IMPROVEMENTS IN PROJECTILES FOR ORDNANCE
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Josiah Vavasseur, of the London Ordnance
Works, Bear Lane, Southwark, in the County of Surrey, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PROJECTILES FOR ORDNANCE."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Josiah Vavasseur at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 30th April 1874.
I, JOSIAH VAVASSEUR, of the London Ordnance Works, Bear Lane,
5 Southwark, in the County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PROJECTILES FOR ORDNANCE," to -be
as follows:-
This Invention relates to improvements in projectiles for ordnance,
and particularly to that class of projectiles in which the rotation due to
O rifling is given by means of bands or rings fixed into grooves formed
around the projectile.

page_text: Hitherto such bands or rings have been made as described in the
Specification of a Patent granted to me and another, No. 92, in the
year 1866, by means of a strip of metal or wire wound round the pro-
jectile, and forced into the groove, the ends of such strip being brought
together and soldered or simply butted.
According to my present Invention I employ for this purpose solid
rings or tubes of copper, or other suitable metal; or I use rings or tubes
having a joint in the circumference, but with the ends completely united
at such joint before putting on the projectile, in order to avoid the
difficulty of forming the joint in the rings consequent on the former
construction, and I afterwards insert such solid metal rings into the
grooves formed to receive them in the projectile. Various ways of
inserting the solid metal rings into the grooves may be adopted.
In some cases I take a solid drawn tube of copper or other suitable
metal, the inside diameter of which is only so much larger than the
outside diameter of the body of projectile as to admit of being slipped
or driven on to it. I divide or cut across the tube transversely, so as to
obtain rings of suitable width. I slip or drive these rings on to the
projectile until they come above the grooves turned to receive them, and
I then pass the projectile through a conical die slightly smaller than the
metal ring; the latter is thereby contracted or reduced, and forced into
the groove of the projectile. I continue the operation by passing
through dies successively smaller than the first until the ring or band is
secured on the projectile. Or I use solid drawn tubes with inside
diameter smaller than the body of the projectile, and having cut-off
rings or bands from the same I cause them to expand by heating until
they are sufficiently large to pass over the projectile, so that on cooling
they will contract into the grooves, and either become fixed by such
contraction or I further reduce them by passing the projectile through
conical dies.
When the projectile is for a breech-loading cannon the outside
diameter of the bands or rings is made larger than the body of the pro-
jectile, so that when the projectile is fired the rings are forced into the
grooves of the gun, and cause the projectile to rotate. I also employ
rings or bands formed of solid tube made in a similar manner to those
previously described for the purpose of stopping the windage in ordnance.

page_text: In this case I make the inside diameter of the ring or band at one end
larger than at the other, and fix the ring on the prejectile by forcing
the smaller part into a groove or recess suitably formed in the projectile
near its base. The larger part of the ring extends from the groove to
the base of the projectile, at which part the latter is reduced, so as to
leave a space between it and the interior of the ring, so that on firing
the gun
the gas
from the ignited charge will enter the space, and cause
the ring to expand until the exterior of it presses against the bore of
the gun, thereby stopping the windage.
This part of the Invention is applicable especially to projectiles for
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Josiah Vavasseur in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 30th October 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSIAH
VAVASSEUR, of the London Ordnance Works, Bear Lane, Southwark, in
the County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of April, 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
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Josiah Vavasseur, Her`
special license that I, the said Josiah Vavasseur, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Josiah
Vavasseur, 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 FOR ORDNANCE," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Josiah Vavasseur, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their

page_text: 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. Josiah Vavasseur, 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 :—
This Invention relates to improvements in projectiles for ordnance,
and particularly to that class of projectiles in which the rotation due to
rifling is given by means of bands or rings fixed into grooves formed
around the projectile.
Hitherto such bands or rings have been made as described in the
Specification of a Patent granted to me and another, No. 92, in the
year 1866, by means of a strip of metal or wire wound round the pro-
jectile, and forced into the groove, the ends of such strip being brought
together and soldered or simply butted.
According to my present Invention I employ for this purpose solid
rings or tubes of copper or other suitable metal; or I use rings or tubes
having a joint in the circumference, but with the ends completely united
at such joint before putting on the projectile, in order to avoid the
difficulty of forming the joint in the rings consequent on the former
construction, and I afterwards insert such solid metal rings into the
grooves formed to receive them in the projectile. Various ways of
inserting the solid metal rings into the grooves may be adopted.
In some cases I take a solid drawn tube of copper or other suitable
metal, the inside diameter of which is only so much larger than the
outside diameter of the body of projectile as to admit of being slipped
or driven on to it. I divide or cut across the tube transversely, so as to
obtain rings of suitable width. I slip or drive these rings on to the
projectile until they come above the grooves turned to receive them, and
I then pass the projectile through a conical die slightly smaller than the
metal ring; the latter is thereby contracted or reduced; and forced into

