Improvements in Small-arms and Machine Guns.
Year: 1896

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Small-arms and Machine Guns.
I Sir CHARLES HENRY AUGUSTUS FREDERICK LOCKHART Ross, Baronet. of
Balnagowan Castle, Ross-shire, N.B., do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
The object of this invention is to simplify the construction of recoil firearms and
machine guns, and the invention relates more particularly to that class in which the
boit head is provided with lugs which enter recesses in the breech of the barrel,
and the head is automatically rotated, to cause the lugs to catch behind a shoulder,
whereby the parts are locked together.
The present invention consists more especially in the means employed for rotating
the bolt head, though there are other features which aid to simplify the construction..
The barrel slides backwards and forwards in a shoe, in which also the bolt is
located with the springs for operating the bolt. The barrel spring as preferably
outside the shoe.
The bolt consists of the two usual parts, a sleeve and a rotating head.
This head is provided with two pins which fit into and work in diagonal slots in
the sleeve, and the movement of the sleeve in a forward direction rotates, by means
of these slots, the bolt head, and causes it to lock into the barrel.
The bolt and barrel recoil together locked, and a catch retains the sleeve. The
barrel, which is still locked to the head, as it returns, draws the head with it, and,
by reason of the slots in the sleeve, the head is caused to rotate and unlock from the
breech. The barrel then runs forward, & when near its normal position, it releases
the sleeve, which, being propelled forward by its spring, causes the head to again
enter the breech.
The period of time between the unlocking of the head and the releasing of the
sleeve, is sufficient to allow a cartridge to rise from the magazine into the line of the
bolt, which drives it into the barrel as it goes forward.
The sleeve is not allowed to advance to its fullest extent, but only sufficient to cause
the head to enter the breech, the sleeve being caught by the sear of the trigger.
On pulling the trigger to fire the arm, the sleeve is driven forward, rotates the
head in the breech, to lock it, and fires the cartridge by means of a firing pin
carried by the sleeve and projecting through the head, the parts being so arranged
that the locking shall be securely effected before the pin strikes the cap.
When it is desired to load by hand, the barrel is jam:ned in the shoe in any
convenient manner, and the bolt can be pulled back, and driven forward by a hand
lever secured to the sleeve, the diagonal slots in the sleeve serving to lock and unlock
the head.
A suitable extractor and ejector will be employed, and the cartridges will rise
through a slot in the shoe in the usual manner.
In machine guns, each barrel will be connected to a double crank or long lever
Dear its fulcrum, and the end of the lever will be connected by rods with the bolt.
As the barrel recoils, say, one inch, motion will be communicated to the crank or
lever, and according to the length of the same, so the travel of the bolt will not
only be increased, but it will be effected in the same time that the barrel is moving
the shorter distance.

page_text: The return movement of the barrel will be effected by a spring in the usual way,
but the bolt will be drawn back only so that the head will enter the breech, as
above explained, the locking being effected by the subsequent movement of the
sleeve, whether operated by hand or by a spring, to fire the cartridge.
In the machine gun, the unlocking will be effected at the commencement, instead
of at the end of the stroke, as in the small-arm, but the diagonal stop will still
serve as the means for effecting the unlocking.
The levers or cranks will be enclosed in the water jacket, the connecting rods
passing out through a gland or glands in the end of the jacket.
Dated this 13th day of March 1896
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.
Guns.
I, Sir CHARLES HENRY AUGUSTUS FREDERICK LOCKHART Ross, Baronet, of
Balnagowan Castle, Ross-shire, N.B., do hereby declare the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
The object of this invention is to simplify the construction of recoil firearms and
machine guns, and the invention relates more particularly to that class in which the
bolt head is provided with lugs which enter recesses in the breech of the barrel, and
the head is automatically rotated to cause the lugs to catch behind shoulders,
whereby the parts are locked together.
The present invention consists more especially in the means employed for rotating
the bolt head, though there are other features which aid to simplify the construction.
The barrel slides backwards and forwards in a shoe, in which also the bolt is
located with the springs for operating the bolt. The barrel spring is preferably
outside the shoe.
The bolt consists of the two usual parts, a sleeve and a rotating head.
This head is provided with two pins which fit into and work in diagonal slots in
the sleeve, and the movement of the sleeve in a forward direction rotates, by means
of these slots, the bolt head, and causes it to lock into the barrel.
The bolt and barrel recoil together, locked, and a catch retains the sleeve. The
barrel, which is still locked to the head, as it returns, draws the head with it, and,
by reason of the slots in the sleeve, the head is caused to rotate and unlock from the
breech. The barrel then runs forward, and, when near its normal position, it releases
the sleeve, which, being propelled forward by its spring, causes the head to again
enter the breech.
The period of time between the unlocking of the head and the releasing of the
sleeve, is sufficient to allow a cartridge to rise from the magazine into the line of the
bolt, which drives it into the barrel as it goes forward.
The sleeve is not allowed to advance to its fullest extent, but only sufficient to
cause the head to enter the breech, the sleeve being caught by the sear of the
trigger.
On pulling the trigger, to fire the arm, the sleeve is driven forward, rotates the
head in the breech, to lock it, and fires the cartridge by means of a firing pin
carried by the sleeve and projecting through the head, the parts being so arranged
that the locking shall be securely effected before the pin strikes the cap.
When it is desired to load by hand, the barrel is jammed in the shoe in any
convenient manner, and the bolt can be pulled back, and driven forward by a hand

