IMPROVE- MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CLEANING GUNS
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph William Wilson, of 9, Buckingham Street,
Strand, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CLEANING GUNS."
Sealed the 7th July 1860, and dated the 7th January 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph William Wilson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 7th January 1860..
I, JOSEPH WILLIAM WILSON, of 9, Buckingham Street, Strand, in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CLEANING GUNS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for cleaning
guns.
For this purpose I employ a flexible tube, by preference of vulcanized
india-rubber; this tube at one end is fitted into a brass or other socket, of
such a size as to fit over the nipple of the gun, and the socket has a head
formed on it, on to which the hammer may rest, so as to hold the socket
firmly in its place. The apparatus is. employed in the following manner:
When the tube has been fitted on to the nipple, as above described, its other
end is placed in a vessel containing water. The head of the ramrod, with a
piece of tow or rag wrapped round it so that it may fit the barrel loosely, is
then introduced into the barrel, and being worked up and down in it, it
alternately sucks up water into the barrel through, the nipple, and forces it

page_text: back into the vessel from which it was drawn, and the barrel is thus rapidly
cleaned. A ferrule is placed round the end of the tube which enters the water
vessel, in order to give it weight sufficient to keep it therein.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters. Patent, filed
by the said Joseph William Wilson in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 7th July 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
WILLIAM WILSON, of 9, Buckingham Street, Strand, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Joseph William Wilson, Her special licence that I, the said
Joseph William Wilson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Joseph William Wilson, my executors, 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 King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man,
an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CLEANING GUNS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Joseph William Wilson, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,
or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be
performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joseph William Wilson, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
guns.
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for cleaning
For this purpose I employ a flexible tube, by preference of vulcanized
india-rubber; this tube at one end is fitted into a brass or other socket, of
such a size as to fit over the nipple of the gun, and the socket has a head

page_text: formed on it, on to which the hammer may rest, so as to hold the socket firmly
in its place. The apparatus is employed in the following manner:-When
the tube has been fitted on to the nipple, as above described, its other end is
placed in a vessel containing water, the head of the ramrod with a piece of
tow or rag wrapped round it, so that it may fit the barrel loosely, is then
introduced into the barrel, and being worked up and down in it, it alternately
sucks up water into the barrel through the nipple, and forces it back again
into the vessel from which it was drawn, and the barrel is thus rapidly cleaned.
A ferrule is placed round the end of the tube which enters the water vessel, in
order to give it weight sufficient to keep it therein.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING,
which shews one of the apparatus complete. a is the tube, which is, by
preference, of vulcanized india-rubber; b is the metal socket, through which
one end of the tube a is drawn, and it is this end which is fixed on the nipple
when the apparatus is about to be used; c is a short tube of metal introduced
into the other end of the tube a to give weight thereto.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph William Wilson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
J. W. WILSON. (L.S.)