IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edwin Charles Green at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
8th April 1871.-A communication from abroad by Frederick J.
Abbey and James H. Foster, both of the City of Chicago, United
States of America.
I, EDWIN CHARLES GREEN, of Cheltenham, in the County of
Gloucester, Gun Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS," to be
as follows:-
These improvements refer to breech-loading fire-arms of the kind
called drop-down guns or guns the barrels of which turn in a vertical
planc upon the body to expose their breech ends for charging, and
the said improvements consist of the following arrangement or com-
bination of parts for fastening down the barrels to the body, and for
preventing the separation of the breech ends of the barrels from the
face of the break-off on the discharge of the gun.
The barrels are
bolted down by means of a horizontal sliding bolt working in the break-
off and taking into a notch or hook part in the face of the lump on
the under side of the barrels. The lower part of the said face of the

page_text: lump is curved or inclined and the nose of
the horizontal DOIL IS
also inclined. The said bolt is withdrawn to release the barrels by
means of a lever; a spring pressing on the said lever tends to force
home the said bolt. The open breech ends of the barrels are securely
held against the face of the break-off on the discharge of the gun
and the escape of gas thereby prevented by means of two lateral bolts
sliding in the upper part of the break-off at right angles to the
axes of the barrels, the said lateral bolts taking into a projection at
the upper part of the breech ends of the barrels. These lateral bolts
are actuated by the sliding horizontal bolt in the following manner :—
Behind and parallel to the face of the break-off are two vertical levers
The lower
crossing one another and turning on a common centre.
short arms of these vertical levers are engaged in a V slot in the
horizontal bolt of the gun and the upper arms of the said levers take
into slots in the lateral bolts. By means of the V slot in the horizontal
bolt the motion of the said bolt in one or other direction causes the
arms of the vertical levers to approach to or recede from one another.
When the barrels are shut down the projecting part beyond the face
of the barrels drops into a recess at the top and middle of the break-off.
The said projecting part of the barrels has a lateral hole in it of a size
proper to receive the inner ends of the lateral bolts, the said hole when
the barrels are shut down coinciding with the lateral bolts. When the
upper arms of the vertical levers at the back of the break-off recede
from one another the lateral bolts are simultaneously withdrawn from
the hole in the projecting part of the barrels, and when the upper arms
of the said vertical levers approach one another, a corresponding motion
is given to the lateral bolts, and the latter snap into the hole in the
projecting part of the barrels. On shutting down the barrels the lump
pushes back the horizontal bolt, the motion of the said bolt being
transmitted to the lateral bolts by the vertical levers described. The
lateral bolts are thereby withdrawn from the recess in the top of the
break-off in which the projecting part of the barrels takes, and on the
complete shutting down of the barrels the horizontal bolt snaps into the
lump and the lateral bolts by the same motion are made to snap into
the hole in the projecting part of the barrels, and the barrels are bolted
to the body as well as to the face of the break-off. The withdrawal
of the horizontal sliding bolt by its lever simultaneously withdraws the
lateral bolts and releases the barrels. The vertical levers may turn upon
independent centres instead of upon the same centre. In this case the

page_text: position of the V slot in the horizontal bolt which actuates them is
reversed. The barrels are jointed to the body by means of a cross pin
or bolt passing through a lug on the under side of the barrels.
The rear
face of the said lug is inclined and when the barrels are shut down the
said inclined face of the lug seats itself against the inclined end of the
slot in the body of the gun in which the said lug works.