A Novel Construction or Arrangement of Military and Sporting Magazine or Repeating Guns.
Year: 1886

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
A Novel Construction or Arrangement of Military and Sporting
Magazine or Repeating Guns.
We HUGH ADAMS SILVER of Abbey Lodge, Chislehurst, Kent, Colonel, and WALTER
FLETCHER of 67 Cornhill, City of London, Gunsmith, do hereby declare the nature of
this invention to be as follows:-
The object of this invention is to construct or arrange the "action" portion of a
Military or Sporting Magazine or Repeating Gun, that a full cartridge can be moved
from its chamber into a cradle fitted above a drop block and by a push back motion by
the block in opening the breech, the full cartridge can be caused partly to enter a casing
and compress a spring and be there retained, during the further motion of the breech
block which then operates the extractor for withdrawing the empty case of the last
fired cartridge and forces it under the cradle for its discharge; a still further travel of
the drop block causing the full cartridge and the compressed spring to be released for
rapidly throwing said cartridge into the barrel or sufficiently far into it, that on the
block being returned the cartridge is forced fully home ready to be fired.
The various appliances necessary for manipulating and effecting the above operations
are governed by the block in the opening and the cartridges which are in reserve at
each side of the shoe, or on one side only, as desired, are fed in succession towards the
cradle into which they become lodged on a stop bar or its equivalent being removed,
mechanically for its passage from the magazine.
Instead of the spring container casing being arranged to receive a full cartridge as

page_text: above referred to, said spring may be arranged in some other convenient position to
act upon a clip piece by which the cartridge is temporarilly held.
We have referred to the full cartridge as being thrown into the barrel but it may be
carried by a movable appliance close to the breech chamber for the block to complete
the loading as it is moved up to close the breech.
The cradle may be movable on a pivot pin and its motion for throwing the full
cartridge towards the barrel can be governed by a rod from the extractor.
Dated this 9th day of December 1886.
H. GARDNER,
166, Fleet Street, London,
Agent for the said H. A. Silver
and W. Fletcher.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A Novel Construction or Arrangement of Military and Sporting
Magazine or Repeating Guns.
We HUGH ADAMS SILVER of Abbey Lodge, Chislehurst, Kent, Colonel and WALTER
FLETCHER of 67 Cornhill, City of London, Gunsmith, do hereby declare the nature of
our 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 this invention is to construct or arrange the "action" portion of
a Military or Sporting Magazine or Repeating gun that a full cartridge can be
moved from its chamber into a cradle fitted above a drop block and by a push
back motion by the block in opening the breech the full cartridge can be caused
partly to enter a casing and compress a spring and be there retained during the
further motion of the breech block, which then operates the extractor for withdrawing
the empty case of the last fired cartridge and forces it under the cradle for its
discharge, the compressed spring being then released for rapidly throwing said full
cartridge into the barrel or sufficiently far into it that on the block being returned
the cartridge is forced fully home ready to be fired.
The various appliances necessary for manipulating and effecting the above operations
are governed by the block in the opening and the cartridges which are in reserve at
each side of the shoe, or on one side only as desired, are fed in succession towards
the cradle into which they become lodged, on a stop bar or its equivalent being
removed mechanically, for its passage from the magazine.
Instead of the spring container casing being arranged to receive a full cartridge

