A NEW MODE AND MEANS OR APPLIANCES FOR WORKING MOVING-OBJECT Target
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Walter Biggar Blaikie, of the City and County of
Edinburgh, North Britain, Civil Engineer, for an Invention of "A NEW
MODE AND MEANS OR APPLIANCES FOR WORKING MOVING-OBJECT Targets
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION loft by the said Walter Biggar Blaikie at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 17th June 1881.
WALTER BIGGAR BLAIKIE, of the City and County of Edinburgh, North Britain,
Civil Engineer. "A NEW MODE AND MEANS OR APPLIANCES FOR WORKING
MOVING-OBJECT TARGETS FOR RIFLE OR OTHER SIMILAR PRACTICE."
This Invention relates to a now mode and means or appliances for working
moving-object targets, that is, targets which are made to move in imitation of a
man, or a body of men, during the practice of rifle shooting, archery, or similar
firing or shooting practice.
In carrying out the Invention, targets either of the ordinary square shape or
made to resemble men or other objects are used, and these are fitted or suspended
by pulleys to a tight fixed cord or wire, and are moved or travelled over the wire
by means of a cord or cords attached to them, and wound round a drum worked by
a hand crank or by gearing from a motive power engine.
The target or targets may for lightness be made of paste board, paper, or cloth,
or of wood; or they may be made of metal and be bullet proof. The wire may be
also bullet proof, and may be placed to carry the target or targets transversely across
the line of fire; or it may be placed so that the targets travel obliquely or in a
curved path, the wire being carried in guides fitted on supporting poles or brackets
arranged to suit the particular circumstances.
By a modified arrangement the targets are fixed or suspended to a wiro which is
itself made to travel over guide pulleys by being wound on to a drum, or the wire
may be an endless one, and be moved or caused to travel by friction on the periphery
of a pulley turned by a crank.
A number of such wires carrying moving-object targets may be ranged in parallel
lines or in lines inclined to each other, so that the moving targets or objects to be
fired at may resemble a scattered body of men.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Walter Biggar Blaikic in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
13th December 1881.
WALTER BIGGAR BLAIKIE, of the City and County of Edinburgh, North Britain,
Civil Engineer.
"A NEW MODE AND MEANS OR APPLIANCES FOR WORKING
MOVING-OBJECT TARGETS FOR RIFLE OR OTHER SIMILAR PRACTICE."
My said Invention relates to a new mode and means or appliances for working
moving-object targets, that is, targets which are made to move in imitation of a
man or a body of men, during the practice of rifle shooting, archery, or similar
firing or shooting practice.
In carrying out the Invention, targets either of the ordinary square shape or mado
to resemble men or other objects are used, and these are fitted or suspended by
pulleys or by metal hooks to a tight fixed cord or wire, and are moved or travelled
over the wire by means of a cord or cords attached to them and wound round a
drum worked by a hand crank, or by gearing from a motive power engine. The
target or targets may for lightness be made of paste-board, paper, or cloth, or of
wood; or they may be made of metal or of combinations of these materials, or bo
bullet proof, and may be placed to carry the target or targets transversely across
the line of fire; or the carrying wire may be placed so that the targets travel
obliquely or in a curved path, the wire being carried in guides fitted on supporting
poles or brackets arranged to suit the particular circumstances.
By a modified arrangement the targets are fixed or suspended to a wire which is
itself made to travel over guide pulleys by being wound on to a drum, or the wire
may be an endless one and be moved or caused to travel by friction on the periphery
of a pulley turned by a crank.
A number of such wires carrying moving-object targets may be ranged in parallel
lines or in lines inclined to each other, so that the moving targets or objects to be
fired at may resemble a scattered body of men.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing the same
may be properly understood, I have hereunto appended for that purpose a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings representing ono arrangement of moving object target, and
means of working the same in accordance with my Invention, and which I shall
now describe.
Figure 1 of the Drawings is a front elevation showing a single target suspended by
a wire carried by posts, to which are connected the appliances for moving the target,
and Figure 2 is a side elevation of the carrying post. The target A which is in
the form or figure of a soldier, and made of mill-board or other light material, is
connected to suspending wires or rods a forming a stiff frame hung by hooked
ends a or by pulleys to the carrying wires B, B', which are attached at one end to
one post or standard C, and at the other end attached to wire straining pulleys b
fixed on a second post C'. The posts or standards C, C₁, arc by preference made
of iron or other rigid material as two bars, with distance pieces between them, these
posts being driven into the ground or erected over it and held upright by cords or
chains or wires c. Near the upper end of each post is fitted a pulley D carried in
bearings in the post, and by preference fitted between the two bars forming the
posts. Over these pulleys there passes an endless cord or wire E to which the
target frame a is attached, and by the turning of the pulleys D and moving of the
cord or wire E, the target A is traversed across the space from one post to another.
One of the pulleys D has a smaller pulley D¹ attached to or formed on it, over
which a cord d or band is passed leading down to and round a driving pulley Ffitted
in bearings near the lower end of the carrying post or standard C¹, and this pulley F

page_text: is fitted with a driving crank f, by turning which the pulleys and the cord E with
the target A can be moved at any desired pace. The post or standard C with the
driving pulley is preferably erected within the markers butt or box G, so that the
marker may work the target and also indicate in the usual manner when the target
is hit.
In some cases I suspend from the same wire, and work by the same means, the
figure of a running enemy in front of the soldier target to give variety of firing
practice, the object being to strike the enemy and not the soldier or other
combination of figures.
Having thus particularly described the said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I desire it to be understood that I do not restrict myself to
the precise details herein described or delineated, but what I believo to be
novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the
hereinbefore in part recited Letters Patent is, the arrangement and construction
of targets for rifle and other similar practice, made to traverse in imitation of
moving objects by means of appliances, substantially such as are herein described
and shown on the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Walter Biggar Blaikie, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventh day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty one.
WALTER BIGGAR BLAIKIE. (L.S.)