Im- PROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH PROJECTILES TO BE USED WITH ORDNANCE, RIPLES, AND OTHER FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William A. Lyttle at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th January
1861.
I, WILLIAM A. LYTTLE, of No. 10, Arundel Street, Strand, London, County
of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH PROJECTILES TO BE USED WITH ORDNANCE,
RIPLES, AND OTHER FIRE-ARMS," to be as follows:-
I propose the following improvements in the ammunition at present used
with the Enfield or other rifle bullet.
1st. That the cartridge be rammed down the barrel unbroken, the rifle and
the cartridge being adjusted as follows:-On the inner surface of the rifle
breech and at any point of its circumference opposite to the passage leading
into the barrel from the nipple a punch of any convenient shape should be
fixed, extending a little more than half way across the bore of the barrel, to
the axis of which it should form an angle of about 45 degrees.
2. To one end of the cartridge the bullet should be attached with its point
outwards, and the other end of the paper or other cylinder containing the gun-
powder should be closed with a drum or disk of tough paper gummed to it.
This disk of paper should be rendered non-inflammable by being immersed in
a solution of any of the salts, such as alumn, sugar of lead, and various others
now commonly used for such purpose, and it might, if desired, be perforated
in two cross lines, so as to divide easily when driven down upon the punch in
loading.

page_text: 3. In attaching the paper or other cylinder for containing the gunpowder
to the base of the bullet, I would either do so by binding it to a sort or pulley
groove made round the base of the bullet, so as to be carried with the bullet in
its flight, or I would bind it to the plug which is fitted into the hollow rear of
the bullet; this plug being either compressed or cast into permanent connexion
with the bullet. The bullet with the powder cylinder bound to it would
thus become a bolt.
4. This plan is not only applicable to all muzzle-loading fire-arms but to all
breech-loaders which are loaded similarly to Colt's revolvers.
5. With the view of imparting to smooth-bored fire-arms or ordnance a range
equal to that obtained by rifle-bored barrels, I propose the following improve-
ments in the projectiles to be used therewith:-For fire-arms I employ a
bullet of the following shape:-The point of the bullet is conical till it attains
is greatest diameter, from which point it is continued cylindrical for a short
distance; the bullet then tapers down to a small waist; here there are two
wings or blades of a screw much like those of the screw of a steamboat, and
of any convenient length in the direction of the bullet's axis. Beyond these
blades there is a stem or spindle which is intended to be passed into.or through
a bobbin or wad of wood or other suitable substance which is designed to keep
the bullet perfectly central in the barrel as it passes out of.it.
6. This plan is also applicable to cannon with or without the stem referred
to, a wooden or other packing being placed in picces between the screw blades
and the fore part of the projectile. The latter part of the projectile may, in
any application of it, be either solid or a shell, and the projectile may not only
be formed of lead, but as it need not on account of the stem referred to touch
the barrel, it may be made of cast iron, pottery, or glass. For cannon, the
wooden packing referred to in this paragraph should be arranged so as to fall
off from the shot on its leaving the barrel.
7. For cannons, however, the following is the best arrangement:-The fore
part of the projectile.is made conical and solid, and from its rear springs a bar
or stem much like that last described. Round the base of this conical point,
at its back, there is a circular groove near its edge and concentric with the
stem. In this groove pieces of metal, pottery, or glass like short barrel staves
are fitted, all the staves being of exactly the same length, so as to form
a perfect cylinder when placed on end in the groove, and each one being
bevilled off at either end, so as to cause the inner surface of the cylinder
to be longer in the direction of its axis than the outer. Upon this short
cylinder of staves is placed a metal ring of a triangular cross section, so
as to fit to the bevel of the staves below it, and also to the bevel of another

page_text: cylinder of staves which should now be arranged upon it, and so on, staves
as described arranged in cylinders with binding rings, till the required
length of shell has been attained. The centre of the shell is then filled with
gun cotton or gunpowder. The bar or stem before referred to should form
the axis of the compound cylinder thus formed, and should project slightly
beyond its rear, and there pass through a plate, which should serve as a lid for
the shell, and may be either flat, hemispherical, or of any other convenient
shape. This lid should be grooved on the side next the shell with a furrow,.
like that in which the staves are fitted at the base of the conical point. These
grooves should bo angular in a cross section, so that they may act like the
rings in wedging into close contact the staves when the lid of the shell is
forced forward toward the point by means of a screw nut or keying arrange-
ment attached to the end of the stem which passes through the shell.
8. The binding rings (for smooth-bored barrels). should lie even witli tho
outer surface of the staves, and the cylinders of staves should not at the inner
circle of each binding ring. touch one another. Any convenient cement applied
to the various joinings may be used to render this compound shell air or water-
proof.
9. Of these staves each one or each alternate or other one may be provided
with an externally projecting rib, so placed that when the compound shell is
formed, the union of staves shall produce a regular arrangement of ribs,
moving like the thread of a screw, or rather the rifling of a gun barrel round
the shell, for the purpose of giving rotation in the shells' passage through the
air, and also to fit any form of rifling of a rifled gun barrel. These ribs may
be along any desired length of the shell, commencing at its base.
10. A shell thus formed of stave-shaped portions may be bound together by
a covering cylinder of metal, which may take the place of the metallic rings
last described, and the cylinder being cramped fast between the conical front
piece and the lid of the shell can have its outer surface adapted to any form of
rifling which may be required for any shaped bore.
11. For all shot, whether solid or not, the following, arrangement will be
found to be effective for imparting rotation by the mere action of the air during
flight: To the base of the projectile, which is supposed to be one of elongated
form, there are attached round the edge a number of hinges of any convenient
construction and in any convenient way, so that one side of each hinge may be
madd fast to the projectile. To the other half of the hinge should be attached
a small bar or lathe of any suitable wood, in the following manner :-
12. The binging line or axis of motion in-cach hinge should be in a plane
inclined at a small angle with the base of the projectile if the base is flat, or

