Improvements in Apparatus for Checking the Recoil of Guns.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 12th Apr., 1892
Complete Specification Left, 13th Feb., 1893-Accepted, 18th Mar., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Checking the Recoil of Guns.
I, GEORGE FREDERICK REDFERN, of the firm of G. F. Redfern & Co. The
General Patent Office, No. 4, South Street, Finsbury, in the County of London,
Patent Agents, do hereby declare the nature of this invention (a communication
to me by Ernst Ternström, of 2, Rue du Maine, Asnières, Seine, in the
Republic of France, Civil Engineer,) to be as follows:-
This invention relates to apparatus for checking the recoil of guns.
In carrying out the said invention a friction brake is employed consisting of two
discs having upon their adjacent surfaces ribs and grooves so arranged that the ribs
on one disc fit into the grooves upon the other disc. One of these discs is held
against rotation and the other is connected with the cradle or mounting of the gun
by means of gear-teeth or by other suitable means in order that, as the gun recoils
with its cradle, one disc will be caused to rotate relatively to the other.
In practice I prefer to arrange the friction discs within a sleeve or drum geared
to the gun mounting, and engaging with the movable disc by means of ratchet-
teeth or pawls in such a manner that, when the gun is recoiling, the sleeve will
rotate the movable disc whilst, on the return of the gun to its firing position, the
disc will remain stationary as the sleeve revolves.
In order to produce the necessary friction between the discs I preferably employ
a. Belleville spring, the plates of which are carried upon the same spindle as that
upon which the friction discs are mounted. In order, during the recoil of the gun,
to gradually reduce the resistance I arrange upon the spindle herein before referred
to a screw-threaded nut engaging with corresponding threads upon the spindle, the
said nut, when the gun is in the position for firing, bearing against one of the plates
of the spring to cause the maximum friction required between the discs. This nut
has in connection with it an arm or lever connected by a rod or link with the
cradle of the gun in such a manner that, as the said cradle recoils with the gun, the
nut will be rotated in the required direction to gradually relieve the pressure of
the spring to correspondingly reduce the friction between the discs of the brake to
the required extent.
In order to return the gun to its firing position, after the recoil has ceased, I
provide a spring which, during the recoil of the gun, is compressed to store
sufficient energy to effect the return movement. In practice I advantageously
connect the spring by means of a chain with the toothed drum or sleeve through the
medium of which the movable brake disc is rotated, the said chain as the gun recoils
being wound upon the drum to compress the spring which, to return the gun, re-acts
through the chain upon the said drum.
During the return motion of the gun the nut is rotated to compress the
Belleville spring in order to produce the required friction between the friction discs
ready for the next discharge.
When I wish to check the recoil of the carriage of a field-gun having frictional
recoil mechanism as described I advantageously arrange in conjunction with the
shoes of the wheel-brakes, intended to act during the travel of the carriage, points
or teeth, and I provide for lowering the said wheel-brakes to such an extent that,
when firing the gun, the points or teeth will bite into the ground behind the wheels
at the same time that the turning of the wheels is blocked, the said points or teeth

page_text: thus serving, in conjunction with the usual projections at the end of the trail of the
gun, to prevent the carriage from recoiling.
Dated this 12th day of April 1892.
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Checking the Recoll of Guns.
I, GEORGE FREDERICK REDFERN, of the firm of G. F. Redfern & Co., The
General Patent Office, No. 4, South Street, Finsbury, in the County of London,
Patent Agents, do hereby declare the nature of this invention (a communication
to me by Ernst Ternström, of 2, Rue du Maine, Asnières, Seine, in the
Republic of France, Civil Engineer,) and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
This invention relates to apparatus for checking the recoil of guns.
In carrying out the said invention a friction brake is employed consisting of two
discs having upon their adjacent surfaces ribs and grooves so arranged that the ribs
on one disc fit into the grooves upon the other disc. One of these discs is held
against rotation and the other is connected with the cradle or mounting of the gun
by means of gear teeth or by other suitable means in order that, as the gun recoils
with its cradle, one disc will be caused to rotate relatively to the other.
In practice I prefer to arrange the friction discs in conjunction with a sleeve or
drum geared to the gun mounting, and engaging with the movable disc by means
of ratchet-teeth or pawls in such a manner that, when the gun is recoiling, the drum
will rotate the movable disc whilst, on the return of the gun to its firing position,
the disc will remain stationary as the drum revolves.
In order to produce the necessary friction between the discs I preferably employ
a Belleville spring, the plates of which are carried upon the same spindle as that
upon which the friction discs are mounted. In order, during the recoil of the gun,
to gradually reduce the resistance, I arrange upon the spindle, herein before referred
to, a screw-threaded nut engaging with corresponding threads upon the spindle, the
said nut, when the gun is in the position for firing, bearing against one of the plates
of the spring to cause the maximum friction required between the discs. This nut
has in connection with it an arm or lever connected by a rod or link with the cradle
of the gun in such a manner that, as the said cradle recoils with the gun, the nut
will be rotated in the required direction to gradually relieve the pressure of the
spring to correspondingly reduce the friction between the discs of the brake to the
required extent.
