IMPROVE- MENTS IN REVOLVING FIRE-ARMS."
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Woodcroft Hammond, of Manchester, in
the County of Lancaster, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN REVOLVING FIRE-ARMS." -A communication from abroad by
-
Charles Félix de Dartein and Jules Edouard de Dartein, of Strasbourg,
Empire of France.
Scaled the 10th September 1870, and dated the 16th March 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Woodcroft
Hammond at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 16th March 1870.
I, HENRY WOODCROFT HAMMOND, of Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN REVOLVING FIRE-ARMS," (a communication to me
from abroad by Charles Félix de Dartein and Jules Edouard de Dartein,
of Strasbourg, Empire of France), to be as follows:-
This Invention, which may be applied to any kind of fire-arm belongs
to the repeater class, and amongst those to the revolver species in
particular.

page_text: It consists chiefly of a novel mode of actuating and stopping the
revolving barrel or cylinder.
The revolving barrel or cylinder is set in motion or stopped by means
of portions of helices, which I call winglets or lugs, in number as many
as there are bores in the revolving barrel or cylinder. These lugs are
arranged symmetrically on the exterior periphery of the revolving barrel
or cylinder, and a bolt slides betwixt them which never can escape or
miss them, and has an inclined groove across it, the incline being parallel
with the helical lugs. The bolt also has a spring click or pawl; this
click folds down so as to pass under the lugs whilst the bolt is moving
from back to front, and then immediately stands up again, being acted
upon by its spring so as to take hold of and carry along the following
lug as the bolt moves from front to back. By cocking the revolver the
bolt is drawn from front to back; the click shares this motion, and, as
has been stated, the latter catches the lug No. 1, for instance, and causes
it to pass to the opposite side of the bolt, thus imparting to the revolving
cylinder a rotary motion whose magnitude is so calculated that the axis
of the bore or chamber No. 1 shall coincide with that of the main bore.
The bolt, which forms a portion of an implement acting as a hammer, is
then held back by a tumbler or lever which tumbles into a notch provided
thereon. The pressure of the finger upon a special trigger placed slightly
back of the bolt releases the latter, which being forced forward by a
spring regains the let-down position, firing also the cartridge in chamber
No. 1. Whilst sliding from back to front the click has had to pass under
the lug No. 2, which forced it to incline, but after passing the lug the
click will rise again under the action of the spring pressing against its
tail. It is then ready to catch the lug No. 2 the same as it did No. 1 as
soon as the person draws the bolt back again in order to prepare for
firing the second cartridge, and so on for every following cartridge. The
chambers are loaded from back to front or from front to back, according
to the system of cartridge used.