IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND CONSTRUCTION OF FIRE-ARMS, AND IN THE MEANS OF LOADING THE SAME AND CONTROLLING MORE EFFECTUALLY THE ACTION OF THE FIRELOCK
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Martin Regul Pilon, Citizen of the United States,
residing at Aguas Calientes, in Mexico, but at present in Brussels, in the
Kingdom of Belgium, Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE AND CONSTRUCTION OF FIRE-ARMS, AND IN THE MEANS
OF LOADING THE SAME AND CONTROLLING MORE EFFECTUALLY THE ACTION OF
THE FIRELOCK."
Sealed the 22nd February 1861, and dated the 1st September 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Martin Regul Pilon at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st September 1860.
I, MARTIN REGUL PILON, Citizen of the United States, residing at Aguas
Calientes, in Mexico, but at present in Brussels, in the Kingdom of Belgium,
Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND CONSTRUCTION OF FIRE-ARMS, AND IN THE MEANS
OF LOADING THE SAME AND CONTROLLING MORE EFFECTUALLY THE ACTION OF THE
FIRE-LOCK," to be as follows:-
Upon a stock of suitable shape, I fix the stock plate, which carries the
lock, and supports the end of the barrel. The trigger is placed and acts in
the usual manner. The stock end of the barrel is cased, and may either be
mounted upon a swivel or trunnions, or may be fixed according to the particular
application, the touch hole and the nipple for discharging the cap are formed at
the breach end of the barrel, and in a line with the axis upon the lock plate is
mounted a rotating detent turning upon a pivot on the said plate; a slide head
is also placed upon the lock plate and slides backwards and forewards upon a

page_text: groove or slides formed on the plate. Within or passing through this head is a
piston rod having a hammer at one end; the piston passes through, and is
attached to a spiral spring, which has one end free and the other fixed to the
slide head. The face of the hammer is cut out, so as to receive the cap; when
the piston and the hammer are drawn back the spring is pulled with them and
becomes compressed, in this state it is held by one of the catches of the detent.
By raising the end of the latter by means of the trigger, the former is caused
to rotate and sets free the spring, and the piston and hammer urged foreward
through the action of the spring strike against the nipple of the barrel, the force
of which discharges the cap through the nipple and communicates with the
interior of the barrel through the touchhole.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Martin Regul Pilon in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
28th February 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MARTIN
REGUL PILON, Citizen of the United States, residing at Aguas Calientes, in
Mexico, but at present in Brussels, in the Kingdom of Belgium, Merchant,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Martin Regul Pilon, Her special licence that I, the said Martin Regul
Pilon, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Martin Regul Pilon, 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, exer-
cise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE AND CONSTRUCTION OF FIRE-ARMS, AND IN THE MEANS OF
LOADING THE SAME AND CONTROLLING MORE EFFECTUALLY THE ACTION OF THE
FIRE-LOCK," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Martin
Regul Pilon, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
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

page_text: Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Martin Regul Pilon, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, that is to say :-
My Invention consists in certain improved arrangements of mechanism
.having for object to deaden the recoil of the fire-arm, to give increased
steadiness and precision in firing with rapidity, in the movement for dis-
charging the cap or priming, and to dispense with trunnions or pivots attached
to the gun barrel.
The main or leading principles upon which I construct and manufacture
fire-arms are described and set forth in the Specification of an Invention for
which I obtained a grant of Letters Patent, dated the Twenty-third of August,
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, No. 1911, and the improvements
hereafter described are improved alterations, additions, and modifications of
the methods of construction therein set forth.
In order more clearly to understand the nature of the Invention, and to
comprehend fully the form and mode of constructing and combining the
different parts, I have appended to this Specification the accompanying
Drawings, which are intended only, however, to illustrate the general forms,
figures, combinations, and uses of the different parts, any of which may,
however, be modified or altered, or another well known equivalent introduced
and income
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Fig. 1 is the butt or stock of the arm, which, of course, may vary in size and
form; Fig. 2, the stem, which may be placed in any other manner, its chief
object being to serve as a basis to tighten certain springs; Fig. 3, the
stock plate, upon which the other movements are placed; Fig. 4, the detent
lever, which holds the recoil spring; it turns upon an axis round the pin p,
and has one end terminating in the trigger, and the half-cock and full-cock
notches N¹ and N2 formed on the other end; Fig. 5 is the head or piece upon
and to which the piston and recoil spring are attached; this head may either
be fixed or moveable, according as the barrel casing is fixed or moveable; that
is, if the one is moveable on a pivot or swivel the other is fixed, and vice versa;
Fig. 6 is the detonating piston, which, being actuated by the spiral spring 7,
discharges the cap or priming, and in its turn receives back the recoil from

page_text: the discharge of the piece; Fig. 7 is the said spring for actuating this piston
and receiving the recoil, and other forms of spring may be used so long as it
is adjusted so as properly to actuate the piston; Fig. 8, the case within which
the barrel is placed, as before mentioned, this may either move on pivots or
swivel, or be fixed according to the arrangements of the head; Fig. 9 is the
barrel, with or without trunnions, it fits the case easily, so as to move freely
backwards and forwards; Fig. 10NN are wedges to fix the pieces 5 and 9
when such is requisite; Fig. 9, the trigger at the end of the detent; Fig. R, R,
springs or notched wheels, which through their resistance produce the requisite
pressure, both latterally and at the back of the barrel; Fig. N¹, the half-cock
detent, which prevents the unbending of the spring; Fig. N³, the full-cock
detent, which sets free the spring with the slightest pressure; Fig. N³, N³, are
grooves in the bearing pieces of the piston, which hook respectively into the
notches N1, N2, according as the gun is at half or full-cock; Fig. 11, a support
to allow N1, N2, to fit or catch into the groove.
Having now described my Invention, and how the same is constructed,
formed, and acts, I wish it understood that I do not claim any of the parts of
the mechanism herein described taken separately and as parts, but only when
combined and used to produce the same or similar effects in fire-arms as I have
before detailed; and, furthermore, what I particularly claim and wish secured
to me by the before in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
Firstly, the construction and application of the detent plate marked 4 in
the Drawings, and chiefly for its action through the half-cock notch N¹, which
prevents the discharge of the spring almost through any force which can be
applied at the trigger.
Secondly, in the construction, mode of actuating, and application of the
piston marked 6, and also in the method of its attachment to the notch N³,
which through its form allows the discharge to take place with the slightest
pressure from the trigger.
Thirdly, the arrangement and use of the part marked 11, which prevents
the trigger from going too far down, so as to enable the catch N³ to fit or hook
into the groove.
In witness whereof, I, the said Martin Regul Pilon, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
M. REGUL PILON.
(L.S.)