In order to return the gun to its firing position, after the recoil has ceased, I
provide a spring which, during the recoil of the gun, is compressed to store sufficient
energy to effect the return movement. In practice I advantageously connect the
spring by means of a chain with the toothed drum or sleeve through the medium of
which the movable brake disc is rotated, the said chain as the gun recoils being
wound upon the drum to compress the spring, which, to return the gun, reacts
through the chain upon the said drum.
During the return motion of the gun the nut is rotated to compress the Belleville
spring in order to produce the required friction between the friction discs ready for
the next discharge.
When I wish to check the recoil of the carriage of a field-gun having frictional
recoil mechanism as described I advantageously arrange in conjunction with the
wheel-brakes, intended to act during the travel of the carriage, shoes having points
or teeth, and I provide for lowering the said shoes to such an extent that, when
firing the gun, the points or teeth will bite into the ground behind the wheels at the

page_text: same time that the turning of the wheels is blocked, the said points or teeth thus
serving, in conjunction with the usual projections at the end of the trail of the gun,
to prevent the carriage from recoiling.
To enable my invention to be fully understood I will describe the same as applied
to a field-gun by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which :-
Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of a gun mounted upon a carriage in accordance
with my invention; and,
Figure 2 is a plan looking in the direction of the arrow 1, Figure 1; the gun and
the cradle directly carrying the same being removed:
Figure 3 is a section on the line 3-3, Figure 1 ; and,
Figures 4 and 5 are sections on the lines 4-4 and 5-5 respectively of Figure 3:
Figure 6 is a section on the line 6-6, Figure 5, drawn to an enlarged scale:
Figure 7 is a plan view of a detail hereinafter described.
Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.
a, a are the wheels of the carriage, bis the main axle thereof, and c is the trail
which is connected to the axle by means of the brackets c¹, c' having the
cheeks c², c, which form the guides upon which the recoil of the gun takes place.
d is a carriage or cross-head sliding upon the cheeks c³, and e is a cradle directly
carrying the gun f, the said cradle being suspended in the cross-head d by means
of the trunnions d', d', as shewn most clearly in Figure 3, in such a manner that
the movement of the gun for pointing the same in a vertical direction can be readily
effected. The gun is held in the cradle e by means of a vertical trunnion e¹ upon
which the lateral movements of the gun when pointing the same are effected. The
rear end of the cradle is supported by a double acting elevating screw 9, the upper
end of which is connected to the cradle at g' whilst the lower part works through
a nut g³ in a cross-bar g³. The ends of this cross-bar slide in guides g*, g* so that
as the gun recoils with the carriage the elevating mechanism will recoil therewith.
The said guides 9 are pivotted at one end 9' to the trail of the gun and at the
other end are supported by means of a spring g' in order to minimise as much as
possible the shock upon the said guides when the gun is fired. 9' is a hand-wheel
for operating the elevating screw.
The lateral movements of the gun in the cradle e upon the trunnion e¹ are effected
by means of a worm h carried in bearings in a bracket h¹ fixed to the underside of
the gun and engaging with teeth upon the end of the cradle e, as shewn most clearly
in Figure 1 and in Figure 7 which is a plan view of the said bracket /¹ and the
connected parts. The bracket is provided with a flange which engages in a
groove h³ in the cradle e, the said flange and groove being curved to a circle having
its centre at the centre of the trunnion e¹. The flange and groove serve to prevent
the gun from jumping relatively with the cradle.
i, are the two discs of my friction brake having the ribs and grooves upon their
adjacent surfaces, the said discs being mounted upon a shaft or spindle carried in
the cheeks c, c² and held against rotation therein, for instance by making one end ³
thereof of square section and fitting it into the corresponding aperture in the
adjacent cheek. The disc i is loosely mounted upon the shaft and the disc
connected therewith by means of a feather so that it can move slightly in a longi-
tudinal direction but cannot rotate upon the said shaft.
is
jis the drum having gear-teeth, upon a portion of its periphery, as shewn
most clearly in Figure 5, and 3, are the teeth formed upon the underside of the
cross-head d and engaging with the teeth j, j¹ of the drum j, as shewn in Figures 1
and 3, so that as the gun recoils with the carriage or cross-head d rotary motion
will be imparted to the drum j.