page_text: °
the groove of the projectile. I continue the operation by passing
through dies successively smaller than the first until the ring or band is
secured on the projectile. Or I use solid drawn tubes with inside
diameter smaller than the body of the projectile, and having cut-off
rings or bands from the same I cause them to expand by heating until
they are sufficiently large to pass over the projectile, so that on cooling
they will contract into the grooves, and either become fixed by such
contraction or I further reduce them by passing the projectile through
conical dies.
When the projectile is for a breech-loading cannon the outside
diameter of the bands or rings is made larger than the body of the pro-
jectile, so that when the projectile is fired the rings are forced into the
grooves of the gun, and cause the projectile to rotate. I also employ
rings or bands formed of solid tube made in a similar manner to those
previously described for the purpose of stopping the windage in ordnance.
In this case I make the inside diameter of the ring or band at one end
larger than at the other, and fix the ring on the projectile by forcing
the smaller part into a groove or recess suitably formed in the projectile
near its base. The larger part of the ring extends from the groove to
the base of the projectile, at which part the latter is reduced so as to
leave a space between it and the interior of the ring, so that on firing
the gun the gas from the ignited charge will enter the space, and cause
the ring to expand until the exterior of it presses against the bore of the
gun, thereby stopping the windage.
This part of the Invention is applicable especially to projectiles for
muzzle-loading guns.
In the Drawings annexed Figure 1 shews a projectile for a breech-
loading gun having solid or complete metal rings a, b, fixed, as above
described, into grooves formed around the body of the projectile, in order
to give rotation to it when fired from a gun. One method of forming
the rings a, b, is shewn at Figures 2 and 3, in which e is a metal tube
either drawn from a solid tube of metal without joint, or if jointed
each ring is completely united at such joint before being applied to the
shot; ff, shew rings obtained by dividing or cutting the tube transversely
at the points g: The interior diameter of the rings is such as to allow
of their being either slipped or driven on or expanded by heat, and

page_text: passed over the body of the projectile A, Figure 1, until they come above
or can shrink into the grooves formed around the body. When the
rings are not secured upon the projectile by the operation of shrinking,
the projectile is passed, together with the rings, through conical dies,
each successively smaller than the one preceding it, so that the rings a, b,
Figure 1, are thereby contracted in diameter until secured on the pro-
jectile with sufficient firmness to enable the desired rotation to be given
to the projectile when fired from a rifled breech-loading gun. The sides
of the grooves may if desired be undercut, as represented by the dotted
lines in Figure 1.
At Figure 4 I have shewn a projectile for a muzzle-loading gun,
having near its base a solid or complete metal ring / for the purpose of
cutting off the windage, this ring being secured into a groove formed
around the body of the projectile in a similar manner to that above
described with respect to projectiles for breech-loading guns. The part
of the ring ¹ furthest from the base of the projectile is of smaller
internal diameter than the rear part h² of the same ring. The part h' is
secured on the projectile by being either shrunk or forced (by passing
the projectile through conical dies) into a groove formed around the
body of the projectile. The rear part h² of the ring is made sufficiently
thin to admit of its being expanded by the force of the gases of the
ignited charge passing into the space between the inside of the ring and
the outside of the base of the projectile, which is suitably reduced for
the purpose. The rear part of the ring being thus expanded will
press against the bore of the gun, and thereby stop windage.
The rings may be of any desired form on the exterior to adapt them
to be used from rifled guns, and may be of any suitable form on the
inside to allow of the necessary expansion to cut off the escape of gas
when the charge is ignited.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, I would have it understood that I claim as my
improvements in projectiles for ordnance,-
1. The forming projectiles with complete rings of copper or other
suitable metal introduced into grooves formed around the body of the
°

page_text: 2. The forming projectiles with expanding rings for cutting off
windage attached to them, substantially in the manner herein
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Josiah Vavasseur, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.