IMPROVEMENTS IN REPEATING FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Archibald Brooman
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, ou
the 8th August 1862.-A communication from abroad by Rafael Rafael,
of New York, America.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN REPEATING FIRE-ARMS," communicated to me from abroad
by Rafael Rafael, of New York, America, to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in the employment in repeating fire-arms of a
many-chambered, slide, made by preference of steel, set at right angles to the
barrel of the gun, and free to slide in a box or carrier; each chamber,carries
a separate cartridge and is provided with nipples and guards to prevent any
accidental discharge. There are .conical projections or valve seats on, the
slide which fit into a seat at the rear end of the barrel to secure a gas-tight
joint, or the barrel may enter the chamber. For the purpose of drawing the
slide along there is a series of notches formed on the under side thereof, into
which spring catches take, having motion communicated to them by means of
a cam, whereby the chambers are successively brought in a line with the barrel,
motion is communicated to the slide carrier, spring hammer, and conical spring
stop which locks the slide by a set of cams on one shaft, and a reciprocating
or vibratory lever and a spring hammer is caused to rise and fall at each
rotation of a circular inclined plane. The motions produced by these cams and
levers are, first, the withdrawal of the many-chambered steel slide from and

page_text: clear of the barrel. Second, moving it at right angles to the barrel, whereby
the chambers are made successively to correspond with the barrel. Third,
driving or pushing it up tightly against the barrel, whereby a conical projection
is introduced into the rear of the barrel, then withdrawn, and afterwards moved
laterally. Several slides may be employed so that when one is empty
another may be ready for use, and thus a continuous fire maintained. A self-
acting primer is used, consisting of two flat plates secured under fixed plates
with a perforation through which the priming falls into a cavity in the steel slide
which is in communication with its charge chamber, and the cavity is kept
covered as air-tight as may be by a small narrow plate until each cavity comes
within the action of the spring hammer and the explosion thereby effected. To
load the arm rapidly a frame is used, consisting of a series of say twenty tubes,
soldered together about say of an inch apart, but this distance must be
regulated according to the size of the arm; the tubes are open at both ends
and correspond with the chambers in the slide. A ramrod with rods in
number and size corresponding with the loader is used for simultaneously
ramming down the charges; several of these frames are supplied with each
fire-arm. Instead of the many-chambered steel slide before described a
many-chambered circular revolving platform is sometimes employed corre-
sponding with the slide before described with the exception that it rotates instead
of moving horizontally, and the shape of the cams on the cam shaft is somewhat
altered. This revolving platform is charged or loaded by a tube made fast
in a suitable frame at right angles with the barrel of the gun. The tube is
open at top so that the cartridges are inserted by hand, the mouth of the tube
corresponds with the charge chamber and is kept in a straight line therewith,
each chamber. being successively brought to the loader until all are charged;
a ramrod works in the charging tube for ramming home each charge, which
is moved by a lever united to the vibrating lever.