IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING FIRE- ARMS AND CARTRIDGES TO BE USED THEREWITH.
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edwin Russ, Thomas Shewell Morris, Henry
Hammond, and Edwin Hammond, all of Winchester, in the County
of Hants, for the Invention of “IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING FIRE-
ARMS AND CARTRIDGES TO BE USED THEREWITH.
ور
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edwin Russ, Thomas
Shewell Morris, Henry Hammond, and Edwin Hammond at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the
21st March 1871.
We, EDWIN RUSS, THOMAS SHEWELL MORRIS, HENRY HAMMOND,
and EDWIN HAMMOND, all of Winchester, in the County of Hants, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS AND CARTRIDGES TO BE USED THEREWITH," to be as
follows:-
We hinge at the rear of the barrel a breech block which is capable of
being lowered into a recess formed for that purpose to withdraw the spent
cartridge and to allow another to be inserted and simultaneously cock
the arm, and to be raised to close the breech, all as hereafter described.

page_text: The breech block is hinged at its rear end, and the fore end thereof
carries a nose extending downwards with a loop or slot at the lower part.
At the side of the arm (the right-hand side by preference) there is a
bell-crank lever, one arm of which is outside the stock and the other
inside, the latter taking into the slot on the nose of the breech block,
whereby the said block is raised and lowered. The striker is inserted
in the breech block and is withdrawn from the cartridge within the end
face of the block to allow the same to rise and fall by the inside arm on
the bell-crank lever acting on a lever in connection with the striker.
The lock of the arm is of ordinary construction and the inside lever
which works the breech block also acts upon a lever on the extended
fulcrum pin of hammer and tumbler, and by these means the hammer is
raised to half or full cock. Immediately after the cartridge has been
inserted the arm may, if desired, be fired because the hammer cannot
fall sufficiently to hit the striker until the breech block is raised to its
normal position and the rear end of the barrel closed. The cartridge is
extracted by a lever on each side, the tail end of which is depressed by
the nose of block acting thercon in descending.
Our improvements in cartridges consist in applying to the base thereof
an additional disc of metal inserted between the ordinary disc and the
base of the cartridge; this disc is the size of the cartridge which is
thereby inserted further in the barrel, and in the event of the cartridge
case exploding or accidentally bursting the additional disc acts as an
extra resistance against the explosion, and at the same time the outer
disc is in a better position to withdraw the cartridge from the barrel.
This cartridge is equally applicable to other fire-arms.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edwin Russ, Thomas Shewell Morris, Henry
Hammond, and Edwin Hammond in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 21st September 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, EDWIN
RUSS, THOMAS SHEWELL MORRIS, HENRY HAMMOND, and EDWIN
HAMMOND, all of Winchester, in the County of Hants, send greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of March, in the year

page_text: of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said Edwin Russ, Thomas Shewell Morris, Henry
Hammond, and Edwin Hammond, Her special licence that we, the said
Edwin Russ, Thomas Shewell Morris, Henry Hammond, and Edwin
Hammond, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
wc, the said Edwin Russ, Thomas Shewell Morris, Henry Hammond,
and Edwin Hammond, our 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 BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS AND CARTRIDGES
TO BE USED THEREWITH," upon the condition (amongst others) that wc,
the said Edwin Russ, Thomas Shewell Morris, Henry Hammond, and
Edwin Hammond, our exccutors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under our, or their, or one of their hands and scals, 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 we, the said Edwin Russ, Thomas Shewell
Morris, Henry Hammond, and Edwin Hammond, do hereby declare the
nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings
and to the letters of reference marked thereon, that is to say :-
We hinge at the rear of the barrel a breech block which is capable of
being lowered into a recess formed for that purpose to withdraw the
spent cartridge and to allow another to be inserted and simultaneously
cock the arm, and to be raised to close the breech, all as hereafter
described. The breech block is hinged at its rear end and the fore end
thereof carries a nose extending downwards with a loop. or slot at the
lower part. At the side of the arm (the right-hand side by preference)
there is a bell-crank lever, one arm of which is outside the stock and the
other inside, the latter taking into the slot on the nose of the breech
block, whereby the said block is raised and lowered. The striker is
inserted in the breech block and is withdrawn from, the cartridge within

