IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS, AND IN THE CARTRIDGE CASES TO BE USED THEREWITH
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Walsh at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th
February 1863.
I, JOHN HENRY WALSH, of Kensington, in the County of Middlesex, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS, AND IN THE CARTRIDGE CASES TO BE USED THEREWITH,"
to be as follows:-
I attach a false breech to the barrel by a strap and hinge joint working
sideways, and fixed about two inches in front of the breech; this false breech
carries also the lock plate and working parts of the lock, and when in its place
is backed up by another strap connecting the barrel with the handle or stock.
The false breech is bored from the barrel with a central hole, in which I fix
a plunger or cartridge case extractor, which is worked by an inclined cam in
front of the breech actuated by a side lever lying flat upon the side of the lock
plate when the breech is locked. The plunger is confined in its place by a
screw in the side of the false breech which works in an inclined slot cut in
the plunger on a plane parallel to the inclined face of the cam. Upon the
face of the plunger which enters the barrel a projecting flange is turned, half
of which is cut away, so that when the lever is raised it allows the flange to
pass over the rim of the cartridge case, but when the lever is depressed the
flange lays hold of the rim of the cartridge case, and (on opening the breech)
withdraws it from its seat in the chamber. The plunger carries a central
striking pin which receives the blow of the hammer upon its back end, being

page_text: connected to it by a link which draws the pin back at half or full cock, but is
arranged in a slightly oblique direction so as not to convey the blow.
This Invention is capable of being adapted to double as well as single guns,
and to shot guns as well as rifles. I also use for double rifles a double front
sight (one bead for each barrel) and a back sight graduated at its sides, so
that each barrel is separately sighted.
I employ a steel cartridge case clothed with thin paper, silk, or other fibrous
material at its fore end, which is attached to it by a cement composed of
three parts solution of gum arabic in water and one part of copal spirit
varnish. When this mixture is made, a solid mass is deposited, which must be
removed. The back end of the cartridge case has a projecting rim to fit the
flange of the extractor, and a small nipple is screwed in the centre, after
which the cartridge case is bored out to the shape of the ordinary "patent
breech." The space between the nipple and the case is filled up by a steel
screw, which is so fitted as to prevent any escape of gas between it and the
cap, or the ordinary central-fire paper cartridge may be used.
: The novelties in this Invention consist in the mode of opening and closing
the breech without depressing the barrel, or thrusting it forwards, and yet
allowing the cartridge to be pushed in straight from behind, and in the adap-
tation of a cartridge-extracting power quite independent of the barrel, and not
therefore weakening the latter by cutting a slot therein, as is the case with
ordinary extractors.
The novelty in the cartridge case consists in clothing it with a thin layer of
paper, silk, or other fibrous material attached by a new compound, and in the
peculiar arrangement of the nipple cover. The attachment of the hammer to
the striking pin is also carried out in a novel manner, so as to draw back the
pin without impeding the full blow of the hammer.