IMPROVEMENTS IN PROJECTILES, AND IN FIRE-ARMS FOR DISCHARGING THE SAME.
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert William Woollcombe, of Stoke, in the County
い
of Devon, Surgeon to the Devon Artillery Militia, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PROJECTILES, AND IN FIRE-ARMS FOR DISCHARGING THE
SAME.
Sealed the 12th November 1861, and dated the 14th May 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert William Woollcombe.
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 14th May 1861.
I, ROBERT WILLIAM WOOLLCOMBE, of Stoke, in the County of Devon,
Surgeon to the Devon Artillery Militia, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PROJECTILES, AND IN FIRE-ARMS FOR
DISCHARGING THE SAME," to be as follows:-
My. Invention consists in constructing projectiles in the form of discs, rings,
and oblate spheroids, in order to obtain cycloidal rotation in contradistinction
to helical or rifle rotation as generally employed, and: I prefer to make the.
projectiles excentric, but with the centre of gravity in the equatorial plane.
My improvements in fire-arms apply more especially to large ordnance, and
are intended for the discharge of my improved projectiles above referred to.
They consist in forming the bore straight, that is, without twist, and of a
section to correspond with the transverse section of the projectile, leaving
just sufficient room for the projectile to roll in the bore:

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert William Woollcombe in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 14th November 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
WILLIAM WOOLLCOMBE, "of Stoke,, in the County of Devon, Surgeon to the
Devon Artillery Militia, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of May, 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
me, the said Robert William Woollcombe; Her special licence that I, the said
Robert William Woollcombe, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Robert William Woollcombe, 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 PROJECTILES, AND IN FIRE-ARMS FOR DIS-
CHARGING THE SAME," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Robert, William Woollcombe, 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.
. NOW KNOW.YE, that I, the said Robert William Woollcombe, 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 thereof, reference being, had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say
I
My. Invention consists in constructing projectiles in the form of discs, rings,
and oblate spheroids in order to obtain cycloidal, rotation in contradistinction
to helical or rifle rotation as generally, employed, and I prefer to make the
projectiles excentric but with the centre of gravity in the equatorial plane...
My improvements in fire-arms apply more especially to large ordnance, and
are intended for the discharge of my improved projectiles above referred to.
They consist in forming the bore straight, that is, without twist, and of a

page_text: section to correspond with the transverse section of the projectile, leaving just
sufficient room for the projectile to roll in the bore.
'Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a transverse section, and
Figure 2 a side view of a projectile in the form of a disc of metal. a, a, are
cavities one on each side of the discs whereby the projectiles are rendered
excentric; the cavities a, a, may or may not be plugged with wood, com-
position, or other material as desired, and of specific gravity different to that
of the projectile. Figure 3 is a transverse section, and Figure 4 a longitudinal
section of similar discs of metal rendered excentric by holes made in the
centre of the zone and filled or stopped with a plug a of different specific
gravity to that of the projectile. Figures 5 and 6 are end and side views
respectively of projectiles in which the excentricity is produced by removing
a small quantity of metal from four points at the edge of the discs as shown
at a, a. In Figure 6 a sabot is attached to the disc; Figure 7 is a
transverse, and, Figure 8 a longitudinal section of a hollow shot or shell
(with sabot) made according to my Invention, having a greater amount of
metal on one side of the shell than on the other, as shown at the upper part
in the Drawings; this extra thickness produces the required excentricity;
this thickness may, if so needed, be somewhat greater towards the front thani
at the back, or vice versa, to make allowance for the lightening or: the
preponderating effect of any particular fuse; when the shell is in the position
shown in the Drawings the centre of gravity will be above the geometrical
centre, and it must so be when fired (with a margin to front or rear of a few
degrees) in all the excentric projectiles I employ. Figure 9 is a transverse
section of a simple concentric disc of my Invention, to which cycloidal rotation
may be given by firing it at a depressed angle; I also prefer it for double
shotting; Figure 9 also represents a transverse section, and Figure 10 a side
view of a disc in which the excentricity is produced by making of somewhat
oval form one side of it; the lower side is shown so shaped in the Drawing,
but its lowest part or base is circular in profile and across the zone to permit
of due suppression of windage. Figure 11 is a transverse, and Figure 12
à longitudinal section of a projectile in which a series of excentric discs or
plates of metal are laid together and secured by any suitable adhesive material ;
sixteen discs are here shown each having a hole made in it, so that when
the plates are laid together the holes coincide and form an aperture through
the projectile and produce its excentricity; when the discharge takes place
the discs separate from one another, the sides of the discs are roughened to
prevent them sliding on one another; I do not limit myself to any particular
number of such plates for such projectile, and I also employ sometimes but

