IMPROVEMENTS IN MAGAZINE OR REPEATING FIRE ARMS AND IN CARTRIDGE BOXES OR CARRIERS SUITABLE FOR BEING USED WITH THE SAME
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Vincent Fosbery at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 11th August 1883.
GEORGE VINCENT FOSBERY of Albury near Guildford in the County of Surrey.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MAGAZINE OR REPEATING FIRE ARMS AND IN CARTRIDGE
BOXES OR CARRIERS SUITABLE FOR BEING USED WITH THE SAME
"
This invention relates first to the means employed for feeding cartridges into
magazine or repeating rifles and permits of cartridges being fed one by one into the
breech cud of the weapon from a carrier containing two rows of cartridges side by
side so that a larger reserve of cartridges can be carried by the weapon than was
heretofore practicable.
For this purpose I attach to the weapon as a part of the stock or otherwise a
box or chamber capable of containing side by side two rows of cartridges. The
end of the chamber from which the cartridges are to be fed one by one to the
barrel is made with its sides inclining towards one another or one may be straight
and the other inclined so that although in the wide part of the chamber two
cartridges can lie side by side yet in the narrow part there is room for one cartridge
only. The cartridges are taken one by one by the loading nechanism of the
weapon from this narrow end of the chamber and in order that the cartridges as
they enter the narrowed part of the chamber may not jam one another a flap or
door is provided in one of the inclined sides above mentioned-or each side may
be provided with such a flap. By suitable mechanism I cause such flap to be at
intervals turned inwards into the chamber so as to lift or lower the cartridge which
is lying in front of it. The pressure of one cartridge will thereby be taken off the
other cartridge and leave it free to pass into the narrow end of the chamber-If
two flaps are used they may be operated alternately.
If the cartridges are allowed to descend by gravity the flaps are made to turn
upwards but if the cartridges are raised by springs then the flaps are made to turn
downwards in this case each flap would when turned inwards compress the spring
by which one row of cartridges is lifted whilst the other spring would be left
free to press up the other row of cartridges.
When the cartridges are to be carried in the stock of the rifle the box or chamber
is made of the same configuration as the present stock externally-and replaces
either the heel plate and lower part of the stock or occupies the central portion of

page_text: the stock in the manner of a sleeve into both ends of which wood is let and
secured The box is also provided with a spring lever and carries at the lower part
the inclined chamber aforesaid.
In the case of a vertical spring magazine to be placed under the gun in the
manner of the Lee magazine the box, or chamber would contain also a spring for
each column of cartridges and the tapered end of the chamber would be
uppermost.
This invention applies equally to magazines which are so constructed as to form
part of the weapon and to such as are attachable at will.
The cartridges may either be slipped into the box or chamber from a carrier in
which two rows of cartridges are packed side by side or the carrier together with
the cartridges may be dropped into the chamber.
The carrier may be formed as described in the provisional Specification N° 1525
in the present year or they may be formed with a central division separating the
two rows of cartridges one from the other the division being formed of two plates
of metal laid together and two opposite side edges of both plates turned outwards
and made to overlap the front and rear ends of the cartridges.
Indented grooves are formed in the metal for the rim of the base of the cartridges
to slide along as in the carriers described in the above mentioned Specification.
The cartridges may be, retained in the carrier by a turn button of wire carried by
the central dividing plate so that when the weapon is not required to be loaded
from the magazine the cartridges are retained from passing into the tapered end of
the magazine chamber and the weapon may be loaded by hand, but when rapid
firing is required the turn button way be turned so that its head lies parallel with
the central division and no longer prevents the cartridges from passing into the
tapered end of the magazine chamber-the loading then goes on from the
magazine.
The method herein before described of feeding cartridges from a magazine
bolding two rows of cartridges is applicable not only to rifles and such like fire but
also to machine guns: