IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE AND IN An NADEDEnana AD SAMED " PROJECTILES AND CARTRIDGES FOR
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Scott Russell, of Sydenham, in the County
of Kent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE AND IN
An NADEDEnana AD
SAMED "
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Scott Russell
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 24th January 1872.
I, JOHN SCOTT RUSSELL, of Sydenham, in the County of Kent,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN ORDNANCE AND IN PROJECTILES AND CARTRIDGES FOR THE SAME," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in ordnance and in
projectiles and cartridges for the same.
In the construction of heavy ordnance it is now common to employ
lining tubes of steel. These lining tubes are very liable to fracture,
partly in consequence of the nature of the material and partly of the
system on which it is rifled.

page_text: According to my Invention I employ lining tubes of bronze, a material
which will yield sufficiently to the force of the explosion to avoid liability
to fracture in the use of the gun, and I rifle such lining tubes with very
wide grooves of uniform depth, leaving narrow ridges to guide the shot.
This method of rifling allows the slight and momentary extension of
the metal which takes place when the gun is fired to be distributed
uniformly over the greater part of the circumference of the lining tube,
whereas when the gun is rifled in the usual way by narrow grooves
which render a small portion of the circumference of the lining tube
much weaker than the rest the extension on firing is localised and
concentrated upon this comparatively small portion of the circumference
and fracture results.
The projectiles I cast of a diameter to fill the rifling grooves of the
gun, except that the head and base of the shot are but slightly larger in
diameter than the ridges of the rifling. Grooves are formed in the
projectile to correspond with these ridges. These grooves being of
considerable length the guiding surfaces which rotate the shot when the
gun is fired are only exposed to a moderate pressure, whereas when studs
are used to enter the rifle grooves this pressure is excessive. The inner
angles of the grooves in the projectile are sharp, but the outer angles
are well rounded, so that they are not liable to injury by rough usage,
besides which sharp angles at the bottom of the grooves in the lining
tube would be injurious.
In constructing cartridges to keep the pressure as regular as possible
throughout the discharge I mould the powder into prisms, which
fit together to form cylinders, and these cylinders I arrange con-
centrically one within the other. I ignite the arrangement from the
centre, so that the combustion may take place outwards cylinder by
cylinder.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 30
filed by the said John Scott Russell in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 23rd July 1872.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the.
thirty-fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Scott Russell, Her special
license that I, the said John Scott Russell, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Scott Russell, my
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 ORDNANCE AND IN PROJECTILES AND CARTRIDGES FOR THE SAME," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Scott Russell, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my; or
their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 I, the said John Scott Russell, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same.
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in ordnance and in
projectiles and cartridges for the same.
In the construction of heavy ordnance it is now common to employ
lining tubes of steel. These lining tubes are very liable to fracture,.
partly in consequence of the nature of the material and partly of the
system on which it is rifled.
According to my Invention I employ lining tubes. of bronze, a material
which will yield sufficiently to the force of the explosion to avoid liability
to fracture in the use of the gun, and I rifle such lining tubes with very
wide grooves of uniform depth, leaving narrow ridges to guide the shot.
This method of rifling allows the slight and momentary extension of
the metal which takes place when the gun is fired to be distributed
uniformly over the greater part of the circumference of the lining tube,

page_text: whereas when the gun is rifled in the usual way by narrow grooves
which render a small portion of the circumference of the lining tube
much weaker than the rest, the extension on firing is localised and
concentrated upon this comparatively small portion of the circumference
and fracture results.
The projectiles I cast of a diameter to nearly fill the rifling grooves of
the gun. Grooves are formed in the projectile to correspond with the
ridges. These grooves being of considerable length the guiding surfaces
which rotate the shot when the gun is fired are only exposed to a
moderate pressure, whereas when studs are used to enter the rifle
grooves this pressure is excessive. The inner angles of the grooves in
the projectile are sharp, but the outer angles are well rounded, so that
they are not liable to injury by rough usage.
In constructing cartridges to keep the pressure as regular as possible
throughout the discharge I mould the powder into prisms, which fit
together to form cylinders, and these cylinders I arrange concentrically
one within the other; or I form the powder into a single cylinder
hollow at the centre, and I ignite the arrangement from this centre, so
that the combustion may take place outwards cylinder by cylinder; or
I take common powder or pebble powder, and form successive concentric
cylindric cartridges of it so as to ignite one after the other progressively
from the centre.
What I claim is the construction of ordnance with bronze lining tubes
substantially as described.
I also claim the method of rifling ordnance and projectiles sub-
stantially as described.
I also claim the method of constructing cartridges with the powder
arranged to burn progressively outwards from the centre cylinder by
cylinder, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Scott Russell, have hercunto
set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of July, in the year