page_text: one disc as a projectile of this section for solid or hollow shot and shell (as
in other outlines). Figure 12 is a transverse, and Fig. 12.B a longitudinal
section of a compound disc, composed as Figures 11 and 12, excepting that
the holes for excentricity are not cylindrical but truncated cones with bases
towards the equatorial-plane of the whole projectile and apices towards the sides.
These cavities are in each component of this compound disc to be made wide
enough to correct the lateral excentricity caused by the obliquity of its zone;
the cavities extend half through each component plate of this compound disc;
Fig. 12 C is a transverse section, and 12 D a side view of inner side of middle com;
ponent ring of a compound shot excentric by a spherical cavity, which also tends
to counteract lateral excentricity of each ring; Figure 14 is a side view of an
angular zoned disc, having parts a, a, cut out to produce its excentricity,
and Fig. 13 is an end view of it; Figures 15 and 16 are transverse and
longitudinal sections of a projectile of the form of an oblate spheroid. a, a,
are the wooden or other plugs for producing its excentricity; Figure 17 is
'a transverse section, and Figure 18 a side view of the disc, the outline of a
transverse section of the zone of which is in the form of a semicircle; the
space between the dotted lines in Figure 17 indicates the extent of plane
surface in the projectile. At Figure 19 I have shown in perspective view
one method in which an ordinary service gun may be adapted to fire projectiles
of any
of the forms before given in Figures 1 to 10; c, c, are movable
cheeks placed in a common cylindrically bored gun a. They are made of
iron bars planed and turned, and are welded to the bolt d behind. This bolt
passes through a hole made in the breech end of a common gun in the line
of the axis of the cylindrical bore; it is then screwed up on the outside and
rear of the gun by a nut. The hole in the breech for such purpose is about
ths the diameter of the bore of the gun, and is filled by the smooth
portion of the bolt e. The cheeks are kept close to the sides of the gun either
by bolts screwing into them passing through the sides of the gun, as shewn
in section at Figure 20, or by a very shallow dovetailed groove cut straight
along each side of the gun, as shewn at Figure 24 in a direction perpendicular
to the common axis of the trunnions; a corresponding dovetailed projection
running straight along the convexity of the cheeks, which may also be secured
by dovetails, thus keeping the cheeks close to the sides of the gun;
the long
axis of the bore is then perpendicular to the common axis of the trunnions,
and it must be so in each gun constructed on my principle.
"
Figure 21, represents a section in advance of the trunnions of a gun to fire
the discs shewn in Figures 1 to 10; and with a similarly suitable section of
bore, or when the bore is of a corresponding shape to fire the projectiles shown
.

page_text: at Figures 11 to 17. In each form of section of bore the external transverse
section of gun should be in conformity with the section of bore, thus in
Figure 21 I make the external angles to lie in a line prolonged through the
angles of the bore A, B, C, D, from the points. E and F on the side opposite,
but I do not limit myself to such exact external form, but recommend. this
method for a bored out, or cast hollow and cooled from inside iron, or steel,
or gun metal gun, or gun which may also be strengthened by: hoops (as
before used) to project or fire such discs, as the angles are thus rendered
rigid against transverse strain, while the construction causes four girder-like
projections along the length of the gun to sustain it against the longitudinal
strain. Also a common service gun with cylindrical bore may be bored out
so as to fire any of the projectiles of my Invention, the breech end of the gun
being strengthened by hoops in a way before employed, that part of the gun
having been previously reduced to admit of the rings being driven and shrunk
on as before practised.
As of
Figure 22 is a side view, and Figure 23 a back view of a sabot which I
sometimes attach to the projectiles as shown in Figures 6 and 8, but I lay
no claim to the mode of attachment or material of which sabots are made.
They may be of light wood, or they may be of a composition already known
and used as a lubricating material of glue, sawdust, and stearine.
necessity in my projectiles the polar diameter is in every case of the
Long we
shortest and (excepting in Figs. 11, 12,) the equatorial the largest, but I do
not limit myself to any particular relative length of one diameter to the other
or beyond the limitation that the boundary of the equatorial plane of my
projectiles before mentioned shall (with one exception, as at Figure 10, when
it is oval) be always circular, I do not limit myself to any one form for the
zone, videlicet, that it should be always an arc of a circle, as in Figures 1, 3, 5,
7, 9, 17, or always elliptical, as at Figure 15, or of any particular angle, as at
Figure 13, or straight, as at Figure 11; nor do I limit myself similarly and
with reference to the variety, in application of my principle as here explained,
respecting outline of my projectiles to any one form of bore of the gun.
divis
All the above-named projectiles are included in the terms disc rings and
oblate spheroids, the essential point in my Invention being constructing (with
suitable guns) the above-named forms as being those most naturally prepared to
receive and retain cycloidal rotation, and though I prefer commonly to effect
such rotation in these bodies of my design by the employment in them of the
well known excentric principle, I do not limit myself (as with reference to
preceding description of Fig. 9) to the effecting of this object in these bodies
by the excentric principle only.

page_text: And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed; I declare that I claim
discs
⚫ 'First, the construction of projectiles in the form of dise rings and oblate
spheroids to obtain cycloidal rotation, substantially in manner herein-before
described with reference to the accompanying Drawings.
Second, the construction of guns having the bore of a section to correspond
with the transverse section of the projectile, substantially as herein-before
described with reference to Figures 19, 20, 21, and 24, of the accompanying
Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert William Woollcombe, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of November, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
ROBERT WILLIAM WOOLLCOMBE. (L.S.)