IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF REVOLVING AND REPEATING FIRE-ARMS, PART OF WHICH INVENTION IS ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER ARMS
Year: 1862

page_text: Girard, of Washington, in the United States of America, Doctor of
Medicine, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF
REVOLVING AND REPEATING FIRE-ARMS, PART OF WHICH INVENTION IS ALSO
APPLICABLE TO OTHER ARMS."
Sealed the 10th October 1862, and dated the 15th April 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said François Alexandre Le Mat
and Charles Frederic Girard at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 15th April 1862.
We, FRANÇOIS ALEXANDRE LE MAT, of New Orleans, in the United States
of America, Colonel Aide-de-Camp, and CHARLES FREDERIC GIRARD, of
Washington, in the United States of America, Doctor of Medicine, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUC-
TION OF REVOLVING AND REPEATING FIRE-ARMS, PART OF WHICH INVENTION IS
ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER ARMS," to be as follows:-
Our Invention, as far as it applies to revolving and repeating fire-arms,
consists in an improved lock, and in an improved means of fixing and of rotating

page_text: the revolving chamber when required for the purpose of firing the charge from
one of the compartments, and of locking the chamber when the arm is being
carried, and of causing the chamber to rotate after the discharge of one of the
compartments to present another compartment for being (lischarged.
The part of the Invention which applies to other fire-arms as well as to
revolving arms is the lock. The lock is constructed as follows:-The body of
the hammer is centred upon a pin held in the stock; it has a circular aperture
made at the back and just above the heel, and to this heel a link is pinned
which receives the fore end of the mainspring, which is a simple straight
blade of steel, the rear end of which is held in a jaw or otherwise attached to
the under part and inside of the stock. The breast of the hammer is formed
with two notches for the cock and half cock; a trigger and trigger spring
complete the lock for ordinary fire-arms. For arms with revolving brecch
chambers the following parts are added:-On the near side of the body of the
hammer and at the lower part thereof a link is screwed; this link is formed
with two projecting studs, one on the rear, which enters an aperture made for
its reception in the body of the hammer, and the other, projecting from the
opposite side and fore end, enters an eye in the lower end of a paul, the upper
end of which takes into the ratchet on the rear of the revolving chamber. At
the proper time this ratchet comes into action and drives round the chamber.
In the far side of the stock a recess is formed for the reception of a circular
spring, let into and secured to the far side of the body of the hammer; this
spring is made with a projecting lip, which takes into a notch made in the
barrel of a bolt, the fore end of which is thinned off, passes through the shield
at the rear of the chamber, and enters one or other of a series of holes made
in the rear thereof; a spiral spring is fitted in the recess in the stock, and
keeps the locking bolt engaged in one or other of the said holes until forced
back by the spring on the body of the hammer engaging in the notch, and
when so forced back the chamber is ready for being revolved by the ratchet as
before described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said François Alexandre Le Mat and Charles Frederic Girard in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 15th October 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, FRANÇOIS
ALEXANDRE LE MAT, of New Orleans, in the United States of America,

page_text: Colonel Aide-de-Camp, and CHARLES FREDERIC GIRARD, of Washington, in the
United States of America, Doctor of Medicine, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
François Alexandre Le Mat and Charles Frederic Girard, Her special licence
that we, the said François Alexandre Le Mat and Charles Frederic Girard,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
François Alexandre Le Mat and Charles Frederic Girard, our executors, ad-
ministrators, 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 CONSTRUCTION OF REVOLVING AND
REPEATING FIRE-ARMS, PART OF WHICH INVENTION IS ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER
ARMS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said François
Alexandre Le Mat and Charles Frederic Girard, or one of us, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of our
or 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said François Alexandre Le Mat and
Charles Frederic Girard, 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 thereof, reference being had
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say:-
Our Invention, as far as it applies to revolving and repeating fire-arms,
consists in an improved lock, and in an improved means of fixing, and of
rotating the revolving chamber when required for the purpose of firing the
charge from one of the comparments, and of locking the chamber when the
arm is being carried, and of causing the chamber to rotate after the discharge
of one of the compartments to present another compartment for being dis-
charged. The part of the Invention which applies to other fire-arms as well
as to revolving arms is the lock.
The lock is constructed as follows:-The body of the hammer is centred
upon a pin held in the stock, it has a circular aperture made at the back and