page_text: the end face of the block to allow the same to rise and fall by the inside
arm on the bell-crank lever acting on a lever in connection with the
striker. The lock of the arm is of ordinary construction, and the inside
lever which works the breech block also acts upon a lever on the
extended fulcrum pin. of hammer and tumbler, and by these means the
hammer is raised to half or full cock. Immediately after the cartridge
has been inserted the arm may, if desired, be fired because the hammer
cannot fall sufficiently to hit the striker until the breech block is
raised to its normal position and the rear end of the barrel closed. The
cartridge is extracted by a lever on each side, the tail end of which is 1
depressed by the nose of block acting thereon in descending.
Our improvements in, cartridges consist in applying to the base thereof
an additional disc of metal inserted between the ordinary disc and the
base of the cartridge; this disc. is the size of the cartridge which is.
thereby inserted further in the barrel, and in the event of the cartridge 1
case exploding or accidentally bursting the additional disc acts as an
extra resistance against the explosion, and at the same time the outer
disc is in a better position to withdraw the cartridge from the barrel.
This cartridge is equally applicable to other fire-arms.
And in order that our said Invention may be more fully understood;,
we proceed to describe the same with reference to the annexed
Drawings illustrating the same.
Fig. 1 is a side view of a gun made according to our Invention, the
ends being broken off and left out. It is shown in the ordinary position
ready to fire; Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section showing the 2
internal working parts of the arm in position when fired; Fig. 3, is an
outside plan view of the arm with the breech block and the hammer
in a raised position in which it may be fired; Fig. 4 is a vertical
longitudinal section through the breech block shewing the striker.
mechanism in the same; Fig. 5 is. a vertical cross section through a, a,
Fig. 2.
A is the breech block turning on the pin 6 at its rear end. The
front end extends downwards like a nose with a slot through the same,;
as shown on Figs. 2 and 4; B is the outside arm of a bell crank
in one with its fulcrum pin c, the inside arm C being fixed on the said
pin. This lever C takes with its end into the slot of the nose on the
breech block A, as shewn at Fig. 2, whereby the same is raised or
lowered. is the striker which passes through the breech block; it is

page_text: -
withdrawn from the cartridge within the end face of the block A by
means of the sliding arm e which works in a corresponding slot in the
nose of the breech block, its upper part being wedge-formed and acting
against an inclined surface in a hole formed in the enlarged portion of
the striker. The sliding arm e again is formed with a projection at its
lower end and is pulled down by the face c¹ at the end of the lever C.
coming in contact with the said projection. The sliding arm e has in
one side a recess in which the end of the lever C works, and when the
latter is raised the arm e is also raised because the lever C comes in
contact with the shoulder formed by the recess. The extended fulcrum
pin fof the hammer E carries a lever F which comes in contact with a
small projection or lug g on the lever C. On depressing the brecch
block by means of the lever B. the lug g presses against the end of the
lever F on the fulcrum pinf of the hammer, thereby raising the latter."
The spent cartridge is simultaneously withdrawn by means of two
cartridge extractors H, H, one on each side, which are formed in the
shape of levers, the lower or tail ends of which come in contact with and
are forced forward by the end of the nose of the breech block A. The
cartridge may now be inserted and the arm may be fired immediately
thereupon without any further manipulation, so that in fact there are
only two movements, one movement is the pushing forward the lever B.
simultaneously cocking the arm, withdrawing the striker, lowering the
breech block, and extracting the cartridge, and the other movement
after the insertion of the cartridge is simply to pull the trigger, and
thereby fire the arm off. The hammer may at will be put in the half or
full cook position either by the lever B or by taking hold of the hammer
itself. The cartridge chamber is here shewn enlarged, but it must be
understood that our improvements in fire-arms are not exclusively
applicable to, fire-arms of that particular construction.
Fig. 6. is a longitudinal section of a cartridge made according to our
Invention. It is bottle-shaped to suit the arm here described.
Fig. 7 is a longitudinal section of a cartridge for a fire-arm in
which the cartridge chamber is of the same size or nearly so, as the
barrel.
It will be observed that these cartridges have an additional metal
disc a at their base between the present disc and the powder charge,
this intermediate disc being of the same diameter as the cartridge itself,

page_text: which thus enters the chamber so much more, namely, to the extent of
the thickness of the metal plate.
And having now fully described the nature of this Invention, what we
claim is,―
Firstly. The combination of the lever for lowering the breech block
and the lever on the fulcrum pin of the hammer in such a manner that
the striker is withdrawn, the block lowered, and the cartridge extracted
while the hammer simultaneously is raised substantially as shown and
described.
Secondly. The construction of and mode of working the cartridge
extractor or extractors, substantially as shewn and described.
Thirdly. The construction and arrangement of the striker and the
means for withdrawing the same, substantially as shewn and described.
Fourthly. The general combination and arrangement of parts of a
fire-arm, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.
Fifthly. The application of an additional metallic disc in cartridges, as.
set forth.
In witness whereof, we, the said Edwin Russ and Edwin Hammond,.
for ourselves and on behalf of the said Thomas Shewell Morris
and Henry Hammond, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this
Sixteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand cight hundred and seventy-one.
Witness to the signatures of the
said Edwin Russ and Edwin
Hammond,
HENRY WHITE,.
Town Clerk's Office,.
Winchester.
EDWIN RUSS.
(L.S.)
EDWIN HAMMOND. (L.S.)