Improvements in the Construction of Safety Locks suitable for Magazine Rifles and Sporting Guns.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 19th Sept., 1892
Complete Specification Left, 19th June, 1893-Accepted, 29th July, 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Construction of Safety Locks suitable for
Magazine Rifles and Sporting Guns.
We, HERBERT FERDINAND WOODGATE, Lieutenant in Her Majesty's South
Wales Borderers, stationed at Woolwich in the County of Kent, and WILLIAM
GRIFFITHS of Mossley House, Main Road, Bexley Heath in the County of Kent,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to improvements in the construction of safety locks
suitable for magazine rifles and sporting guns.
In a box, to the bottom of which the trigger guard is attached, we fit the whole
mechanism of the lock. The trigger is hung loosely upon a pin which serves also
as the fulcrum for a sear lever. The hammer is formed and fitted as usual to
receive a locking or safety sear, and the firing sear, which is the sear lever just
mentioned.
For actuating this sear, the trigger is fitted with a lifting arm, which is pivotted
to a lug on the back of the trigger, and, by its rise, is caused to trip the sear lever
clear of the hammer.
This sear lever is held down in contact with the lifting arm by the pressure
upon its tail end, of one end of the main spring; its other end acting as usual on
the hammer.
In the face of the lifting arm, an inclined slot is cut to receive a fixed pin
projecting from the side of the box; as, therefore, this arm is raised by the
pulling of the trigger to fire the gun, the arm will, when it has released the sear
lever from the hammer, be thrust back, leaving the main spring free to rock the
sear lever into its raised position, ready to engage again with the hammer, when
thrust back by the recoil of the gun.
In order to prevent the gun from being fired before the bolt has been returned
to its seat in the breech end of the barrel, the locking sear, before mentioned, is
provided. This sear consists of a notched bar fulcrummed at the bottom of the
box, and extending upwards and outwards through the box, to meet the arm of the
sliding bolt immediately before the bolt reaches its seat in the barrel. The return
movement, therefore, of the bolt (effected by the rebound of its propelling spring),
will cause its actuating arm to strike the projecting end of the sear arm, and throw
it out of contact with the hanımer, thus leaving it free to move and strike the firing
pin when the bolt is properly seated and secured in place.
To adapt this invention to hammerless guns, we modify the arrangement of the
sear lever, giving it a separate fulcrum, instead of mounting it low in the box on
the trigger fulcrum pin.
The firing rod, which is free to slide in and with the locking bolt, and is
propelled forwards by a coiled spring, carries a retaining block, which projects
through a slot in the bolt, and is caught by the sear lever on the advance of the
bolt to close the breech. A sear spring bearing on the tail of the sear lever
ensures this action of the sear, and the release of the sear from the firing rod is
effected by the trigger, when pulled, raising the lifting arm before mentioned, and
tripping the sear.
To
prevent the sear lever in either arrangement from being accidentally
disengaged from the bent of the hammer or firing rod, we provide a horizontal
rocking pin, which underlies the sear lever, and is recessed to allow of the downward
movement of the sear. To prevent this movement, it is only necessary to give the
rocking pin a half turn by means of a lever outside the box, when it will be

page_text: caused to bear on the underside of the sear, and prevent the sear from leaving the
bent of the hammer or the retaining block of the firing rod.
Dated this 19th day of September 1892.
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicants.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Construction of Safety Locks suitable for
Magazine Rifles and Sporting Guns.
We HERBERT FERDINAND WOODGATE, Lieutenant in Her Majesty's South
Wales Borderers, stationed at Woolwich, in the County of Kent, and WILLIAM
GRIFFITHS of Mossley House, Main Road, Bexley Heath, in the County of Kent
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
This invention relates to improvements in the construction of safety locks
suitable for magazine rifles and sporting guns,-the main object being to prevent
the firing of more than one cartridge in response to one pull of the trigger,-
result which it has been difficult for the marksman to secure in recoil firearms.
In the accompanying drawings,
-a
Fig. 1 shews in partial side view a magazine gun with our improvements applied
thereto.
Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section of the same, shewing the locked position of the
breech bolt, and the hammer in the cocked position, ready for firing.
Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section, shewing the extreme effect of the recoil on the
breech bolt and on the hammer.
Fig. 4 is a longitudinal section of a magazine rifle, shewing the improved safety
lock as modified to suit a hammerless gun.
In Figs. 1 to 3 inclusive, a is the barrel, rigidly secured to a tubular breech
piece b, which is free to slide in a cylindrical metallic case c, made fast by screws
to the stock of the gun. This case is closed at its rear end, and is slotted at c' for
the reception of the cartridges from the magazine, and at 2 for the discharge of
the spent cartridges. e is the breech bolt, which is free to slide in the breech
piece, and is carried rearward, under the action of the recoil, to cock the hammer g,
eject the empty case, and open a space in rear of the barrel for the supply of a
fresh cartridge.
The
The barrel a is fitted with a sleeve a¹ to form a seat for a coiled spring a², which
bears against the forward end of the cylindrical case c, attached firmly to the stock.
Fitted to the rear end of the breech holt e, and free to turn thereon, is a locking
nute. This nut carries a lever arm or handle e², which projects through a cam
slot (Fig. 1), formed in the right hand side of the cylindrical case c.
interlocking of this nut with the rear end of the tubular breech piece b, takes
place when the nut has entered the breech piece through keyways provided, and
the arm of the nut has traversed the forward curve of the slot c, and is in the
depressed position of Fig. 1.
The locking position assumed by the nut is due to the forward movement of the
breech bolt, which causes the arm to travel along the cam slot, until it reaches
the forward end of the slot. Arrived at this point, the arm is thrust down into
the position of Fig. 1 by means of a coiled spring e, which imparts an axial
motion to the nut, and causes it to engage with the tubular breech piece. On firing
the gun, the recoil will drive back the breech bolt and barrel. The back pressure
thus put upon the bolt will cause the nut to be turned by its lever arm e travelling
up the cam slot, and the release of the bolt from the breech piece will be thereby
effected, leaving the bolt free to move back alone, under the impulse of the recoil,
recock the hammer g, and compress the propelling spring e, as shown at Fig. 3.

page_text: This bolt is made hollow, as usual, at its front end, to receive the firing pin f,
with its retracting spring f¹, and it projects into the guiding sleeve e of the bolt.
The case c and sleeve e are slotted longitudinally in the plane of motion of the
hammer 9, to admit of the hammer rising to strike the firing pin.
To prevent the bolt e turning in its traverse movements, it is fitted with a stud
which enters a longitudinal groove formed in the breech piece b.
The construction of the safety lock we will now proceed to describe:-
h, Figs. 2 and 3, is a box fixed to the underside of the case c by screws, and to
its bottom the trigger guard is attached. This box is intended to receive the whole
mechanism of the lock. i is the trigger, hung loosely upon a pin i, and retained
in its normal position by a spring, as will be presently explained. The pin
serves also as the fulcrum for a sear lever k. The hammer g, mounted in the box h,
is formed and fitted as usual, to receive a locking or safety sear g' (held in contact
with the hammer by the spring 92), and the firing sear, which is the sear lever k
just mentioned.
For actuating this sear lever, the trigger is fitted with a lifting arm ", which is
pivotted on the back of the trigger, and is held in position by the fixed spring,
bearing against the back thereof.
This arm, by its rise, is caused to trip the sear lever k clear of the hammer, it
being retained in the bent of the hammer by the pressure, upon its tail end, of one
end of the main spring 1, the other end of which acts, as usual, on the hammer.
In the face of the lifting arm, an inclined slot is cut to receive a fixed pin h¹
projecting from the side of the box. As, therefore, the arm is raised by the
pulling of the trigger, to fire the gun, the arm will, when it has released the sear
lever from the hammer, be thrust back in the act of sliding against the fixed pin h,
leaving the main spring free to rock the scar lever into its raised position, ready to
engage again with the hammer, when the hammer is thrust back by the recoil of
the gun. The spring, by its pressure on the arm 3, returns it, and the trigger
which carries it, to their normal position, shown at Fig. 2.