page_text: just above the heel, and to this heel a link is pinned which receives the fore
end of the main spring, which is a simple straight blade of steel, the rear end
of which is held in a jaw, or otherwise attached to the under part and inside
of the stock. The breast of the hammer is formed with two notches for the
cock and half cock; a trigger and trigger spring complete the lock for ordi-
nary fire-arms. For arms with revolving breech chambers the following parts
are added: On the near side of the body of the hammer and at the lower
part thereof a link is screwed; this link is formed with two projecting studs,
one on the rear which enters an aperture made for its reception in the body of
the hammer, and the other, projecting from the opposite side and fore end,
enters an eye in the lower end of a paul, the upper end of which takes into
the ratchet on the rear of the revolving chamber. At the proper time this
ratchet comes into action and drives round the chamber. In the far side of
the stock a recess is formed for the reception of a circular spring, let into and
secured to the far side of the body of the hammer; this spring is made with a
projecting lip, which takes into a notch made in the barrel of a bolt, the fore-
end of which is thinned off, passes through the shield at the rear of the
chamber, and enters one or other of a series of holes made in the rear thereof;
a spiral spring is fitted in the recess in the stock, and keeps the locking bolt
engaged in one or other of the said holes, until forced back by the spring on
the body of the hammer engaging in the notch, and when so forced back, the
chamber is ready for being revolved by the ratchet as before described.
In the accompanying Drawings we have shewn our Invention applied to
one of our patent pistols having a central barrel, round which a breech
chamber with nine charge compartments is free to revolve, there is the usual
barrel common to all the compartments. Figure 1, is a longitudinal section
of such a pistol with our present Invention applied thereto.
A, is a malleable cast-iron stock, shewn detached at Figure 2, the side
plate a, Figure 3, and the wood of the stock are removed for clearness; B, is
the hammer, shewn detached in side elevation at Figure 4, and in front view
at Figure 5; b, is the pin on which the hammer is centred; c, is the aperture
made at the back and just above the heel d; cis the link shewn in front
elevation at Figure 6, and in side view at Figure 7, which is pinned to the
heel d, and holds the fore end of the main spring f, which is a straight blade
of steel as shewn in plan at Figure 8, and in side elevation at Figure 9. The
back end of this spring is secured by a pin in a recess g in the interior of the
stock; the notches on the breast of the hammer for the cock and half cock
are shewn at h, Figure 4; i is the trigger, shewn detached in side elevation

page_text: at Figure 10, and k Figure 11, is the trigger spring. As before stated, we
make the following additions for arms with revolving chambers:- is a link,
shewn detached in front and side elevations at Figures 12 and 13. It is
formed with two projecting pins as shewn at Figure 13; one of these pins
enters a hole. made to receive it in the thickness of the hammer, while the
other enters an eye in the lower end of the paul or lever m; the loop is further
secured to the hammer by a screw pin; n is a spring for keeping the upper
end of the paul in the ratchet on the rear of the revolving chamber; o, Figure
2, is a recess made in the inside of the lock plate on the far side of the stock,
in which the circular spring p, screwed to the far side of the hammer, see
Figure 4, works; q is a projecting lip in which one end of spring p termi-
nates; r is the locking bolt shewn in position in the stock at Figure 2, and
detached at Figure 14; s, the notch against which the lip on the spring
p bears; the curve t assists the entrance of the lip into the notch; u is the
coiled spring, and v is a nut for keeping the bolt in position. Figure 15 is an
elevation of the back end of the revolving chamber; w, w, are the holes into
one of which the fore end of the locking bolt enters; x, x, are the nipples,
y, y the ratchet teeth, and z is the aperture through which the central barrel
passes.
Figures 16, 17, 18, and 19, represent a modification of the locking appa-
ratus. Figure 16 shews so much of the interior of the far-side lock plate as
is necessary to explain this modification. Instead of the circular recess, we
make a recess of the form shewn at Figure 16, and we fix therein the pin a;
we make the locking bolt D of the form shewn at Figure 17, and place it in
the recess with the front end in the groove b; we fit the eye c, in which one
end of the spring E, Figure 18, terminates on the pin a, and engage the other
end in the chamber d', d', in the bolt. F is a projection on the side of the
hammer which coming against the spring catch c' on the rear of the bolt,
withdraws it from one of the holes w, w in the rear of the chamber, and allows
of the chamber being moved one division by the paul when the spring catch is
released, and the bolt is pressed forward by the spring E into another hole in
the chamber, whereby it is locked until the compartment presented for firing
has been discharged. Figure 20 is an elevation of a carbine with our improve-
ments applied.
And having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we declare that we claim,-
First, the improved lock herein-before described and represented in the
accompanying Drawings for revolving and other fire-arms.

page_text: Second, the arrangements of parts for rotating and locking the chambers of
revolving fire-arms herein-before described and represented in the accom-
panying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Frederic Girard, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of October, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-two.
Witnesses,
E. GAUTHERIN,
CHARLES FREDERIC GIRARD. (L.S.)
A. BINET (1, Rue Laffitte).