IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Christopher George Bonehill at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 19th March 1869.
I, CHRISTOPHER GEORGE BONEHILL, of Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, Gun Implement Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS," to
be as follows:-
My Invention has reference to those kinds of breech-loading fire-arms
in which the breech is opened for charging and closed for discharging
by means of a block hinged to the side of the breech shoe.
My Invention consists, firstly, of the arrangement or combination of
parts herein-after described for effecting the bolting down of the closing
block by the fall of the hammer to discharge the gun. In the tail pin
of the breech shoe of the gun is a sliding bolt pressed inwards or back-
wards by a coiled spring, so that its outer end lies flush with the said
tail pin. The rear face of the closing block is furnished with a hole into
which the said bolt can be shot. Projecting vertically from the bolt and
working in a longitudinal slot in the tang of the tail pin is an arm,

page_text: which arm carries at top a slide working upon the said tang. This slide
covers the slot in which the vertical arm of the bolt works. On one
side of the slide is an inclined projection. The hammer of the gun is
provided with a shoulder, which when the hammer falls to act upon the
striker in the block strikes against the projection described on the slide
of the bolt; the bolt is thereby projected into the breech or closing
block, and the latter bolted down firmly for discharge before the said
hammer acts upon the striker. After discharge, on lifting the hammer
to half-cock, the shoulder on the said hammer is removed from the slide,
when the bolt is withdrawn from the closing block into the tail pin by
its coiled spring, and the said block can be raised from the shoe for
reloading the gun. By the arrangement described the act of discharging
the gun causes the bolt to be projected into the closing block, hence
great safety in the use of the gun is secured. The bolt for fixing down
the block during discharge may also be used as a safety or snap bolt for
holding the block in its place in the shoe previous to discharge. In this
case the outer end of the bolt is bevilled and is made to project slightly
from the tail pin, so that when the block is shut down the bolt is pushed
back, and by snapping into the block holds the latter in its place.
My Invention consists, secondly, of the following arrangement of the
parts of a safety or snap bolt for holding the closing blook in the shoe
previous to discharge. On the left side of the breech shoe and at the
rear end thereof is an eye, and on the closing block is a projection in
which a small bolt slides, the said bolt when the block is shut down
coming opposite the eye described on the breech shoe. The acting end
of the bolt is rounded, and is pressed outwards so as to engage with the
eye by a coiled spring. A thumb plate connected with the bolt, and
capable of sliding outside the projection in which the bolt works, is used
to withdraw the said bolt from the eye in the shoe when the block is
required to be raised. This thumb plate also serves to lift and shut
down the block. On shutting down the block after the introduction of
a cartridge into the barrel the safety or snap bolt engages with the eye
in the shoe, and holds the said block in the said shoe.