BATTERY OR MACHINE GUNS."
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Kiernan at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 6th November 1880.
THOMAS KIERNAN, of the City of Waterford, Ireland.
BATTERY OR MACHINE GUNS."
"IMPROVEMENTS IN
This Invention relates to improvements in battery or machine guns, the object
of the improvements being chiefly to simplify their construction and to enable them
to be loaded and discharged with greater rapidity than hitherto by means of an
automatic loading applianco as hereinafter described.
In carrying out my Invention I fix on a suitable frame a number of gun barrels
placed side by side and at the required intervals apart. Each barrel is provided with
a breech piece having a spring case and firing needle or pin; the rear ends of tho
breech pieces are suitably fastened to a horizontal travelling bar which is moved to
and fro as hereinafter described to open and close the breeches. I provide receptacles
to receive the cartridges before they are pushed into the barrel, each of such
receptacles consisting of a half cylinder, the neck of which fits round the rear end
of the gun barrel, the other end sliding into the breech piece round the spring case,
the forward and backward motion of the breech pieces being rendered even by
means of a guide bar running in a support at each side. To this guide bar is
attached a crank worked by a connecting bar fixed in supports at the back of the
apparatus and turned by a withdrawing handle. On the other side of the said
guide bar is fixed one end of a levor, the other end of which is jointed to a
vertical bar fixed to the hammer bar for setting the hammers. When the breech
pieces are drawn back and the hammer bar thus turned, a pin therein is caught by
a setting spring so as to keep the hammers at full cock. Two light travelling bars
are provided, one placed in front of the cartridge magazine hereinafter described,
and the other at the rear end of the breech piece moved by a handle, which I call
the loading handle, by means of suitable cranks. Above the bereinbefore described
cartridge receptacle is placed a box or magazine (fitted with a check plate worked
by a bar) for holding a number of cartridges arranged ready for use, and so as to
be dropped in the said receptacle as required; such boxes or magazines are arranged
Bo as to be removeable.
When the travelling bar in front of the cartridge magazine is raised the check
plate is released and a cartridge is dropped in the receptacle, the return of the bar

page_text: bringing back the check plate to its normal position. I also provide a firing handle
pivotted at one end and having a vertical pin, the lower end of which rests on the
hereinbefore described setting spring.
A
When the withdrawing handle is drawn back the breeches are opened to receive
cartridges; the empty discharged cartridges are pulled out by a pin operated by the
travelling bar moving the breech pieces, and the hammers are set at full cock. The
loading handle is then turned to the left, thereby turning round the cartridge
carriers to receive cartridges by means of the travelling bar in front of the cartridge
magazine, and at the same time the check plate will be set free. The same motion
of the loading handle turns the travelling bar at the rear end of the breech piece,
which therefore turns and empties the barrels of the discharged cartridges.
reverse motion of the loading handle turns back the two travelling bars and thus
at the same moment empties the cartridge carriers and turns round the barrels to
receive their contents. By now pushing back the withdrawing handle the
cartridges are forced into the barrels, which are then loaded and ready to be fired.
A sudden pressure on the firing handle forces down the setting spring and sets the
hammer bar and the hammers free. Firing springs (by means of a connecting bar,
one end of which is fixed to the end of the spring and the other end jointed to the
lower end of the vertical bar fixed to the hammer bar) immediately act on the
hammer bar, and the hammers are driven against the firing needles or pins, thereby
discharging the whole of the cartridges in the barrels simultaneously.
I encase the frame of the apparatus in any suitable ball-proof metal, and I
provide a shield of similar metal in front of the apparatus to protect it against
injury in the field.