IMPROVEMENTS IN HAND BULLET MOULDS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN HAND BULLET MOULDS."-
A communication.
Sealed the 3rd September 1857, and dated the 8th April 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 8th April 1857.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN HAND BULLET MOULDS,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention relates, firstly, to the construction of a hand bullet mould in
such manner that it may be forced open against the adhesion of the lead to
deliver the bullets by the pressing together or towards each other of the
handles by the grasp of a single hand. This construction, with the aid of
a spring for closing the mould when the pressure of the hand is relaxed,
enables the necessary manipulations of the mould for casting bullets to be
performed by one hand, allowing the operator to use his other hand to pour
the lead, thus enabling several bullets to be cast in and discharged from the
mould one after the other with great rapidity.
The Invention relates, secondly, to the application to the mould of a cutter
(which is operated by the opening of the mould) to cut the sprue from the
bullet, and also to release the bullet from its matrix.

page_text: The Invention relates, thirdly, to the combination with the mould, con-
structed and furnished with shears operating as herein above mentioned, of
a movable core piece, which is placed within the matrix for casting hollow
bullets. This core piece is caused to turn in the cast bullets by the act of
opening the mould, and is thereby loosened from the bullet sufficiently, and
by the same act it is also brought to a position in the mould to allow the
discharge or withdrawal thereof from the mould.
These improvements may be applied to bullet moulds with one, two, or
more pairs of jaws which open simultaneously, and by the operation of one
pair of handles.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 8th October 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special license that I, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 HAND BULLET MOULDS," being a communication from abroad,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is

page_text: to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
This Invention, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent,
consists, firstly, in constructing hand bullet moulds in such manner that they
may be forced open against the adhesion of the lead to deliver the bullets by
the pressing together or towards each other of the handles by the grasp of
a single hand. This construction, with the aid of a spring for closing the
mould when the pressure of the hand is relaxed, enables the necessary.
manipulations of the mould for casting bullets to be performed by one hand,.
thus allowing the operator the use of his other hand to pour the lead. By
this means bullets may be cast in and discharged from the mould one after
the other with great rapidity, the operator holding the mould in one hand and
a ladle of metal in. the other, which cannot be done when using the common
bullet mould, the opening of whose jaws is effected by pulling or forcing apart
the handles, generally requiring the use of both hands.
This Invention consists,.secondly, in combining with the mould, constructed
so that its jaws open by the pressing of its handles towards each other, a cutter
(which is operated by the opening of the mould); to cut the sprue from the
bullet, and also to release the bullet from its matrix.
The Invention consists, thirdly, in a certain mode of combining with the
mould, constructed and furnished with shears operating as herein above
mentioned, a moveable core piece, which is placed within the matrix for
casting hollow bullets. This core piece is caused to turn in the cast bullets
by the act of opening the mould, and is thereby loosened from the bullet
sufficiently, and by the same act it is also brought to a position in the mould
to allow the discharge or withdrawal thereof from the mould.
Fig. 1 in the accompanying Drawing is a top view of a single bullet mould
for spherical bullets, in which the first and second parts of the Invention are
illustrated; Fig. 2 is a longitudinal central section of the same; Fig. 3 is
a top view of the jaws, the joint, the cutter, and parts of the shanks; Fig. 4
is a top view of one of the jaws and part of the attached shank. Similar
letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in these Figures. A, A¹, are
the two principal pieces of the implement, each piece being composed of one
jaw, a shank, and part of the joint. These two pieces, instead of crossing
each other at the joint like a pair of pincers, have their joint so constructed
that each jaw is on the same side of the implement as its attached shank,
by which construction the jaws containing the matrix are made to open by
pressing the handles together or towards each other, but otherwise they are

page_text: substantially like the two principal pieces of the common bullet mould in
general use. a is the pin of the joint; B, B, are wooden handles; C is.
a spring applied between the handles to force them apart, and close the jaws
with sufficient tightness to prevent them being inadvertently forced apart in
casting a bullet. In Fig. 1 the instrument is shown in bold outline with the
jaws closed, and in dotted outline with the handles pressed together and the
jaws open. D is the cutter for cutting off the sprue that is left on the bullet
in casting it. This cutter consists of a plate of steel fitting close to the upper
face of the jaws, and having a funnel-shaped opening d terminating on the
inner or back face of the plate in a sharp edge, as shown in the section,
Fig. 2.
It is attached to the piece A of the implement by a pin c, and it has
attached to its inner extremity a pin b, which enters a notch e (see Fig. 4)
made to receive it in that portion f of the joint that constitutes a part of the
picce A¹. When the jaws are closed the funnel-shaped opening of the plate D
stands exactly opposite to the opening of the matrix, through which the metal
is poured thereinto. By the act of opening the mould, the pins c and 6 being
caused to move in opposite directions, produce a lever-like movement of the
cutter D, and cause it to shear off the sprue that remains in the funnel-shaped
opening. To make the bullet perfect it is obvious that the matrix must
terminate in the plane of the face of the cutter D, so that the funnel-shaped
opening of the cutter contains the whole of the sprue.
The operation is as follows:-The mould being held loosely in one hand by
its handles B, B, in the condition shewn in bold outline in Fig. 1, the metal
is poured from a ladle in the other hand, and when it is supposed to be
properly set in the matrix, the grasp of the hand is tightened upon the
handles to force them together and open the mould; and by this act, at the
same time that the bullet is released from the matrix, the cutter, in moving
away from the jaw A' and over the jaw A, cuts off the sprue; the edge of that
part of the hole in the matrix which is in the piece A constituting one, and
the cutter D another shear blade.
Fig. 5 is an under side view of a single bullet mould for casting bomb.
bullets of picket form, illustrating the third feature, in addition to the other
features of the Invention; Fig. 6 is a longitudinal central section of the
same; Fig. 7 is a top view of the jaws, the joint, and the cutter. Similar
letters refer to like parts in these Figures. The bullets cast in this mould are
intended to be charged and capped to explode by percussion, thus resembling
miniature percussion shells. A, A¹, are the two principal features of the
implement; B, B, the handles; C, the spring; and D, the cutter; all of
which parts are similar to the corresponding parts of the mould first described,

