A SLIDELESS STADIA SIGHT, APPLICABLE TO RIFLES AND OTHER FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William James Lewis; of London, but now
residing at Turin, in the Kingdom of Sardinia, Civil Engineer,
but now at Paris, for the Invention of "A SLIDELESS STADIA SIGHT,
APPLICABLE TO RIFLES AND OTHER FIRE-ARMS."
Sealed the 30th March 1853, and dated the 2nd October 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William James
Lewis at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 2nd October 1852.
I, WILLIAM JAMES LEWIS, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "A SLIDELESS STADIA SIGHT, APPLICABLE TO RIFLES AND
OTHER FIRE-ARMS," to be as follows:
A means of levelling a rifle (or other fire-arm) by a fixed sight,
requiring no adjustment of slide or screw, at a distant object, of which
the size is known, but of which the exact distance from the person
shooting may be unknown, in such a manner that the curved line
traversed by the projectile in its course through the air shall terminate
exactly in the centre of the object aimed at, no matter what may be its
distance from the person aiming at it.

page_text: On the barrel of the fire-arm (in the position usually occupied by the
ordinary rifle sight, and, like it, folding flat on the barrel when not in
use) is fixed, by means of a hinge, a plate of steel, glass, or other
suitable material.
On this plate are marked lines of sight similar to those of the ordi-
nary rifle sight, guiding the direction of the gun for distances of 100,
200, 300 yards, &c., up to 1,000, or any distance required. On the
centre of each of these lines is a hole, of which the vertical height is an
exact measure of the size which the object to be aimed at would
appear to be at such a distance from the eye of the person firing.
Thus, supposing. the object to be aimed at be an infantry soldier,
measuring 6 feet in height to the top of his schako, and the stadia sight
be fixed on the rifle at a distance of 12 inches from the eye, then the
following should be the heights of the holes :-
No. 1, on the line of sight for 100 yards, inch high.

page_text: 1st. The distance of the stadia-sight from the eye.
2nd. The size of the object to be fired at.
Instead of steel, the stadia sight may be constructed of glass,
strengthened by being fixed in a frame of brass. Glass being trans-.
parent, no holes would be required for looking through, but the heights
of the holes should be marked on the glass with a diamond.
No dimensions or figures are marked on the Drawing attached
hereto, as they may be varied according to circumstances; thus, for a
cavalry stadia-sight the holes would require to be just half as large
again; also the distances of the lines would require to be different for;
any fire-arm having a range and power different from those of the
Minié rifle.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William James Lewis in the Great Seal
Patent Office, on the 2nd April 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
WILLIAM JAMES LEWIS, of Vercelli, Piedmont, Civil Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS. Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by. Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the sixteenth
year of Her reign, did, for. Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said William James Lewis, Her special
licence that I, the said William James Lewis, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
James Lewis, 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 Kingdom of
Great Britain. and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man,
an. Invention for "A SLIDELESS STADIA SIGHT, APPLICABLE TO RIFLES, WITH
OTHER FIRE-ARMS," upon the condition. (amongst others) that I, the
.
.

page_text: said William James Lewis, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, 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 William James Lewis, 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):
RE
The nature of my said Invention consists in a new mode of levelling
a rifle or other fire-arms at a distant object, of which the size is known,
but of which the exact distance from the person shooting may be
unknown; and this I effect by the use and application of a fixed sight,
which requires no mechanical adjustment of. slide or screw, in such
manner that. the curved line traversed by the projectile in its course
through the air shall terminate in the centre of the object aimed at, no
matter what distance the object may be from the person aiming at it.
" I will now proceed to describe, firstly, the principle of construction
upon which my said Invention is based, and by which I effect an iniprove-
ment upon the rifles and fire-arms as hitherto constructed; and, secondly,
the best means I am acquainted with for carrying my said Invention into
practical effect. I would, however, remark, by way of introduction,
that of all the modern rifles or fire-arms in present use, that known and
distinguished as the Minić rifle is allowed to be the most perfect; but
as the sight of this rifle is constructed with a moveable and adjustable
slide or slides (there being sometimes two), it will appear evident that
to use such a rifle sight is attended with objections, as it would require
the rifleman to have one of his hands at liberty to adjust such slide or
slides to the exact proper position for firing at the object aimed at; and
even if he had one hand at liberty, it would be found very difficult in
the hurry of action to use the hand with the precision necessary to
adjust a sight to an exact distance. The intention of this Invention is
therefore to obviate these objections by so constructing the sight, which
I denominate a slideless stadia sight, as that it requires no manual

page_text: adjustment, the rifleman only being required to raise or lower the
position of his eye with respect to the barrel of the rifle, so as 'to look
through one or the other of the holes or openings formed in the metal
plate constituting the 'sight, as represented by the Drawing, until the
object to be fired at is brought within the height or nearly so of
the said hole or opening, when he has only to pull the 'trigger and
discharge the contents of the rifle. The height or length of such said
openings may be ascertained and determined by the following rule,
which in practice I have found to be correct-assuming the "stadia."
sight to be placed upon and attached to the barrel of a rifle or other
fire-arm at the distance of twelve inches and a half from the eye, and
allowing the average height of an infantry soldier to the top of his
shako to be six feet, then the eye, looking through a hole one quarter
of an inch in height, would at a distance of one hundred yards from
the sight exactly embrace his entire height; and if distant' two hundred
yards, then the hole or opening would require to be th of an inch high,
and so on, in the following ratio of the size of the hole to the distance
of the obiect therefrom
adjustment, the rifleman only being required to raise or lower the'
position of his eye with respect to the barrel of the rifle, so as 'to look
through one or the other of the holes or openings formed in the metal
plate constituting the 'sight, as represented by the Drawing, until the
object to be fired at is brought within the height or nearly so of
the said hole or opening, when he has only to pull the trigger and
discharge the contents of the rifle. The height or length of such said
openings may be ascertained and determined by the following rule,
which in practice I have found to be correct-assuming the "stadia"
sight to be placed upon and attached to the barrel of a rifle or other
fire-arm at the distance of twelve inches and a half from tlie eye, and
allowing the average height of an infantry soldier to the top of his
shako to be six feet, then the eye, looking through a hole one quarter
of an inch in height, would at a distance of one hundred yards from
the sight exactly embrace his entire height; and if distant two hundred
yards, then the hole or opening would require to be th of an inch high,
and so on, in the following ratio of the size of the hole to the distance
of the object therefrom ·—
Videlicit, at 300 yards, of an inch..
400
1500
"
2
600
35
700
وو
800
23
.
900
950
وو
3
36
3
And to construct a "stadia" sight" adapted both to cavalry and to
infantry the rifle should then have have two sights placed one behind the
other, in a somewhat similar manner to the small sights of rifles of the
ordinary construction, one such sight being adapted for the infantry,
and the other for the cavalry. The only difference necessary in the con-
struction of a stadia sight for cavalry soldiers is, that the holes therein
through which the eye looks in taking aim should be formed half as
high again as that intended for the use of infantry soldiers; that is,
supposing a cavalry soldier when mounted on horseback to be nine feet

page_text: high altogether. And in some instances I construct the said "stadia'
sight with narrow vertical slits or openings, up the centre thereof, as
exhibited at Figure 2, to enable the rifleman to sight his man, if he
should be at any intermediate distance between the exact hundreds; or,
if desirable, holes could be made at the 50% or midway between one of
the 100s and the next. I do not, however, consider this necessary;
neither do I intend to limit or confine myself to the use of these
vertical slits, because, should the man aimed at measure a height
greater than that of one hole in the sight plate, and less than the hole
beneath it, the rifleman could easily observe whether the height of the
man aimed at was exactly midway between the two adjoining holes, or
much nearer to one than the other, and could sight accordingly from the
half or the quarter hundred. For example, suppose a rifleman on looking
at his enemy through his stadia sight should find that he looks larger than
the sixth hole, but not so large as the fifth, in firing he must therefore
sight between the fifth and sixth holes; and even should the rifleman
not sight in the exact proportion necessary, the chances nevertheless
would be that he would hit his man; for in taking sight exactly midway
between the fifth and sixth holes le supposes the object to be at 550
yards from him, but if the man be only (say) 530 yards distant, the
chances would still be that he would hit him, but at a point a few inches
higher than the centre of the body which he endeavours to aim at; and
if, on the other hand, the man aimed at should be a few yards further
off' than the rifleman supposes, he would then hit him a little below the
centre of the body or point he aims at. Another important feature in
this mode of constructing the sights of rifles and other fire-arms consists
in the extremic simplicity of its construction, as in the hands of the
most inexperienced rifleman it cannot get out of order, and only
requires to be raised perpendicularly on the barrel to be in a condition
for use, and to be turned down upon the barrel when out of use.
Morcover, this Invention effects what no other rifle has hitherto done-
the combining a stadia or measurer of distance with a sight, whereby a
person using a rifle to which such a sight is attached is not required
to possess any greater amount of education or intelligence than that of
an ordinary soldier of the line, nor to be well practised in the use of

page_text: "
fire-arms, nor able to calculate the distance he is from. the object or
figure aimed at; but it enables him at once, by simply looking through
one or the other of the holes or openings in the sight, to ascertain at a
glance and with unerring certainty the exact distance he is from the
object or figure to be fired at, in the manner before stated, and here-
after more fully described. And I desire it to be distinctly understood
that although in this my Specification I have described the "stadia
sight as being placed at a distance of 12 inches from where the eye
of the rifleman is, I do not, however, intend to limit or confine myself
to this precise distance, as the sight may be attached to the rifle so as
to be at a greater or less distance from the eye without departing from
the principle of my said Invention. And in order to explain the same
as completely as possible, I will proceed to describe the means I
employ for carrying my said Invention into practical effect, reference
being had to the illustrative Drawing hereunto annexed, and forming
part of this my said Specification, and to the numeral figures and letters
of reference marked thereon respectively.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1, exhibits a diagram illustrative of the principle of construc-
tion upon which my said Invention is based. Figure 2, shows the
"stadia" sight to be applied to a rifle. Figures 3, and 4, show
different forms of construction of the sight plate. At each of these
Figures similar letters of reference are employed to denote corresponding
parts, in so far as such parts appear or can be seen at each of the
Figures respectively. At Figures 3, and 4, A, A, marks a metal plate,
having holes or openings a, a, a, of different sizes, formed through the
same; said plate is hinged to a piece of metal B, to which is also
attached a spring b, as shewn at Figure 3, for the purpose of main-
taining the metal plate or sight A, in a vertical position when in use;
said plate being attached to the rifle by screwing or otherwise fixing
the piece of metal B, thereto. And I would remark that in practice it
will be found desirable to so construct that part of the plate A, which is
in contact with the spring b, that it may be turned down upon the
barrel, either towards the stock of the rifle or from it, the intention

page_text: thereof being to protect the metal plate or "stadia" sight from injury
in the event of a ball from the enemy or other blow striking the same,
in which case, by constructing it according to this Invention, it would
yield to the blow, whereas were it only capable of moving in one
.direction, and it were struck in the opposite direction, it might
possibly be broken, and the rifle thereby rendered useless, or nearly
so. The diagram at Figure 1, illustrates the mode of using a rifle
constructed according to this Invention, where A, marks the stadia
sight; C, the position of the eye of the rifleman; D, the small sight,
fixed to the muzzle end of the barrel in the usual manner; E, the
object aimed at. The radial or diverging lines Z, Z, show that hole or
opening in the metal plate or "stadia" sight which embraces as near
as may be the entire outline of the object or figure aimed at. Figure 3,
exhibits the holes or openings a, in the metal plate A, formed circular
instead of oblong, as exhibited at Figure 2; or such holes may be of
any other shape, since it is the vertical height only of the said openings,
and not the width thereof, by which the object or figure is measured.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the best
means I am acquainted with for carrying the same into practical
-effect, I declare my Invention of a slideless stadia sight to consist in
constructing such part in the manner herein-before particularly
described, set forth, and represented by the illustrative Drawings here-
unto annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said William James Lewis, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this 21st day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
WILLIAM JAMES LEWIS. (L.S.)
Witness, JOHN FREETH HOUGHTON,
Civil Engineer,
Tre Re, Vercelli, Piedmont.