IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PROJECTILES
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Henelade Courtenay at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th October 1877.
ROBERT HENELADE COURTENAY, of Brighton, in the County of Sussex. "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PROJECTILES."
This Invention relates to shells to be fired from guns, and consists of improved
methods of constructing and arranging the parts of such shells, so that they are more
effective and embrace a larger area of destructive action than such shells as heretofore
ordinarily constructed and used.
I take a hollow shell, preferably cylindrical in shape, and having a conical point,
and formed of cast iron or other suitable material, with walls of sufficient thickness.
Transversely across the diameter of the cylindrical part of the shell I form or drill
at regular intervals a series of holes, each hole being drilled through one side of the
shell, but only partly through the inside of the opposite diameter of the shell.
Looking at the shell in end view, these holes are not formed in a line with each
other, but at angles, so that each hole is made through a different diameter of the
shell. Into each of these holes I fit a hollow cylindrical chamber, preferably of
iron, the inner end of each being closed, and forming a chamber for gunpowder or
other explosive material.
The inner or closed end of each tube is fitted into the recess which has been
formed as above described, partly through the inner wall of the shell, and the outer
end of each tube is made level with the outer surface of the shell, which is recessed
or countersunk round its outer end; and after each tube has been charged with a
sufficient quantity of gunpowder or other explosive material, it is filled with one or
more bullets or other missiles, and its open end is then closed with a plug of lead,
hard wood, or other suitable material, and the tube is then fixed by pouring melted
lead or other suitable fluid substance round its outer end into the channel or counter-
sunk recess formed round it as described, the end of the tube and the countersunk
recess being first preferably tinned.
Near the closed end of each tube are formed one or more small holes for the purpose
of igniting its charge at the proper time; or holes may be made through the baso
of each tube and through the wall of the shell, and fitted with time fuses ignited
when the gun is fired, so that the tubes discharge their contents during the flight of

page_text: the missile. The conical head of the shell is fitted with three or more similar tubes
inserted longitudinally, or nearly so, round the axis of the shell.
The transverse tubes fitted as described serve to strengthen the shell against
external pressure, but leave it free to be easily burst by internal explosion, to aid
which the inner wall of the shell may be weakened if required by grooves or recesses
formed in it.
Each tube fitted as described may be formed in two or more parts, which fly to
pieces when the shell explodes. The interior of the shell round the tubes is filled
with explosive material fired by a time or other fuse in the usual way.
Another part of my Invention consists in fitting inside the ordinary hollow
cylindrical shell with conical points two or more concentric cylinders separated
from each other and from the outer shell by a sufficient space. The lower ends of
these internal cylinders rest upon a cup-shaped cavity at the base of the shell,
which space, together with the space between the outer shell and the adjoining con-
centric tube, is filled with explosive material fired by a time or other fuse in the
usual way.
In the centre of the inner cylinder a second bursting charge of explosive material
is placed, timed to explode somewhat later than the first, and the concentric spaces
between the cylinders may be fitted with wedges or blocks of iron or other suitable
material, preferably weakened by notches or grooves, so that when the explosion
takes place, they themselves are fractured and add to the number of the scattered
missiles. The spaces round the cylinders may also be charged with bullets, scrap
iron, or other missiles. The conical head of the shell is fitted to its cylindrical body
by accurately fitting and screwing them, a suitable composition being used between
the joints previous to fixing them together.
I prefer to form studs outside the cylindrical part of the shell to fit the rifled
grooves of the gun, by drilling holes in the proper position through the outer shell,
these holes being countersunk or recessed. Studs of iron or other suitable material
having a flange at each end, are passed through these holes from the inside, the outer
flange being of such size as just to pass through the hole, whilst the inner flange is
of considerably greater diameter. These flanges being pressed outward against the
inuer side of the shell, melted lead or other suitable material is poured round them
into the countersunk recesses, and round the outer flanges of the studs, so as to hold
the latter firm, and to form the projections which are to fit the rifled grooves of the
gun, or it may form a continuous band round the shell.
When the shell explodes, each stud is broken and forced through the holes in the
shell, and they thus form separate missiles.