IMPROVEMENTS IN IGNITING SHELLS AND SINTLAD PROTERMITE "
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Ambrose McEvoy, of 28, Bedford Square,
in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
IGNITING SHELLS AND SINTLAD PROTERMITE "
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Ambrose 'M⚫Evoy
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
19th December 1865.
I, CHARLES AMBROSE MEVOY, of 28, Bedford Square, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE
MENTS IN IGNITING SHELLS AND SIMILAR PROJECTILES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in igniting shells and similar
projectiles. For some purposes it is desirable that the fuses of shells should
be arranged to fire them after a considerable interval has elapsed from the
firing of the gun or mortar by which the shell is projected. Now the time
fuses of shells as at present constructed are suitable only for a delay measured
by fractions of a minute. When it is desired that a considerable interval
should elapse between the firing of the gun or mortar and the bursting of the
projectile, I employ a fuse containing a small bottle or vessel, say, of glass,
and holding sulphuric acid or other corrosive liquid; this bottle is so packed in
the fuse as not to be liable to injury in carriage; but when the shell is thrown
from a gun or mortar, the shock of the explosion causes the breakage of the

page_text: bottle; this may be done conveniently by the use of a striker, such as is
commonly employed in concussion fuses. The corrosive liquid on its escape
from the bottle finds itself confined by a casing of zinc or other material
which it is able to attack, and it will take a greater or less time to eat
throngh this casing according to the thickness thereof and the material of
which it is made. On escaping from the destructible casing the corrosive
liquid meets with a composition of chlorate of potash and sugar, or it may be
other composition which it is capable of firing, and so the explosion is
determined. The explosion may in this way be produced at any desired
interval, varying from a few minutes to many days. When the destructible
casing is of zinc, I prefer that the zinc should be in contact with copper or
some other metal which is negative to it, as then the solution of the zinc in
the acid will go on with greater regularity.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Ambrose McEvoy in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 19th June 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
AMBROSE M°EVOY, of 28, Bedford Square, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Charles Ambrose McEvoy, Her special licence that I, the said Charles
Ambrose M°Evoy, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Charles Ambrose M°Evoy, 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 IGNITING SHELLS AND SIMILAR PROJECTILES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles Ambrose
M°Evoy, 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

page_text: Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said Letters Patent.
.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Ambrose McEvoy, 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 has for its object improvements in igniting shells and similar
projectiles. For some purposes it is desirable that the fuses of shells should
be arranged to fire them after a considerable interval has elapsed from the
firing of the gun or mortar by which the shell is projected. Now the time
fuses of shells as at present constructed are suitable only for a delay measured
by fractions of a minute. When it is desired that a considerable interval
should elapse between the firing of the gun or mortar and the bursting of the
projectile, I employ a fuse containing a small bottle or vessel, say, of glass,
and holding sulphuric acid or other corrosive liquid; this bottle is so packed
in the fuse as not to be liable to injury in carriage; but when the shell is
thrown from a gun or mortar, the shock of the explosion causes the breakage
of the bottle; this may be done conveniently by the use of a striker, such as
is commonly employed in concussion fuses. The corrosive liquid on its escape
from the bottle finds itself confined by a casing of zinc or other material which
it is able to attack, and it will take a greater or less time to eat through this
casing according to the thickness thereof and the material of which it is made.
On escaping from the destructable casing the corrosive liquid meets with a
composition of chlorate of potash and sugar, or it may be other composition
which it is capable of firing, and so the explosion is determined. The explosion
may in this way be produced at any desired interval, varying from a few
minutes to many days.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, I will proceed more fully
to describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shows a longitudinal section of the plug or bushing of a shell with
the time fuse therein; Figures 2 and 3 show the two end views thereof; the
other Figures show the separate parts of the fuse.
a is the plug or bushing, which is hollow, but closed at the outer end; b is
a tube of brass, which is screwed at its two ends 6, 6, in order to receive the
two caps c, c, which have each a passage c¹ through its centre, in which is
packed chlorate of potash and sugar, or other composition which is capable of
and with the said an athan na lii

page_text: discs of zinc, parchment, paper, or other substance which will be eaten away
by the acid or other corrosive liquid when the same is set free by the breaking
of the glass vessel e, which is contained in the brass tube, and is packed therein
with cotton or soft material which will retain it free from movement in the
tube b. In place of the discs d, d, the ends or the whole of the glass vessel
may be cased or covered with separating material, so long as the acid or other
corrosive fluid will not on the breaking of the vessel get to the composition
in c without eating through the separating material; f is a metal striker such
as is used in concussion fuses, and it is retained from movement by a thin
wire at f' till the shell is fired, when the striker will be set free; 9, 9, are
metal discs perforated in the centre; a, a, are passages through the sides of
the bush or plug a, in order that the fire from the composition in c³ may pass
out from the interior of the plug or bushing a, and this is facilitated by the
caps c being grooved outside. According to the thickness of the separating
material and the power of the fluid to act thereon, so will be the length of
time occupied in the liquid eating through the separating material, and
consequently the time that a shell will take in bursting after the glass vessel
is broken.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in which
I perform the same, I would state that what I claim is, the combined arrange-
ment herein described; and the use in time fuses of shells and other similar
projectiles of separating material to be eaten through by the acid or other
corrosive liquid, as above explained.
In witness whereof; I, the said Charles Ambrose McEvoy, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Second day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight-hundred and sixty-six.