page_text: rather with a plane at right angles to the axis of the projectile. The hinges
should all be similarly attached, and should project as little as possible outside
the circumference of the projectile, and they should all be placed so that when
viewed from a point at the rear of the shell and in the line of its axis, they
may be the sides of a regular polygonal figure; each, however, being at any
desired distance from the other.
13. To the free side of each hinge the above-mentioned lath of wood is
firmly attached, in such a way that when folded forward toward the front of
the projectile, it may lie flat against its surface and in a plane parallel to its
axis, and so that when thrown backwards the end of it attached to the hinge
may abut against the base of the shot in such a way that when all the laths
are thrown back they may form a shuttlecock-like tail.
14. In consequence of the inclination of the axis of each hinge to which I
have referred, each lath will on being thrown back take a position not in the
line of its former one, but inclined to it on one side, at such an angle as will
cause a convenient degree of rotation during flight through the air. All the
lathes should be similarly inclined.
15. With the view of carrying out this principle, I propose, though I do.
not confine myself to the following arrangements of convenient hinging as
novelties. Instead of one hinge for eath lath as described, two ribs or blades
of metal might be attached to each one on either side, and the ribs at their
free ends should be bound to the shell in a way similar to that followed in joint-
ing the ribs of an umbrella to its handle, that is, by means of a circular wire
passing through a hole in the end of each rib, and embracing a groove round
the shot or shell near its base.
16. The rib or blade at one side of each lath should be longer than the
other. The shorter ribs should be bound by a wire in a circle slightly nearer
to the point of the shot than the longer ones, which, in order that the laths
may lie forward on the shot as before described, must be bound by a wire in a
circle nearer to the base.
17. When thrown back, the laths thus attached will have the desired obli-
quity. They may be of any convenient length, and may be tapered off so as
to be lighter at the free ends than at the hinges. The wood or any part of the
arrangement may, if necessary, be lubricated in the common way.
18. The ribs attached to each lath of wood may be either separate or they
may be united at one end, and either parallel or inclined at any angle to one
another, or exactly analagous jointing may be effected at the two corners of a
solid metal plate attached to the lath.
19. These projectiles being liable to windage in passing out of the gun

page_text: barrel, I propose the following wads:-A circular block of wood is turned or
cut of sufficient thickness to serve as a wad, and it is rendered a close but easy
fit to the bore in which it is to be used. On one side of this a circular groove
is cut near the circumference with which it is concentric. A metal disc or
wad of nearly the same diameter as the wooden one is prepared, having on
one side of it a flange, the inner surface of which is a short cylinder, the metal
wad being the base, and the outer surface of the same flange being the frus-
tum of a cone; the two surfaces meeting at an edge. This flange is wedged
fast, but not to its entire depth, into the before-mentioned circular groove in
the wooden wad, to which it should fit.
20. When this compound wad is subjected to the sudden explosion of the
gunpowder or other charge, the flange of the metal disk is driven home into
the groove in the wooden wad, the circumference of which is thus brought
into an air-tight closeness to the surface of the bore. The wooden wad should
be wound round with greased cord or other suitable packing properly bound
to its circumference, and so loosely as to admit of expansiou.
21. Instead of a groove in the wooden wad, the wad may be cut down all
round as far as the groove, and in such a way that while one portion of its
thickness fits the barrel, the other portion may be a smaller cylinder fitting to
a certain distance within the flange of the metal disk. If greased cord is
wound round the thin portion of the edge of the flange supplying the place of
the wood which was cut away, as just now described, it is evident that the
force of explosion will, by driving the wooden and the metal wads together,
force out this packing against the barrel.
22. A second wooden disk or wad may be employed instead of the metal
one, the two wooden disks or wads having their grooved or otherwise corre-
sponding faces adjacent, and these faces being connected by being wedged
toward one another upon the opposite edges of the same metal ring, the edges
of which are bevelled exactly like the flange which is attached to the disk of
metal last described, and for which it is a two-edged substitute. The interior
of this ring will be a cylinder, and its outer surfaces will be the frusta of cones,
or otherwise a cross section of it at any point will be an isosceles triangle, each
acute angle of which will serve to drive out the wooden circumference or pack-
ing of the wooden wads during the discharge of the gun or other arm with
which it may be used.
23. If a surface of the wooden wad rests against the gunpowder, it may in
some cases be found an advantage for preventing windage through cracks, to
coat that surface with a disk of coarse paper, which is made to stick against
the wood by means of grease or tar, which may be used for the purpose.

page_text: 24. The soft cord or other packing which I have recommended to be wound
round the cannon wad, may be made to embrace the cartridge which contains.
the gunpowder or other explosive matter, and the wad with thus form one end
of this cartridge.
25. The several parts of these compound wads may be retained together by
any convenient fastening.
20. If the rifle bullet or rather cartridge bolt described in paragraphs 1, 2,
3, and 4, is to be used with an arm so constructed that the flash from the per-
cussion cap can strike the rear end of the cartridge, then it will not be necessary
that a punch for breaking the cartridge should be employed. The disk of
paper (for closing the cartridge) as described in paragraph No. 2, may give
place to a muslin or any other covering which will admit the flame of the cap.
This plan is applicable to every form of fire-arm.
27. The shells described in this Specification may be exploded by percussion
or in any other convenient way.