page_text: excepting of course the form of the interior of the matrix. E is the core
piece, made of metal and screwed into a plate F, which fits close up against
the back of the jaws, and is carried by the joint pin a. This plate F has a
small notch between the joint pin a and the core piece E, which notch fits on
a pin g fixed in the jaw of the piece A', or the same piece which contains the
notch in which the pin b of the cutter works. The hole in the plate F,
which receives the joint pin is elongated, so as to allow the plate to play upon
the joint pin when the jaws of the mould are opened by pressing the handles
together. As the jaws open, the cutter D, operating as in the spherical bullet
mould first described, pulls the bullet away from the piece A¹, and the core
piece E moves laterally with the bullet, which for the present remains in or
against the portion of the matrix in the piece A. During the above lateral
movement of the core piece, the pin g on the pin A¹ is the centre of motion
of the plate F, and the hole i in the said plate plays upon the joint pin, which
is the centre of motion of the jaw; and as the plate F, having the core
attached, moves upon a different centre to the jaw to which the bullet is con-
fined by the cutter, the core piece must of course turn within the bullet; and
though the amount of turn is so slight as to be almost imperceptible to the
eye, still it is enough to loosen the core piece in the bullet sufficiently to allow
the latter to drop off casily, especially as the core piece is made taper. The
core piece, however, only moves about half way with the jaw A, and then is
stopped by the hole i in the plate F, having made its fullest extent of play on
the joint pin, when it becomes stationary in relation to the piece A', and the
jaw A moves away from the bullet, the cutter moving on also across the face
of A, and finishing the shearing off the spruc, which commences at the first
opening of the matrix. When the jaws are opened to the fullest extent the
core piece with the bullet in it stands about midway between the two jaws, as
shewn in Fig. 7, and on the mould being inverted the bullet drops off the
core piece and out of the mould.
Fig. 8 is a top view of a triple mould, containing three pairs of jaws and
three matrices, all working on the same joint pin a, and operated by a single
pair of handles B, B, and spring C, to open and close simultaneously.
Figures 9 and 10 are views of the two principal pieces A, A', of the mould
separated from each other. The three pairs of jaws of this mould are fitted
with cutters D, D, D, operated like those of the moulds before described, by
the pressing together of the handles to open the jaws. The three matrices of
this mould are made for bullets of different forms, as shown by the three
sections, Figures 11, 12, and 13; that shown in Fig. 13 being for a common
picket bullet; that in Fig. 12 for a bullet with oblique notches in its base, to

page_text: be acted upon by the impact of the explosion, to give the ball a rotary motion
in a smooth-bore gun; and that in Fig. 11 for the bomb bullet, for which the
mould shewn in Figures 5 and 6 is intended, being fitted with a core piece E,
attached to a plate F, operating in the same manner as in the corresponding
parts attached to that mould. The three pairs of jaws it is obvious may
contain matrices for three bullets of any different varieties or different sizes of
the same kind of bullet, and by such a construction a single implement is
made to serve the purpose of three single moulds. The three pairs of jaws may,
however, all contain matrices for the same kind of bullet, to enable three
bullets to be cast and delivered at once from the mould, thereby effecting a
great saving of time in casting bullets.
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention of "Improvements in Hand
Bullet Moulds," as communicated to me from abroad, and explained the
manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under
the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim,-
First, constructing hand bullet moulds in such a manner that they may be
forced open against the adhesion of the lead so as to deliver the cast ball by
pressing together the handles by the grasp of a single hand of the operator, as
and for the purpose herein described.
Second, combining with the hand bullet mould, or with each set of jaws in
the hand bullet mould, constructed as above described, a cutter D, or its
equivalent, operated by the act of opening and closing the mould, substantially
as specified.
Third, combining a core piece with the hand bullet mould by means of a
plate F, or its equivalent, applied substantially as herein described, so as by the
opening of the mould to cause the turning of the core in the bullet, and the
moving of the core piece to such a position as to enable the bullet to drop
from it out of the mould.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Second day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFAtt,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)