T IMPROVEMED TO 18 FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Gottlieb Zeller, of No. 12, Great Prescot Street,
Goodman's Fields, in the County of Middlesex, Gun Manufacturer,
for the Invention of
T
IMPROVEMED TO 18
FIRE-ARMS.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Gottlieb Zeller at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
27th May 1870.
I, GOTTLIEB ZELLER, of No. 12, Great Prescot Street, Goodman's
Fields, in the County of Middlesex, Gun Manufacturer, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE-ARMS,"
to be as follows:―
This Invention consists in a new construction of breech-loading
fire-arms, combining great simplicity with force.
And that my Invention may be readily understood, reference is made.
to the accompanying 2 Sheets of Drawings, numbered 1 & 2.

page_text: Its principal mechanism consists in furnishing two trigger guards.
The pressure of the long trigger from guard No. 1 arms the inferior
trigger guard, entering at the same time into the tension. By again
pressing the trigger guard the arm will be loaded.
Thus, by this principle of Invention, there are two trigger guards.
One trigger guard forming the great spring and the gun lock plate, as
set forth in the Drawings, as follows:-
Sheet 1. Figs. 1 & 2 show the large and small guards; Fig. 3, the
lock block; Fig. 4, the charge spring.
Sheet 2. The same figures of reference as above are applicable, but
SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, and of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, by the said
Gottlieb Zeller in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th December
1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GOTTLIEB
ZELLER, of No. 12, Great Prescot Street, Goodman's Fields, in the
County of Middlesex, Gun Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of May, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Gottlieb Zeller, Her special licence that
I, the said Gottlieb Zeller, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Gottlieb Zeller, 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 FIRE-ARMS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Gottlieb Zeller, 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

page_text: 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 seven calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Gottlieb Zeller, 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 :-
This Invention consists in a new construction of breech-loading
apparatus for fire-arms, combining great simplicity with force.
The principal feature in the apparatus consists in the employment of
two trigger guards, in the manner and for the purpose herein-after
described.
And that my Invention may be readily understood reference is made
to the accompanying Drawings, in which the same letters of reference
are employed to indicate similar parts in all the Figures.

page_text: breech.
c is a spring provided with a claw d which is made to act in
such manner that when g is pushed back by the action of the short arm
of the outer trigger guard the catch his caught and held by the catch
of the spring c.
The action of my apparatus is as follows:-When the piece has been
fired the outer trigger guard 6 is depressed, its short arm m is pressed
into the recess n in the breech block and so moves it downwards, the
block k acting on the ejector / extracts the cartridge case. The block
as it descends pushes back the finger g against the action of the spring a
and causes the catch h to engage with the catch of the spring d. The
striker d is pushed back by the upper arm of the ejector 7. The piece
is now cocked, and in the position shewn in Fig. 7; a fresh cartridge is
then inserted in the breech end of the barrel, the outer trigger guard
is returned to its place, as shewn in Fig. 1, but the hook h instead of
being free from d will be engaged with it.
When the gun is loaded and it is necessary to fire it the pull of the
trigger c causes the spring catch d to move and to release the catch h,
and the finger 9 which is moved forward by the action of a in its
unrestrained condition drives the needle or striker forward and through
the base of the cartridge and explodes the fulminate contained in it;
the piece may then be charged as before.
I do not confine myself to use the trigger guard as a great spring,
but, on the contrary, I desire to operate a combination of both of them,
and therefore I deem it necessary to insert this explanatory description.
The combination would become more easy and the weapon consequently
cheaper if the inferior trigger guard was wholly abolished, and instead
of it a flat spring was applied fastened with screws on the outer side of
the lock plate. This spring has a slight cavity at the fore end, in which
one end of the above-mentioned trigger guard is moving, on this the
lock spring presses, this part is fastened on the lock plate and operates
as vigorously as the trigger guard used as a great spring and is less
subject to bursting.
Having thus described the nature and object of my said Invention,
I would observe in conclusion that I do not claim separately as a part
of my Invention the trigger guard used as a main spring; but what I
claim and desire to be secured to me by the herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent is, the combination of the several parts forming my

page_text: improved breech-loading apparatus constructed and arranged sub-
stantially as herein-before described and shewn in the annexed
Drawings, or any mere modification thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said Gottlieb Zeller, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
GOTTLIEB ZELLER. (L.S.)