AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE LOCKS OF FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Benjamin Vaughan Arbuckle, of Charlton,
Kent, Captain in H. M. Army, and Thomas Scott, of Bedford Street,
in the County of Middlesex, Land Agent, for the Invention of "AN
IMPROVEMENT IN THE LOCKS OF FIRE-ARMS."
Sealed the 5th September 1861, and dated the 6th March 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Benjamin Vaughan
Arbuckle and Thomas Scott at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 6th March 1861.
We, GEORGE BENJAMIN VAUGHAN ARBUCKLE, of Charlton, Kent, Captain
in H. M. Army, and THOMAS SCOTT, of Bedford Street, in the County of
Middlesex, Land Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE LOCKS OF FIRE-ARMS," to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists in the employment of a long lever instead of a
trigger to discharge or let down the hammer in fire-arms. The lever extends
forward, and terminates in or has fixed near the end thereof a stud or button
which extends outside of the stock. By simply pressing on the stud, the
inner end of the lever or "sear" becomes disengaged from the bent in the
tumbler, and the spring then acts to drive down the hammer in the ordinary
manner.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Benjamin Vaughan Arbuckle and Thomas Scott in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 6th September 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, GEORGE
BENJAMIN VAUGHAN ARBUCKLE, of Charlton, Kent, a Captain in Her Majesty's
Army, and THOMAS SCOTT, of Bedford Street, in the County of Middlesex,
Land Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
George Benjamin Vaughan Arbuckle and Thomas Scott, Her special licence
that we, the said George Benjamin Vaughan Arbuckle and Thomas Scott, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said George
Benjamin Vaughan Arbuckle and Thomas Scott, our executors, adminis-
trators, 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE LOCKS OP FIRE-ARMS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that we, the said George Benjamin Vaughan
Arbuckle and Thomas Scott, our executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under our, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particu-
larly 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said George Benjamin Vaughan Arbuckle
and Thomas Scott; 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, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawings (that is to say):-
This Invention consists of a new description of sear by which the present
trigger of guns as now in use is dispensed with. It is made a lever as at
present, but instead of being raised by the trigger it is lengthened, and from.
the end thereof a button or piece of metal projects, and is pressed upon by the
finger, when it releases the nose of the sear from the bent in the tumbler, and
causes the hammer to fall upon the nipple, exploding the cap. The long arm

page_text: of the sear is likewise made of two pieces, one screwed on the other with a
button on the end as before.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. I. is an elevation of the sear as now in use; A, B, is the long arm;
A, C, the short arm, the nose of which C enters the bent of the tumbler; D¹
is the trigger, which being raised by pressure at D" (for it revolves on the
centre e) lifts up the arm A, B, or levers it up, k being the fulcrum.
Fig. II. represents the sear, which instead of being bent and pressed up as
in Fig. 1, is raised up by pressure upon D; k is the fulcrum.
Fig. III. represents the same, except that the arm is made of two pieces,
one of which fits on or may be screwed on to the other. The button D either
screws into the long arm A, B, or a screw is made projecting from the long
arm A, B, as in Fig. IV. In Fig. III., A', B, either slides on A, B', or is
screwed to it.
Fig. V. is an elevation of the guard which is screwed on to the stock O,
representing the orifice where the button D is shewn, and is pressed on by
the finger. The cap c is fitted or screwed on O.
What we claim, and desire to be secured, is, that henceforward fire-arms
may be discharged by the simple act of pressure upon the long arm of the
sear; the trigger as now used being cut out of the stock, which is weakened
thereby, is dispensed with, and the cap c, fitting or screwing on to O, renders
fire-arms much less liable to accident, for now the trigger is exposed; in this
the button is quite hid except when going to fire; the cover also slides over
the orifice o, as in Plan, Fig. 6.
In witness whereof, we, the said George Benjamin Vaughan Arbuckle
and Thomas Scott, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this 6th
day of September, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-one.
GEORGE BENJAMIN VAUGHAN ARBUCKLE (L.S.)
For Self & Thomas Scott.