IMPROVEMENTS IN CARTRIDGES
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Adolph Nitzke, of Spandau, in the Kingdom of
Prussia, but now residing at Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Adolph Nitzke at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th February 1874.
I, ADOLPH NITZKE, of Spandau, in the Kingdom of Prussia, but now
residing at Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CARTRIDGES," to
be as follows:-
The object of my Invention of improvements in cartridges is to so
construct the metal cases of these articles that they shall be less liable
to burst or crack (when the cartridge is discharged) than metal cases
made in the ordinary manner.

page_text: The particular kind of case to which my Invention is particularly
applicable is that known as the solid head cartridge, in which, when
made in the ordinary manner the end of the powder room or space is
lower or behind the level of the flange of the head. This being the
case the metal is liable to be fractured by the explosion at the junction
of the flange with the body of the case, and when such an accident
occurs there is an escape from the breech of the gun of gas and flame,
which is annoying and dangerous to the soldier. To obviate this defect
I thicken or deepen the head of the case and place the inner end of the
powder space or room somewhat in advance of the flange. The body of
the case is thereby thickened and strengthened at this part, and even
should a fracture occur it must take place well in the bore of the gun,
so that there will be no (or at any rate very little) escape of gas or
flame from the breech of the arm.
SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, and of an Order of the Lord Chancellor by the said Adolph
Nitzke in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 8th September 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ADOLPH
NITZKE, of Spandau, in the Kingdom of Prussia, but now residing at
Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Adolph Nitzke, Her special
licence, that I, the said Adolph Nitzke, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Adolph Nitzke, my execu-
tors, 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
CARTRIDGES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Adolph
Nitzke, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing

page_text: Drawing, for the purpose of preventing the cases from bursting at this
part, as herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Adolph Nitzke, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-first day of August, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.