THE IMPROVEMENT OF GUN STOCKS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION USED BOTH FOR SPORTING AND MILITARY PURPOSES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Piper, Gunmaker, of Cambridge, in the
County of Cambridge, for the Invention of "THE IMPROVEMENT OF GUN
STOCKS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION USED BOTH FOR SPORTING AND MILITARY
PURPOSES."
Sealed the 25th September 1855, and dated the 30th July 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Piper at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 30th
July 1855.
I, CHARLES PIPER, Gunmaker, of Cambridge, in the County of Cambridge,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "THE IMPROVEMENT
OF GUN STOCKS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION USED BOTH FOR SPORTING AND MILITARY
PURPOSES to be as follows:-
A projection or point attached to or forming a part of the toe or bottom of
the stocks of all guns, rifles, and other shoulder fire-arms, to fit under the
axilla or arm pit, preventing thereby the lowering or depression of the muzzle
whilst aiming at, or its being brought to bear upon any object, and for the
greater safety in loading; and whether the said projection shall be detached
from the stock, and affixable and removeable at pleasure, whether permanently
fixed thereto, or whether forming a projecting portion or point of the toc or
bottom of the stock itself, and whether made of iron, copper, lead, zinc, steel, or

page_text: any other metal of any description, or of wood, bone, ivory, leather, or cloth, or
of any other matter, covered with iron, copper, lead, zinc, steel, or other metal,
wood, cloth, leather, or other material, or made of any other matter, metal,
material, or composition, or of any composition of metals, materials, or
matters; and whether in its present form, or in any other form having the
same or a like effect, and for the same or a like intent, and in what way or
means soever affixed, attached, or applied to the stock of any gun, rifle, or other
shoulder fire-arm, or used therewith, or in what way soever forming a portion
of the stock itself.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Piper in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 22nd
January 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
PIPER, Gunmaker, of Cambridge, in the County of Cambridge, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Charles Piper, Her special licence that I, the said Charles Piper, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles
Piper, 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 "IMPROVEMENT OF GUN
STOCKS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION USED BOTH FOR SPORTING AND MILITARY PURPOSES,'
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles Piper, my exccu-
tors 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 Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Piper, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, that is to say:-

page_text: This Invention consists of a projection or point attached to or forming a
part of the toc or bottom of the stock of all guns, rifles, and other shoulder
fire-arms, and is made to fit or pass under the axilla or arm pit, preventing
thereby the lowering or depression of the muzzle whilst aiming at, or its being
brought to bear upon any object, and for the greater safety in loading, or
resting, or standing, or lodging the fire-arm. The projection may be detached
from the stock, and affixed and removable at pleasure, or may be permanently
fixed to the stock, thereby forming a projecting portion or point of the toe or
bottom of the stock itself. The projection may be made of iron, copper, lead,
zine, steel, or any other metal of any description, or of wood, bone, ivory,
gutta percha, leather, or cloth. or of any other matter, covered with iron,
copper, lead, zinc, steel, or other metal, wood, bone, ivory, gutta percha, cloth,
leather, or other material, or made of any other matters, material, or composi-
tion, or of any composition of metals, materials, or matters, and may be in its
present form, or of any other form having the same or a like effect, and for
the same or a like intent, and in what way or means soever aflixed, attached.
or applied to the stock of any gun, rifle, or other shoulder fire-arm, or used
therewith, or in what way soever forming a projection to or a portion of the
stock itself.
In witness whereof, 1, the said Charles Piper, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
CHARLES PIPER. (L.S.)