IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF GIVING ROTATION TO PRO- TRAMIT AND STOPPING WINDAGE IN ORDNANCE
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Andrew Noble, Captain, late of the Royal
Artillery, now of Elswick Works, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF GIVING ROTATION TO PRO-
TRAMIT
AND STOPPING WINDAGE IN ORDNANCE."
Sealed the 14th July 1874, and dated the 13th February 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Andrew Noble at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th February 1874.
I, ANDREW NOBLE, Captain, late of the Royal Artillery, now of
Elswick Works, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF GIVING ROTATION
TO PROJECTILES AND STOPPING WINDAGE IN ORDNANCE," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the mode of giving
rotation to projectiles, and stopping windage in ordnance.
These improvements consist of a method of expanding a soft metal
s the projectile so as to force it into the

page_text: grooves of the gun. The back end of the projectile is of a conical form,
and the soft metal ring when forced forward is wedged out and squeezed
into the grooves.
In order to force forward the ring a sabot of steel, iron, or other
strong metal rests upon the ring of soft metal. A vacant space is left 5
between the sabot and the shot, so that the force of the gas acting
upon the base of the shot drives forward the sabot and with it the ring,
which is thereby expanded in the manner described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Andrew Noble in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 13th August 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANDREW
NOBLE, Captain, late of the Royal Artillery, now of Elswick Works,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Andrew Noble, Her special
license that I, the said Andrew Noble, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Andrew Noble, 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, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MODE OF GIVING ROTATION TO PROJECTILES AND STOPPING WINDAGE IN
ORDNANCE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Andrew
Noble, 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 Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: ..
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Andrew Noble, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
These improvements consist of a method of expanding a soft metal
ring attached to the base of the projectile so as to force it into the
grooves of the gun. The back end of the projectile is of a conical form,
and the soft metal ring when forced forward is wedged out and squeezed
into the grooves.
In order to force forward the ring a sabot of steel, iron, or other
strong metal rests upon the ring of soft metal. A vacant space is left
between the sabot and the shot, so that the force of the gas acting
upon the base of the shot drives forward the sabot and with it the ring,
which is thereby expanded in the manner described.
Figure 1 shews a projectile fitted up according to these improve-
ments and intended for use in a gun rifled with a number of shallow
grooves.
a is a ring of copper fitting on to the coned rear of the projectile,
and prevented from slipping round by projections on its interior surface
which fit into corresponding grooves on the projectile; or these pro-
jections may be dispensed with and the copper ring forced not only
into the rifling but also into the grooves on the projectile by the
pressure of the gas generated in the gun. 6 is the steel or strong
metal sabot which receives the pressure of the powder gases, and whilst
retaining its own form forces the copper ring a forwards on to the
coned rear of the projectile, thereby expanding it, and causing it to
fill up the shallow grooves of the rifling, and to close the bore of the
gun against the passage of the gases past the projectile; c is a small
ring of copper which, on being forced forward by the sabot, becomes
wedged into the recesses d and e, and so holds the sabot on to the end
of the projectile in such manner as to prevent it from coming off during
the flight of the projectile; f is a ring of lead to prevent the gas from
forcing a passage between the sabot 6 and the end g of the projectile.
In projectiles which are to be used with guns rifled with a small
number of deep grooves, as in the Woolwich system, projections nearly
filling the grooves are formed upon the exterior of the soft metal ring a,
as is shown in Figures 2 and 3. In this case the expansion of the ring

page_text: causes the projections to fill the grooves completely, and the parts of the
ring between the projection being also expanded the whole bore of the
gun is closed against the passage of the gases.
I would remark that the use, in connection with the soft metal ring,
of a strong metal sabot capable of sustaining the pressure of the gases
in the gun without distortion is an important feature in my improve-
ments;
it ensures an uniform action upon the soft ring all around the
shot, and a regularity of expansion which would be unattainable from
the direct pressure of the gases upon the soft ring.
What I claim is, the means for giving rotation to projectiles, and
stopping windage in ordnance, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Andrew Noble, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.