page_text: lever secured to the sleeve, the diagonal slots in the sleeve serving to look and ave
the head.
A suitable extractor and ejector will be employed, and the cartridges will rise
through a slot in the shoe in the usual manner.
In the accompanying drawings,
Fig. 1 is a side view of a small-arm constructed according to my invention, with
the breech closed.
Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section, showing the breech open.
Fig. 3 is a section on the line 1-2, and
Fig. 4 a section on the line 3-4, both of Fig. 1.
Figs. 5 show, in side and edge views, the bolt catch.
Figs. 6, 7, 8, 9, and 12, show detached views of the bolt, as used for a small-
arm; and
Figs. 10 and 11 show detached views of the bolt as employed for a machine gun.
A is the barrel, and A' represents one form of the barrel spring, which is compressed
when the recoil takes place, as is now well understood. A is the bolt spring, which
is attached to the bolt by a rod A3, and is shown outside the barrel for convenience,
but it may be placed in any other convenient position. B is a tubular shoe in which
all the moving parts work, the said shoe being bolted to the fore end B', and
supported at the rear end by a bracket B2 carried by the trigger plate, or in any
other suitable manner.
This shoe B is cut away at top for nearly its whole length, and at bottom it has
two slots, B3, B4, one for the cartridge to come through from the magazine, and one
for the hammer to work through. Besides these, the shoe has a longitudinal slot B5
in the side, for a purpose to be presently explained.
The barrel A is screwed into a breech. block C, which is provided with a tubular
rearward extension C', which is cut away at top, and has two slots in bottom corro-
sponding to those of the shoe B.
Near its forward end, the extension C₁ is recessed, as at C2, to form shoulders C³,
and on the inner face are formed longitudinal grooves extending from the recesses to
the end of the extension C'.
On the outside of this extension are pins CC, which both work in the slot B³, and
are intended to operate on opposite sides of a catch, as will be presently explained.
In this breech extension C works the bolt, which is formed of two parts, a sleeve
and the bolt proper. D is the sleeve, to which the handle D' is firmly secured. On
one side of this sleeve, and extending forward about two-thirds of its length from
its rear end, is a feather D', which works in one of the longitudinal grooves of the
extension C, and in the front end of this sleeve are two inclined slots D³, the use
of which will be presently explained. On the top of the sleeve, at its front end, is
secured a block E, which has on one side a feather E, to slide in another of the
longitudinal grooves in the extension C, and a laterally extending finger E2, which
overlies, and slides on, the top edge of the cut-away portion of both the shoe and the
extension C. To this finger E, in the present instance, the bolt spring
is attached by means of the screw pin E³."
or its rod
G is the bolt proper, which contains the firing pin (+₁ in the usual way. The bolt
is formed with a head G2 of increased diameter, that is to say, of the diameter of
the sleeve, having two lugs G³ on opposite sides, and at the end a collar G* is screwed
In front of the collar is a loose ring G³, carrying a
pin G, onto which the
extractor H is fitted.
In the bolt are fitted pins G', which work in the inclined slots D3 of the sleeve D,
so that by pushing the sleeve forward, the bolt is rotated on its axis.
on.
The extractor H consists of a strip of spring metal slightly curved, so as to fit
snugly against the side of the sleeve and the bolt head, and it has a hole at its rear
end which fits onto the pin G of the loose ring G. When in its proper position,
the extractor lies in a notch formed in the block E, as will be seen in the end view
of the bolt and sleeve, Fig. 6. The end of the strip is hammered over to form a catch
for the rim of the cartridge.

