IMPROVEMENTS IN DOUBLE- BARREL FOWLING PIECES AND OTHER GUNS
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Lionel Gye, of 60, Saint James Street, in the County of
Middlesex, Gun Maker, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN DOUBLE-
BARREL FOWLING PIECES AND OTHER GUNS."
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Lionel Gye at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 20th October 1881.
LIONEL GYE, of 60, Saint James Street, in the County of Middlesex, Gun Maker.
IMPROVEMENTS IN DOUBLE BARREL FOWLING PIECES AND OTHER GUNS."
This Invention has for its object improvements in double barrel fowling pieces
and other guns.
I arrange for the opening of the breech to insert the cartridges and withdraw the
cases by so mounting the breech plate that it can open or turn back like a gate,
the hinge being on one side of the barrels and the joint pin vertical. The breech
plate may carry the firing pins for exploding the priming of the cartridges, which
are of the usual central fire construction. The tang projects from the rear of the
breech plate and forms the handle by which the breech plate is moved. The tang
also carries two bolts, one for locking the breech plate in position when the breech
is closed for firing, and the other a safety bolt which prevents the firing of the
gun until the breech is securely closed and the safety bolt has been withdrawn.
The lock is formed in the body or frame below the level of the barrels.
The concealed hammers have their pivots or axes in a position, by preference
nearly vertically, under the rear face of the breech plate when closed, and their
main springs lie beneath the barrels.
There is a roller carried upon the breech plate at its lower part, and this roller
as the breech plate is turned back in opening the breech comes against the hammers
and presses them back and downwards until they are caught by the sears in a
position such that the breech plate is able to pass over them.
The arrangements for preventing premature firing are as follows:—
In closing the breech, the locking bolt by an incline upon it depresses small
levers (one for each gun lock), and each lever in turn acta against a two armed

page_text: catch. The movement of the catch lever raises one of its arms until it engages
with a notch in the hammer head, whilst its other arm passes over the tail of the
trigger lever into position to prevent the trigger being drawn back.
The safety bolt upon the tang works in connection with the locking bolt, so
that the safety bolt can only be drawn back when the locking bolt is fully and
properly home, and it is not until the safety bolt has been drawn back that the
catch levers being set free are caused by their springs to retire, and then the gun
can be fired.
Sometimes I mount the principal parts of the lock, the hammers, the main
springs, and the sears in connection with the breech piece and tang i, e, on the
moveable part, which may be termed the "shoe." The hammers are raised to the
point at which the sears catch them during the opening of the breech, in which
movement the nose of a cocking lever carried by the shoe rides up an incline upon
the body, and the cocking lever in turn acts against projections upon the hammers.
A light spring sustains the cocking lever when the breech is open.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Lionel Gye in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 20th April
1882.
LIONEL GYE, of 60, Saint James Street, in the County of Middlesex, Gun Maker.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN DOUBLE BARREL FOWLING PIECES AND OTHER GUNS."
This Invention has for its object improvements in double barrel fowling pieces.
and other guns.
I arrange for the opening of the breech to insert the cartridges and withdraw
the cases by so mounting the breech plate that it can open or turn back like a gate,
the hinge being on one side of the barrels and the joint pin vertical. The breech
plate may carry the firing pins for exploding the priming of the cartridges, which
are of the usual central fire construction. The tang projects from the rear of the
breech plate and forms the handle by which the breech plate is moved. The tang
also carries two bolts, one for locking the breech plate in position when the breech
is closed for firing, and the other a safety bolt which prevents the firing of the
gun until the breech is securely closed and the safety bolt has been withdrawn.
The lock may be formed in the body or frame below the level of the barrels, but
preferably I mount the principal parts of the lock, the hammers, the main springs,
and the sears in connection with the breech piece and tang i, e, on the moveable
part, which may be termed the "shoe."
"
"
Whenever it is desired that the safety bolt should be automatically set at
safety each time that the breech is opened, I arrange the safety bolt upon the
tang to work in connection with the locking bolt, so that the safety bolt is set to
safety each time that the breech is opened, and can only be drawn back when the

