in Fig. 3. In this case the middle body of the bar in
the one thickness covers the butt or joint of the bars in the other thickness, and
the projecting lips f of the one enter the hollows of the other, thus effecting the
interlocking of the convolutions.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and in what manner the same
is to be performed I claim,-
First. The construction of gun wherein a coiled wrought iron inner tube has its
hinder part enclosed in a steel socket, and both the tube and the socket are enclosed
in a cast iron casing, substantially as herein described with reference to Fig. 1 of
the accompanying Drawings.
Second. In a gun constructed in the manner referred to in the preceding claim,
the use of a relieved screw thread on the socket C in combination with the filling
ring b.
Third. Constructing single coiled tubes for ordnance by coiling flanged bars
having a section such that the flange of the bar of each convolution overlaps
and interlocks with that of the preceding convolution, substantially as herein
described.
Fourth. Constructing coiled tubes of double thickness for ordnance by coiling
bars having a trough like section so that the bodies of the coils of the one
thickness cover the butts or jointings of those of the other thickness, and the
projecting lips of each interlock with those of the other, substantially as herein
described with reference to Fig. 3.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Palliser, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this First day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and eighty.
WILLIAM PALLISER. (L.S.)