page_text: The bolt head Genters the recesses C of the breech piece, and, at the proper
moment it is rotated, so that the lugs G will catch behind the shoulders of the recess
and thus lock the head to the barrel.
Fig. 7 shows the bolt in the unlocked position, and Figs. 8 & 9 the bolt in the
locked position.
J is a curved entch which is fitted outside the shoe (see Fig. 1), and this catch is
shaped as shown in the detached views Figs. 5.
From Fig. 1 it will be seen this catch spans the slot in which the pins CC of the
extension work, so that when the pin C strikes the cam face on the front side of
the catch J, the entch will be raised into the path of, and will hold, the finger E of
the sleeve D. When the pin C strikes against the rear cum face of the catch J, the
catch will be depressed so as to free the finger E2 of the sleeve.
K is a pin fitted on the inside of the extension C' (see Fig. 2), which will strike
against the rim of the cartridge, as the barrel and extension G' go forward under the
influence of the barrel spring, and the cartridge will be kicked out, so that this pin may
be designated the kicker.
The operation of the parts will be as follows:-A cartridge having been fired, the
recoil will cause the barrel to run back with the bolt locked, until the pin C strikes
against the catch J, which will be raised to hold the finger E.
The compressed barrel spring now acts to drive the barrel forward, carrying with
it the bolt head. As the bolt sleeve is held by the catch J, the forward motion of the
barrel will rotate the bolt head by means of the pins G7 and the slots D³, and the head
will be thus unlocked, the barrel continuing its forward motion without the bolt. The
extractor being stationary with the sleeve, holds the cartridge case until the forwardly
moving pin K strikes the rim and kicks the case out.
A fresh cartridge now rises from the magazine (which may be of any suitable kind,
placed in the space L) into line with the bolt.
The pin C now strikes the catch J and draws it down, releasing the bolt sleeve D,
which is drawn forward by the bolt spring. This drives the cartridge into the barrel,
and the bolt head into the breech. The continued forward movement of the sleeve
rotates the bolt head in the recess C2, and causes the lugs G³ to take behind the
shoulders, and the bolt is locked. The arm is now ready for firing, by pulling the
trigger.
The hammer is automatically cocked when the parts are driven back by the recoil.
In adapting the invention to a machine gun, I dispense with the hammer and
trigger, but in all other respects the mechanism will be the same as above described
for the hand gun, with the exception of a slight modification to be now described.
To the sleeve D I adapt an extension piece M in the form of a stirrup, which carries
a stump or pin M', and I arrange the slots D so as to close the breech a little before
the sleeve is home, as indicated in Fig. 10.
The continued forward movement of the sleeve, to get home, will force the firing
pin onto the cap of the cartridge, and thus fire it.
The recoil will act to reload and fire, and the motion will continue as long as there
are any cartridges in the magazine.
Any desired number of these barrels will be mounted in a suitable carriage, and
will be provided with a convenient magazine arrangement, but as these form no part
of the present invention, further description is unnecessary.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. A recoil firearm constructed, arranged, and operating as herein shown and
described.
2. A recoil machine gun constructed, arranged, and operating as shown and
described.
3. A breech mechanism for recoil firearms and machine guns, constructed, arranged,
and operating as shown and described.

page_text: 4. A bolt for closing the breech, consisting of a longitudinally moving sleeve
having inclined slots, a bolt proper, capable of axial motion, and having pins to work
in the slots, and also an enlarged head with lugs to lock in the breech, and a firing
pin, as shown and described.
5. Locking and unlocking the bolt head in the breech by means of pins on the bolt
working in inclined slots in the sleeve, as herein shown and described."
6. A catch having two inclined faces, and operated in opposite directions by pins
carried by the breech extension, as shown and described, and for the purpose set
forth.
7. In a recoil firearm or machine gun, the combination of a bolt, having an axially-
moving portion operated by pins working in inclined slots, of a longitudinally moving
portion or sleeve, a bolt head with lugs to lock into the breech, and a catch to hold
the sleeve, in order to effect the unlocking of the bolt head as the barrel and breech
move forward by the action of the barrel spring, as shown and described.
8. The combination with a bolt having an axially moving portion, of a ring with
a pin to receive the end of a spring blade extractor, and a pin on the inside of the
breech extension, as and for the purpose set forth.
9. In a breech mechanism for recoil firearms or machine guns in which the bolt
head is provided with lugs to lock into recesses in the breech, the use of inclined
slots and pins for effecting the axial motion of the head, as shown and described.
10. In a breech mechanism for recoil firearms or machine guns, operating the bolt
by a straight pull or push, and, at the same time, causing the head to move axially
to lock in, or unlock from, the breech, as set forth.
Dated this 14th day of December 1896.
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.