In order to prevent the gun from being fired before the breech bolte has been
returned to its seat in the breech end of the barrel, the safety sear g¹ is provided.
This sear consists of a notched bar fulcrummed at the bottom of the box, and
extending upwards and outwards through the box, to meet the arm e' of the locking
nute of the breech bolt e, as it reaches the end of the cam slot 3. The return
movement, therefore, of the breech bolt (effected by the rebound of its propelling
spring e) will cause the arm of the locking nut e to strike the projecting tail of
the sear arm g', and throw that sear out of contact with the hammer, thus leaving
the hammer free to answer to the movement of the trigger, so soon as the breech
bolt is properly seated and secured in place.
From the foregoing description, it will be understood that, in firing our improved
gun, the following movements will take place :- On the pulling of the trigger i,
represented in its normal position at Fig. 2, the arm 3, pivotted to the trigger, will
lift the tail end of the sear lever k, and withdraw the sear from the bent of the
hammer g.
The hammer thus set free will, under the action of the main spring 1,
rise to the firing position shown by dotted lines in Fig. 2, and strike the firing pin f,
thereby discharging the cartridge inserted in the barrel a.
The recoil action produced by this discharge will have the effect of driving the
barrel towards the rear end of the case c, against the pressure of the coiled spring a³,
which spring serves to return the barrel to its normal position.
In its back movement, the barrel carries back with it the tubular breech piece b,
and the breech bolt e contained therein, and locked thereto by the nut e', and, at
the same time, it sets the cartridge extractors in action.
As the nut e' is fitted with a lever arm or handle e, which traverses the cam slot c
from end to end thereof, the nut will, on the movement of its arm from the position
of Fig. 1, by the back movement of the breech bolt, be disengaged from the tubular
breech piece b, and following the impulse given to it by the recoil, the bolt will
recede from the closed position of Fig. 2, to the open position of Fig. 3.

page_text: No text detected.

page_text: rod, we provide a horizontal rocking pin m, which has its hearings in the sides of
the box h, and underlies the sear lever.
This pin is recessed at the part immediately below the sear, to allow for the
downward movement of the sear lever. To prevent this movement, it is only
necessary to give the rocking pin a half turn, by means of a lever outside the box,
when the pin m will be caused to bear on the underside of the sear lever, and
prevent it from leaving the retaining block of the firing pin.
It may be well here to remark, that the advantages which we claim for our
improved lock mechanism are (a), that the arm is fully re-cocked, and this at the
instant following the explosion, even though the trigger has not been released
from the pressure put upon it at firing; (b) that when the breech is re-closed and
locked on a new cartridge, the firing of such cartridge is effectually prevented
until the pressure on the trigger is removed; the trigger is returned by the
spring to the normal position, and the readjustment of the lifting arm and sear
lever is effected.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :-
1. The combination, in a recoil firearm, of a retaining and releasing device,
consisting of a sear lever held in action by the main spring, and a trigger carrying
a lifting arm, held in position by a spring, for tripping the sear lever against
the pressure of its spring, on the pulling of the trigger, substantially as above
described.
2. The combination with the hammer of recoil firearms, of a sear lever ful-
crummed on the trigger pivot pin, and taking into the bent of the hammer; also a
tripping arm pivotted to the trigger, and serving to actuate the sear lever, the said
sear lever being held in position by a spring, which, after the firing of the arm,
will cause the sear to catch and retain the hammer at full cock.
3. The combination, in hammerless recoil firearms, of a pivotted sear lever held in
position by a spring (for retaining the firing rod in its back position), a fixed block
or projection on the firing rod, and a tripping arm pivotted to the trigger, and held
in its actuating position by a spring, the same being arranged substantially as and
for the purpose above set forth.
4. The means above described for automatically throwing out of action the
safety sear, on the return of the breech bolt to its seat.
Dated this 19th day of June 1893.
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicants.