IMPROVEMENTS IN GUNS FOR BAYONET DRILL
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Peter Jensen, of No. 2, Chiswell Street, Finsbury
Square in the County of Middlesex, Consulting Engineer and
Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN GUNS FOR
BAYONET DRILL."-A communication from abroad by Frederic de
Wahlfeldt, a Major in the Swedish Army, of Stockholm.
Sealed the 26th April 1870, and dated the 1st November 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Jensen at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st November 1869.
I, PETER JENSEN, of No. 2, Chiswell Street, Finsbury Square, in the
County of Middlesex, Consulting Engineer and Patent Agent, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN GUNS FOR
BAYONET DRILL," to be as follows:-
This drill gun consists of the following parts:-Barrel and stock,
dummy lock, trigger and trigger guard, and a bayonet blade of ordinary
or other section, the point provided with a flat disc. Some distance
from the other end it has a shoulder. A socket fits and is fixed into

page_text: or against the outer end of the barrel. The bayonet blade can freely
slide in this socket; the shoulder on it goes against the inner end of
the socket and keeps it from falling out. The rear of the barrel is filled
with a wooden plug, and a spiral spring of suitable strength and material
placed between the inner end of the bayonet and the plug, thus tending
to push the bayonet out and its shoulder against the socket; on
thrusting with the bayonet the spiral spring is compressed by the
receding bayonet, and thus no harm ensues to the porson hit. One
simple way of fixing the socket to the barrel is by means of an outer
socket in one with or fixed on it, and fitting the outside of the barrel, to
which it is fixed by means of one or more screws.
It is evident that the details of this Invention may be very materially
altered and modified without altering the nature of the Invention, which
is the employment of a spiral spring to doaden the thrust against the
bayonet when used in guns made or adapted for bayonet drill.
The following are the advantages of this apparatus: - Firstly, no
armour, except gloves, is needed for combatants at bayonet drill with
this arm; secondly, less fatigue to the combatants in consequence;
thirdly, the drill can be executed more in accordance with reality; and,
fourthly, the drill will be more useful and amusing.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Peter Jensen in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 29th April 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PETER
JENSEN, of No. 2, Chiswell Street, Finsbury Square, in the County of
Middlesex, Consulting Engineer and Patent Agent, send greeting,
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by IIer
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of November, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Peter Jensen, Her special licence that I, the
said Peter Jensen, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Peter Jensen, my exccutors, 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

page_text: and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle
of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN GUNS FOR BAYONET DRILL,"
a communication to me from abroad by Frederic de Wahlfeldt, a Major
in the Swedish Army, of Stockholm, upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Peter Jensen, 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 Ofce within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Peter Jensen, 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, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings,
and to the letters of reference marked thereon, that is to say:-
This drill gun consists of the following parts, viz., barrel and stock,
dummy lock, trigger and trigger guard, and a bayonet blade of ordinary
or other section, the point being provided with a flat disc or knob; at
the other end it has a shoulder. A socket fits and is fixed in or against
the outer end of the barrel; the bayonet blade can freely slide in this
socket; the shoulder on it goes against the inner end of the socket, and
thus keeps it from falling out. The rear of the barrel is filled with a
wooden plug, and a spiral spring of suitable strength and material
placed between the inner end of the bayonet and the plug, thus when
compressed tending to push the bayonet out and its shoulder against
the socket; on thrusting with the bayonet the spiral spring is com-
pressed by the receding bayonet, and thus no harm ensues to the person
hit. One simple way of fixing the socket to the barrel is by means of
an outer socket in one with or fixed on it and fitting the outside of the
barrel, to which it is fixed by means of one or more screws.
In order that the said Invention may be more clearly understood an
application of the same is illustrated on the accompanying Drawing, in
which Fig. 1 is an outside side elevation of a gun for bayonet drill
according to this Invention. a, a, is the stock, and b, b, the barrel of
the gun; is a dummy lock; g, the trigger guard; h is the bayonet,
which may be of any convenient section, say, square, round, or triagonal,
it has a knob or disc q at its outer end or point; the bayonet may also

page_text: be either taper, as shewn, or parallel; is the socket which is secured
to the barrel by means of screws m, and through which the bayonet
passes. Fig. 2 shews a gun for bayonet drill on a larger scale and
partly in section but not of its full length; Fig. 3 is a section through
the line x, y, shewing the socket n, which is fixed on the barrel and
having an inner ring or socket o, which in this case has a hole of the
ordinary bayonet shape. It is evident that any ordinary military gun
or rifle may at a small cost be converted into a drill gun by fitting
thereto a bayonet socket and spiral spring, as herein-before described, or
any mere modification of the same. The spiral spring may fill the
whole length of the barrel, or the rear or inner part thereof may be filled
with a wooden plug.
The following are advantages resulting from the use of a gun for
bayonet drill of the foregoing description:-1st, no armour, except
gloves, is needed for combatants at bayonet drill with this arm; 2nd,
less fatigue is felt by the combatants in consequence; 3rd, the drill can
be executed more in accordance with reality; 4th, the drill will be more
useful and amusing; and, 5th, the soldier acquires by the use of it more
confidence for attack, for which it is more suitable, while the ordinary
bayonet gun is more suitable for defence.
And having now described the nature of this Invention, and the
manner of carrying the same into effect, what is claimed as the Invention
is, the employment of a spiral spring to deaden the thrust against the
bayonet when used in guns made or adapted for bayonet drill.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Jensen, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Twenty-eighth day of April, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.