REVOLVING CYLINDER BATTERY OR CANNON AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1856

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by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Wilkens at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 6th September
.1856. A communication.
I, WILLIAM WILKENS, of Baltimore, State of Maryland, United States
of America, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "REVOLVING CYLINDER BATTERY OR CANNON AND APPARATUS CONNECTED
THEREWITH," to be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention consists in the peculiar construction of a revolving battery
or cannon, by which the different operations of loading, swabbing, pricking,
cocking, and discharging are made self-acting by one prime motion of a lever.
Also for preventing heating by excessive firing, by a circulation of water
through chambers in the breech or barrel.
It is composed of a main frame of cast iron, mounted upon a carriage and
wheels of the usual construction. A portion of the main frame consists of a
circular table or bed plate, also of suitable brackets to support the barrel of
the cannon. To the block under the bed plate is keyed a strong vertical
centre pin or axis, upon which a revolving cylinder or circular plate rotates.
This cylinder is formed with eight conical chambers, or a suitable number, on
its periphery for containing the cartridges. Each of the chambers are formed
with projecting conical nozzles and bosses, which nozzles fit in a corresponding
recess in the barrel of the cannon for the purpose of forming a good joint;

page_text: also a conical steel ring is fixed in the above recess at the end of the barrel,
fitting in a V groove in the projecting nozzles for the same object. The
barrel is moved to or from the revolving cylinder by means of toggle joints
or levers working on suitable fulcrums, which levers are in connection with
two square connecting rods, screwing into and united together by a cross head,
formed with a projecting piece, against which the teeth of a cam ratchet wheel
operate, by which means, in combination with a helical spring placed in a
suitable cylinder, the above objects are accomplished. The cam ratchet wheel
is worked by a long lever, furnished with a paul, which gears in the teeth of
the wheel. At each end of the cross head is a jaw or yoke, in which works a
stud pin, attached to the short arm of a bell-crank lever. When the lever
causes the cam ratchet wheel to rotate the short arms of the two levers.
are pushed back, thus causing the long arms working in suitable jaws or yokes
to put in action the rammer and swabber. The latter are fixed to rods,
attached by screws to cross heads working in suitable guides.
The swabber and rammer are each opposite a chamber, when a third
chamber is opposite the barrel. In this manner the two operations of
swabbing and ramming are effected.
On a bracket bolted to the main frame is fixed the pricking apparatus,
which consists of a horizontal bearer, on the end of which is an upright bar
with a lug at each end. At the other end of the bearer there is a centre pin
screwed in it, which forms a fulcrum for a lever to work on. At the opposite
end of the lever is a fork, in which works a pin attached to the pricking needle.
There are two steel springs, one pressing on the top and the other the bottom
of the lever. A stud pin fixed to a carrier acts upon the inclined plane of
the spring, and the passage of the pin over it causes the lever to be depressed.
By this operation the cartridge is pricked.
Opposite the barrel is placed a hammer, the head of which passes over the
vent hole of the cannon. At the opposite end are two slots, in which are two
supporting stud pins. The slots allow a horizontal as well as a vertical motion
to take place, by means of a slider working vertically in a groove in the centre
pin of the cylinder. This slider has two projecting teeth, one at each end;
the upper acts on the inclined plane of the hammer, and pushes it forward,
and then raises it up; the lower tooth gears with the vertical ratchet teeth
placed underneath the cam ratchet wheel. The hammer is pressed down by a
spring.
The cam ratchet wheel and the revolving cylinder are made to revolve by a
long lever, having pawls on it, one operating on the cam wheel and the other
"now the aulinder

page_text: There is a notch made in the table of the main frame, into which a small
bar or bolt enters when moving the lever to the right, and is for the purpose
of stopping the lever, so as to allow the cannon to be discharged before the
helical spring before mentioned has an opportunity of withdrawing the barrel
from the cylinder, the vertical teeth of the cam wheel being set a little in
advance of the horizontal teeth. As soon as the cannon is discharged, the bolt
or bar is withdrawn, and the helical spring released by turning the lever, and
consequently the cam wheel a little farther round, when the helical spring
forces the cross head towards the centre of the cylinder, thereby withdrawing
the barrel, the swabber, and rammer from the cylinder, and causing the
cartridge that the rammer has rammed in its inward course to be pricked,
The long lever is then moved
which operations are performed simultaneously.
in a contrary direction, and the pawl fixed to this lever, which has now entered
a notch in the under part of the cylinder, causes the latter to be moved so as
to bring the next chambers to each of the preceding, to be operated upon in
like manner.
Arrangements are made to prevent the cylinder from being moved too far
round by the lever. An elevating screw for adjusting the range of the cannon
is placed at the back of the carriage. The upper part of the screw abuts
against the lower part of the main frame, to the bracket of which is fixed a
strong axis or pin, resting on the top of the carriage, and allowing the elevation
or depression of the cannon.