IMPROVEMENTS IN BATTERY OR MACHINE GUNS
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by David Patchell and Thomas Kiernan
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 22nd November 1877.
DAVID PATCHELL and THOMAS KIERNAN, both of the City of Waterford, Ireland.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN BATTERY OR MACHINE GUNS."
This Invention relates to improvements in battery or machine guns, the object of
the improvements being chiefly to simplify their construction, and to enable them to
be loaded and discharged with greater rapidity than hitherto by means of an auto-
matic loading appliance as herein-after described.
In carrying out our Invention we fix on a suitable frame a number of gun
barrels placed side by side, and at the required intervals apart. Each barrel is pro-
vided with a breech piece, having a spring case and firing needle or pin: the rear
ends of the breech pieces are suitably fastened to a horizontal travelling bar which
is moved to and fro, as herein-after described, to open and close the breeches.
We provide receptacles to receive the cartridges before they are pushed into the
barrel, each of such receptacles consisting of a half cylinder, the neck of which fits
round the rear end of the gun barrel, the other end sliding into the breech piece
round the spring case, the forward and backward motion of the breech pieces being
rendered even by means of a guide bar running in a support at each side. To this
guide bar is attached a crank worked by a connecting bar fixed in supports at the
back of the apparatus and turned by a withdrawing handle. On the other side of
the said guide bar is fixed one end of a lever, the other end of which is jointed
to a vertical bar fixed to the hammer bar for setting the hammers. When the
breech pieces are drawn back, and the hammer bar thus turned, a pin therein is
caught by a setting spring so as to keep the hammers at full-cock. Two light
travelling bars are provided, one placed in front of the cartridge magazine, herein-
after described, and the other at the rear end of the breech piece, moved by a handle,
which we call the loading handle, by means of suitable cranks.
Above the herein-before described cartridge receptacle is placed a box or maga-
zine (fitted with a check plate worked by a bar) for holding a number of cartridges
arranged ready for use, and so as to be dropped in the said receptacle as required.
When the travelling bar in front of the cartridge magazine is raised, the check
Pies 271

page_text: plate is released, and a cartridge is dropped in the receptacle, the return of the bar
bringing back the check plate to its normal position. We also provide a firing
handle, pivotted at one end, and having a vertical pin, the lower end of which rests
on the herein-before described setting spring.
When the withdrawing handle is drawn back the breeches are opened to receive
cartridges; the empty discharged cartridges are pulled out by a pin operated by the
travelling bar moving the breech pieces, and the hammers are set at full-cock. The
loading handle is then turned to the left, thereby turning round the cartridge
carriers to receive cartridges by means of the travelling bar in front of the cartridge
magazine, and at the same time the check plate will be set free.
The same motion of the loading handle turns the travelling bar at the rear
end of the breech piece, which therefore turns and empties the gun barrels of the
discharged cartridges.
A reverse motion of the loading handle turns back the two travelling bars, and
thus at the same moment empties the cartridge carriers and turns round the barrels
to receive their contents. By now pushing back the withdrawing handle the car-
tridges are forced into the gun barrels, which are then loaded and ready to be fired.
A sudden pressure on the firing handle forces down the setting spring and sets the
hammer bar and the hammers free.
Firing springs (by means of a connecting bar, one end of which is fixed to the
end of the spring, and the other end jointed to the lower end of the vertical bar
fixed to the hammer bar) immediately act on the hammer bar, and the hammers are
driven against the firing needles or pins, thereby discharging the whole of the car-
tridges in the barrels simultaneously.