page_text: Drawings hereunto annexed various views of a gun constructed as above
described.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a plan view of the breech end of a double barelled gun, constructed
as above described, showing the breech plate and parts carried by it turned to one
side so that the breech ends of the barrel are open; Figure 2 is a plan view with
the breech closed and with the cover removed from over the parts of the locks;
Figure 3 is a side elevation with the cover also removed; and Figure 4 is an
elevation of the opposite side of the breech end of the gun.
In carrying out my Invention I prefer to carry the parts of the locks by a plate
extending backwards from the bottom of the breech plate, as described in a
Provisional Specification lodged by me on the 16th of March last, No. 1282, and to
construct the parts of the locks in the manner therein described, and it is this
way of constructing and carrying the parts of the locks that I have shewn in the
Drawings.
In the above Figures A are the barrels, B the stock to which they are secured,
and which is preferably strengthened by the insertion into it of a longitudinal
trough shape metal rib extending back to any desired distance into its butt end.
The barrels may be locked to the fore end of this stock by means of a hook and
lever locking bolt, such as is used for securing the barrels of other guns to their
stocks, or other suitable arrangements may be adopted. C is the breech plate
hinged by a vertical hinge joint C to a lump at one side of the barrels. The
breech plate C has a plate C¹ projecting backwards from it at the bottom, and a
rib or tang C projecting backwards from it at the top, and both these at their
rear ends are fast with a lump C, within which is carried a spring locking bolt D,
the rear end of which locks into a slot in a metal plate carried by the stock, as
shewn by the Drawings. The bolt D can be released by pressing it forwards by a
thumb piece D secured to it; a spring not shewn presses it backwards. Other
arrangements of locking bolt than the one shewn may however be employed.
As will be seen by the Drawings, the breech plate and parts carried by it lie in
a slot or recess formed to receive them in the upper part of the stock.
•
The strikers by which the caps at the centre of the base of the cartridges are
struck to fire them are as is usual carried within the breech plate. The dotted
lines E show the central lines of these strikers. F are the hammers of the
locks mounted horizontally, as described in the Provisional Specification before
mentioned. At their centres they lie between lumps G which stand out from the
back of the breech plate, and are free to turn upon pins carried by these lumps.
F' are the hammer springs fixed at their rear ends to the lump C3. The hammers
are at different levels, one higher than the other, so that they swing in different
planes, and the strikers are inclined one upwards and the other downwards, as
shewn by the dotted lines E, Figure 3, so that their rear ends come into position
for the hammers to strike them. Hare the sears; their forward ends catch into
notches on the under side of the hammers when the hammers are set back to full
cock. The rear ends of the sears have pins H¹ descending from them through
holes in plate C¹.
To release the hammers of the locks the pins H¹ are pushed upwards by pins I
jointed to triggers J which are received within recesses in the stock.
The hammers are set to full cock each time that the breech is opened, and the
breech plate turned into position, shewn at Figure 1, by sliding bars K, L;
the bar K sets back the upper hammer and the bar L the lower one. When
the breech plate is thus turned to one side the outer ends of the bars come
against stops M at the hinge joint. The opposite ends of the bars then act upon

page_text: the hammers and turn them back to full cock. The bar K acts against a projection
on the front of the upper hammer, and the bar L on a pin projecting downwards
from the lower hammer in rear of the centre pin upon which it turns; the hammers
are thus turned backwards in opposite directions.
N are safety pins; they work up and down in slots in the rear face of the breech
plate, as described in the Provisional Specification before mentioned. There is a
separate safety pin for each hammer and they are independent one of the other.
Each has a projection N¹ standing backwards from it, which when safety pins drop
(or are drawn down by springs) come into the way of the hammers and prevent
them striking against the strikers, but when the safety pins are held up the
projections are out of the way of the hammers. O is the safety bolt mounted on
the under side of the tang C, and capable of being slidden end wise to and fro
below it by means of a thumb piece O¹; on the forward end of the bolt is an
incline, as shewn at Figure 3. A side projection from each safety pin comes above
this incline. When the safety bolt is pressed forward the safety pins can drop
down, and the gun cannot be fired until safety bolt has been drawn back.
When it is desired that the safety bolt should automatically be moved to safety
each time that the breech is opened, I form the locking bolt with a pin projecting
forwards from it to come against the rear end of the safety bolt, so that whenever
the locking bolt is pressed forwards to unlock it the safety bolt is also pressed
forward and set to safety. The safety pins can then drop so soon as the hammers
are set back, or can drop at once if the hammers are already back at full cock.
In the Drawings I have not shewn any means for withdrawing empty cartridge
cases from the barrels; ordinary extractors are used for this purpose, and they
may be actuated by a lever caused to turn whenever the breechplate is turned to
one side to open the breech ends of the barrels.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and the manner of performing
the same, I would have it understood that I claim,―
First. The construction of double barrel fowling pieces and other guns with a
breech plate arranged to turn upon a vertical hinge joint at one side of the barrels,
substantially as described.
Second. Arranging the locking bolt employed for locking the breech plate to act
upon the safety bolt and set it to safety each time that the locking bolt is unlocked,
substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Lionel Gye, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Twentieth day of April, One thousand eight hundred and eighty