Upon the back of the disc i are formed a series of radial ratchet teeth k, and in
recesses in the drum ; are placed blocks ¹ having upon them ratchet-teeth **
(Figure 5) designed to engage with the teeth k of the disc i, as shewn in Figure 6,
springs being placed behind the said blocks k in order to force them into contact
with the teeth k. The ratchet-teeth k, are so formed that during the time that
the gun is recoiling they will be in engagement and so cause the disc i to move

page_text: with the drumj whilst, when the gun is returning to its firing position, the teeth k
of the blocks will slide over the teeth k of the disc i without imparting motion
to the latter so that the discs i, ¹ will offer no resistance to the return of the gun
to its firing position.
1,1 are the plates of the Belleville spring which I employ in connection with my
friction brake. These plates are carried upon the shaft and bear at one side
against a nut m whilst at the other side they exert their pressure against the disc i
to force the same into contact with the disc i. The nut m which is mounted upon
the screw-threaded portion of the shaft is provided with an arm m' connected by
a link m² to the carriage d, as shewn in Figures 1, 2 and 3, in such a manner that
as the gun recoils the nut will be rotated to move it away from the Belleville
spring, whereby the pressure which it exerts upon the disc i will be gradually
reduced as the gun reaches the limit of its recoil: on the return of the gun the nut
is again moved up to the spring to exert the desired pressure.
n is the spring which serves to return the gun to its firing position after the
recoil and which is compressed during the recoil. This spring is enclosed in a
casing and at one end bears against the cap n² of the said casing whilst at the
other end it bears against a piston n³, the rod n³ of which is connected by a chain n³
to an eccentric ne formed integral with the drum j, as shewn most clearly in
Figures 3 and 4. With this arrangement it will be readily understood that as the
gun recoils the chain owing to the rotation of the drum will be wound upon the
eccentric surface n and so cause the compression of the spring n. The object of
making the surface n" eccentric is that as the force of the recoil gradually
diminishes the power exerted by the rotation of the drum j shall be expended more
forcibly than during the first part of its movement.
It will be obvious with this arrangement that after the gun has ceased to recoil
the spring n will commence to act to return the gun to its normal or firing
position.
In order that in case the recoil mechanism hereinbefore described should not
completely absorb the force of the recoil, I arrange upon the cheeks of the carriage,
buffers o, o against which the rear surface of the sides of the cross-head d will
impinge just before the termination of the recoil movement.
P, p are the ordinary brake-shoes which are adapted to be moved into contact
with the wheels a, a by the hand-wheel p' in the ordinary manner, and 7, 9 are
auxiliary shoes connected by rods q', q¹ to the axle at one side of the centre
thereof as at g, Figure 2, and normally suspended from the shoes p, p. When the
gun is in action, however, these shoes g, 9 are lowered towards the ground until
owing to their eccentric mounting they grip against the wheels. The said shoes q, 9.
are, as hereinbefore stated, provided with teeth which, when the carriage tends to
recoil during the firing of the gun, will bite into the ground.
Even when a gun-carriage is provided with recoil mechanism the carriage will
in some cases as for instance on slippery ground move rearwardly to a certain
extent and the trail will also swing round more or less owing to the rifling of the
gun, thereby rendering it necessary to re-train the gun by moving the trail.
According to my invention I provide that any motion of the carriage shall be
practically in line with the axis of the gun and that the lateral movement of the
trail shall be prevented. This I accomplish by forming upon the ordinary shoe of
the trail a longitudinal blade or knife which, as the carriage moves rearwardly,
or through the elasticity of the trail and the action of the shoes q, q moves forward
again, will ensure its remaining in the proper direction and also prevent any lateral
movement.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:-
1. In apparatus for checking the recoil of a gun, the combination of a sliḍing

page_text: with teeth on the said carriage and two discs held in frictional contact and
combined with the drum in such a manner that, when during the recoil of the gun
the said drum is rotated, one of the said discs will also be rotated relatively to the
other, substantially as, and for the purpose, described.
2. In apparatus for checking the recoil of a gun, the combination of a cross-head
or carriage upon which the gun is mounted, a drum connected with the said carriage
or cross-head by gearing, two friction discs, one of which is fixed whilst the other
is adapted to be rotated by the drum, a spring designed to force the said discs into
frictional contact and means for relieving the pressure of the said spring during the
recoil, all substantially as described.
3. The combination with apparatus of the kind hereinbefore described for
checking the recoil of a gun of the guides in which the cross-bar carrying the
elevating screw of the gun slides during the recoil, substantially as described.
4. In a travelling gun-carriage a wheel-brake in two parts, one of which serves
to brake the wheels when travelling, whilst the other serves when firing to assist in
preventing the carriage from recoiling, substantially as described.
5. The improved mechanism for checking the recoil of guns constructed and
arranged substantially in the manner hereinbefore described and illustrated in the
accompanying drawings.
Deted this 12th day of Feb 1902
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Agents for the Applicant.