page_text: as above referred to, said spring may be arranged in some other convenient position
to act upon a clip piece by which the cartridge is temporarily held.
We have referred to the full cartridge as being thrown into the barrel but it may
be carried by a movable appliance close to the breech chamber for the block to
complete the loading as it is moved up to close the breech.
The cradle may be movable on a pivot pin and its motion for throwing the full
cartridge towards the barrel can be governed by a rod from the extractor.
Our invention will be understood by the annexed drawings in which at Figure 1
we show a side elevation partly in section of the breech portion of a Military small
arm with the breech block closed and the working parts in their normal position.
Figure 2 is a plan view with two magazine pockets or chambers one on each side
and charged with cartridges.
Figure 3 is a side elevation partly in section of the breech portion with the block
lowered the empty cartridge case having been withdrawn by the extractor and falling
through the space between the two side frames of the shoe and the block as indicated
in dotted lines, a full cartridge having passed from the magazine through the aperture
at the side of the shoe and the spring within the casing ready to act to shoot, the full
cartridge into the breech chamber of the barrel.
The operation is as follows
The firer inserts his thumb into the aperture A of the block B and presses forward
the lever C which releases a holding catch and compels by further pressure the block
to move downwards upon its pivot pin D and supposing a full cartridge E to be in
the position shown in Figure 3 in which position it has been forced by the nose F of
the block pressing on the forward end has caused the base of the cartridge to enter a
casing G and compress a spring H therein said cartridge being held by a thumb
piece I, seen in Figure 2, the body of the cartridge lying upon two wings J, J. A
further movement of the block causes the face K to press against the tail piece L of
the extractor M to withdraw the empty cartridge case from the barrel N the weight
of the block acting forcibly and suddenly against the tail piece L gives a rapid
movement to the extractor M sufficient to withdraw the empty case and shoot it
through the opening between the forward end of the full cartridge and the closing
position P of the breech block B. The thumb piece I pivots on a vertical pin I' the
aperture in the piece I being made large enough for the necessary movement.
The firer now presses on the thumb piece I to release the spring H the rebound of
which shoots the full cartridge say two thirds of its length into the barrel N, the
breech block B is then lifted and in doing so it forces the full cartridge fully home
into the barrel taking the extractor with it; the arm is then discharged and as the
firer lowers the arm to what is termed the "Ready" position he turns the Gun side-
ways to the right or to the left which allows a full cartridge to fall sideways from
the magazine through the opening Q into the breech opening above the block and
take a position upon the cradle J. J. said cartridge being forced back by the nose F
of the spring H to be compressed and the base of the fresh cartridge to be temporarily
held by the thumb piece I for a repeat of the operations above described.
The two magazines R. S. are at the two sides of the shoe but only one may be
fitted if desired and when two are attached as at Figure 2 to prevent the cartridges
leaving the magazine which is to be kept in reserve we fit a sliding piece to the front
portion T of the breech opening to lock a blade (stop bar) U across the face of the
opening so that the cartridges in that Magazine are held within it the other blade V
being allowed to fall and follow the block when lowered the blade taking a position
across the opening Q and prevents a fresh cartridge passing through the opening
except when the block B is closed again, the blade U or V being lifted into the position
shown in dotted lines in Figure 1 clear of the opening for the purpose.
Each magazine holds say three or four cartridges which when placed in the
chamber compresses springs W, the springs having sufficient power to lift the
cartridges up to the top of the chamber coincident with the opening Q for the side
motion, through which opening they are slightly inclined by the curvature of other
springs X, X.

page_text: We have not shown the striker appliances in the block B they being of the
usual kind but capable of being set as the block is being lowered as is common
with most drop block guns for central fire.
Y is the trigger for the discharge in the usual manner.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this invention and
in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we claim is :—
1. The novel arrangements of parts forming a magazine or repeating gun in which
the cartridges are transferable from a side chamber on to a cradle and then forced
backwards by the breech block in lowering so that the base is received within a spring
containing chamber and temporarilly held while the empty cartridge case is extracted
and shot through a space between the fore end of the breech block and the full
cartridge as hereinbefore described with reference to the annexed drawings.
2. In a Magazine or Repeating Fire Arm the spring containing chamber G in
combination with the thumb piece I for temporarilly holding the full cartridge E in
the breech opening and the means described for suddenly shooting the full cartridge
into the barrel a distance sufficient for the closing block to force it completely into the
barrel as hereinbefore described.
3. The arrangement of the blades UV and the means for releasing either of them so
that full cartridges can be transferred from the magazine through the side opening of
the shoe into the breech opening as set forth.
The 9th day of September 1887.
H. GARDNER,
166, Fleet Street, London,
Agent for the said Col. H. A. Silver
and W. Fletcher.