IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH- LOADING FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Samuel Ebrall at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th May 1865.
I, SAMUEL EBRALL, of Shrewsbury, in the County of Salop, Gun Maker, 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 breech-loading fire-arms of the kind called
drop down or snap guns, and consists of the mechanical arrangement or
combination of parts herein-after explained for working the bolts by which
the breech ends of the barrels of the said guns are held down against the
face of the break-off for discharge and released from the said break-off for
recharging. For locking or fastening down the breech ends of the barrels I
employ a sliding horizontal bolt working through the break-off and body of
the gun, the said bolt when the barrels are shut down against the face of the
break-off being pushed back by and made to snap into a recess in a lump on
the under side of the barrels. The bolt is pressed towards the barrels when
it is at liberty to move by means of a spring at its rear end, I work the said
bolt by means of a compound lever constructed as follows:-I joint immediately
behind the break-off and near the top of the said break-off a lever the said
lever having motion in a vertical plane. This lever works in a recess in the
break-off and when in its normal position lies nearly parallel with the face of

page_text: the break-off. The lower or free end of the lever passes through an opening in
the rear end of the sliding bolt, its extreme end projecting through a slot in the
trigger plate; the said lower end of the lever has some play in the opening in the
boit. To the front of the trigger guard of the gun I joint another vertical
lever, the lower end being jointed to the bottom of the said trigger guard. The
free upper end of this lever, and the lower end of that previously described,
are opposed to each other, the said opposed ends being connected together by
the lower end of the upper or bolt lever entering a recess in the expanded
upper end of the lower or trigger guard lever. By means of this compound
lever the bolt is withdrawn by pressure on the lower or trigger guard lever.
That part of the trigger guard lever which receives the pressure of the finger
is shaped to fit the finger, in order to release the barrels for charging the gun
the upper part of the lower lever of the compound lever is pressed by the
finger towards the trigger guard; the upper or bolt lever is thereby made
to turn upon its joint and move from the break off, in performing which
motion it acts upon the bolt, and withdraws its bevilled end from the recess
in the lump on the under side of the barrels and permits the breech ends to
be raised from the break-off for charging. On removing the finger from the
trigger guard lever the spring at the rear end of the bolt projects its bevilled
end into the body of the gun to be pressed back by and snap into the lump
when the barrels are shut down; the advance motion of the bolt restoring the
compound lever to its normal position.