Improvements in Fire Arms.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 29th Aug., 1899-Accepted, 18th Nov., 1899
Improvements in Fire Arms.
I, JACOB RUPERTUS, of 5519, Royal Street, Germantown, in the City and
County of Philadelphia, and State of Pennsylvania, United States of America,
Mechanic, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement:-
My improvements relate especially to the hammer and hammer controlling
mechanism of fire arms, and it my object to provide a self-cocking fire arm
combining simplicity of parts with reliability in operation, and which shall be
so constructed and arranged as to be especially secure against accidental
discharge.
In the accompanying drawings I show, and herein I describe my improvements
as employed in connection with a well-known type of revolver, provided with
a hood which encloses and conceals the hammer.'"
In the accompanying drawings,
Figure 1 is a view in side elevation, partly in section, of a revolver embodying
a good form of my invention, the parts being shown as occupying their normal
position.
Figure 2 is a view similar to Figure 1, the parts being shown in the position
which they occupy at the moment of the discharge of a cartridge.
In the accompanying drawings,
A is the pistol barrel, B the revolving cartridge holder, C the stock, and D
the hammer enclosing hood.
E is a transverse plate which closes the front of the lock chamber, provided
with the usual hammer channel, as shown particularly in Figure 1, through
which the nose of the descending hammer passes to encounter a cartridge in the
cartridge holder disposed in line with said opening.
F is the hammer, the upper portion of which is, in the form illustrated in the
drawings, suitably fashioned for operation within the hood-covered lock-chamber,
which hammer is mounted upon and free for rotative oscillation with respect to
a pivot the respective extremities of which are housed in the side walls of
said chamber.
The front portion of the lower end of the hammer is conveniently provided
with a bearing shoulder f, whereof hereinafter.
The trigger G is pivotally mounted for oscillation upon a pivot g, the respec-
tive extremities of which are housed in the side walls of the lock chamber, ard
is provided with a finger piece, g¹ of any usual form around which extends the
usual metallic guard I.
H is a dog or pawl adapted to be tripped in the movement of the trigger.
Preferably the trigger is formed with a central dog recess extending vertically
through its body and opening through its upper and lower edges respectively,
and I prefer to locate the dog in this chamber and pivotally mount it upon
the pivot g upon which the trigger is mounted, but independent of said trigger,
with the result that said dog and trigger are capable of slight oscillation inde-
FQ,71

page_text: sure, the trigger link, pivot pin, spring link, and hammer link, all rising as
said spring yields, until said pivot pin is slightly above a line intersecting the
pivot of the hammer and the point of connection j¹ between the main spring
and main spring link.
So soon as the parts are in this last described position, a portion of the strength
or thrust of the main spring becomes directed, through the main spring link and
the hammer link, against the hammer, and will tend to force said hammer
down; at the same time the front wall of the dog recess, or other device intended
for the tripping of the dog,-will in the rearward movement of the trigger en-
counter the lower end of the dog and occasion its rearward movement, thereby,
of course, throwing its upper end forward and clear of the bearing shoulder of
the hammer.
As soon as by the tripping of the dog the shoulder of the hammer is released,
said hammer is, by that portion of the force of the main spring which has been
diverted, so to speak, from its normal application directly against the trigger,
driven strongly and abruptly forward, to encounter and occasion the explosion
of the charge within the cartridge.
After such discharge, as soon as the manual pressure is removed from the
finger piece, the main spring, which has not ceased to bear more strongly against
the trigger than against the hammer, will, by pressure against said trigger, drive
said trigger forward to its normal position and at the same time through the
hammer link draw said hammer backward to its open position.
This action is due to the fact that at the time of the release of the manual
pressure against the finger piece, the parts are in the position shown in Figure 2,
with the main spring exerting force through the hammer link against the
hammer and through the trigger link against the trigger.
Inasmuch as the hammer cannot further yield or move further forward, whilst
the trigger can very readily do so, said trigger will under the stress of the spring
immediately begin to move forward.
Very slight movement forward of the trigger lowers the pivot pin P so that it
falls below an imaginary line passing through the pivot of the hammer and the
point of junction of the main spring and its link, with the result that the two
links K M assume a more angular relationship and the stress of the mainspring
not only ceases to press the hammer forward but acts to draw it rearwardly.
At the moment the hammer reaches its open or cocked position and the trigger
almost reaches its normal forward position, the rear wall of the dog recess or the
spring disposed in front thereof,-encounters the lower end of said dog, and,
moving it forward, occasions the rearward movement of its projecting upper end
into locking engagement with the shoulder of the hammer.
The trigger is of course to be equipped with the usual devices through the
operation of which the rotation of the cartridge cylinder is occasioned.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is―
1. In a fire arm, a trigger, a pivoted hammer, and a mainspring, a connection
between said spring and said trigger through which said spring tends to con-
stantly force said trigger forward, and a movable connection between said spring
and said hammer through which when said connection is in normal position
and the trigger is forward said spring holds said hammer in open position, but
through which when moved or elevated by the rearward movement of the trigger
said spring forces said hammer to closed position, substantially as set forth.
2. In a fire arm, a trigger, a pivoted hammer, and a main spring, a connection
between said spring and said trigger through which said spring tends to con-
stantly force said trigger forward, and a movable connection between said spring
and said hammer through which when said connection is in normal position