IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MOUNTING AND. WORKING A COMBINATION OF FIRE-ARM BARRELS
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Edmonds Mulock at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 26th August 1870.
I, THOMAS EDMONDS MULOCK, of Allendale, Wimborne, in the County
of Dorset, Colonel of Infantry, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MOUNTING AND. WORKING A
COMBINATION OF FIRE-ARM BARRELS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of certain mechanical arrangements by. which
a set of gun barrels is mounted and the operations of elevating, depress-
ing, and traversing are effected in any desired direction.. The mechanism
which I employ for these purposes is as follows:--
Upon a suitable carriage mounted on wheels, with or without springs;
brackets, or bearers, are fixed, having centre pins to carry the rear end
of a table; at the other end of this table will be fixed a plate, and jointed
to this plate is a vertical screw spindle working in a nut. of a worm
wheel. This worm wheel is actuated by means of a worm and spindle

page_text: carried in brackets attached to the carriage; by turning this spindle in
either direction it will clevate or depress the front end of the table; or
the rear end of the table may be raised or lowered and the front end
work on fixed centre pins. Upon two upper tables or frames will be
fixed a number of gun barrels. in line, each provided with any suitable
or well known breech-loading action, by preference the Martini action
combined with the Henry barrel. The centre barrel is fixed parallel to
and in a centre line with the lower table, and moves horizontally on an
independant pivot of its own. The upper tables or frames-on-either
side of the central barrel are pivotted at their extreme rear ends on a
vertical centre pin fitted into the lower table, and at the other ends
on their under sides, and fixed dovetailed quadrant pieces working in
suitable guides, also fixed to the lower table. To the under side of each
of these upper tables or frames is attached a vertical centre pin, and
upon each pin. a horizontal lever is mounted, one end of which will
actuate the dovetailed quadrant pieces, whilst at the other end a nut is
provided worked by a right and left hand screw thread made on a
horizontal transverse spindle attached to the lower side of the lower
table and turned by a hand wheel.
It is also proposed to arrange the barrels so as to produce a varying
diverging fire, and for this purpose I employ a slotted plate working in.
suitable guides fixed on the under side of each of the upper tables or
frames. These slotted plates are actuated from the rear end by means
of screws, mitre wheels, spindles, and hand wheels, the screws working
in nuts provided with a cross head, and the cross head being attached to
the slotted plate by side rods. Upon each barrel is fitted a clip stud,
which enters its corresponding slot in the slotted plate, and as these
several slots are made divergent or at an angle with each barrel it
follows that the movement of the plate forward or backward will cause
the several barrels to diverge more or less. Or the barrels may be
permanently fixed on the top table or frame at any desired angle or
angles, and may be adjusted on the horizontal and vertical lines, as
described in the former part of my Specification.
For the purpose of discharging the barrels a spindle carrying levers
or tappets is so arranged under the several actions that by actuating
a lever or wheel the several barrels can be fired and the cartridges
extracted either singly or simultaneously.

page_text: To the front of the carriage I attach, above and below the gun barrels,
inclined shields of suitable thickness to protect the men serving the
machine, and at the rear end of the carriage I provide a box for tools and
ammunition. Shafts are fitted to the carriage to facilitate its transport
by horses, and a seat for men is also provided.