Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 26th Aug., 1887
Complete Left, 18th May, 1888
Complete Accepted, 29th June 1888
We, HENRY CLAUDE. WALKER of the Newington Iron Works, Falmouth Road,
London S.E. Engineer and HENRY CHARLES HEFFER late Royal Engineers,
Danegate Horsford Road Brixton Rise, Artist do hereby declare the nature of this
invention to be as follows:-
Our invention relates to improvements in the method of sighting rifles and in
rangefinders and has for its object in the first part to ensure correct aiming when the
range is known and in the second part to provide a simple means of finding the range
sufficiently accurately for all practical purposes.
With ordinary rifles especially when used at long ranges it is of the utmost
importance that the rifle should be so held at the moment of firing that the back-sight
is truly vertical because if it is not so it causes the shot to travel in a vertical plane at
an angle to the line of sight instead of in the same vertical plane. In the apparatus
of our invention we preferably use an ordinary back-sight placed in the usual position
with sliding bar having a notch through which the sight is taken and provide the
said sliding bar with a pendulum or pendulums of any suitable shape acting by
gravity and arranged in such a manner that when the back-sight is not truly vertical
the pendulum or pendulums cover the notch in sliding bar so that no sight can be
taken.
In the second part of our invention we provide a range-finding apparatus and attach
it to the ordinary back-sight or construct it separately and attach it to any convenient
part of the rifle the principle upon which it is based being the difference in the
apparent height of a man at different distances from the observer. In carrying out
this part of our invention we preferably attach two strips of brass or other suitable
material vertically to the back of the back-sight. These strips do not touch but a
vertical space or slit is left between them wider at the bottom than the top and of
such a width opposite the various ranges marked on the back-sight as will correspond
to the apparent height of a man at such range when viewed with the eye at the usual
distance from the sight in sighting. In using this apparatus the rifle is rotated until
017

page_text: the back-sight is horizontal then the sliding bar is moved along it until that part of
the space or slit immediately against the notch in sliding bar corresponds to the
apparent height of the man aimed at. The rifle is now sighted and is rotated back
again until the back-sight is perfectly upright then aimed and discharged. This part
of our invention may be used either with or without the arrangement previously
described for ensuring the verticality of the back-sight.
In some cases we attach an independant apparatus preferably some distance further
away from the eye than the ordinary back-sight to aid persons whose sight is not
sufficiently accurate to observe small variations in the apparent height of the man
aimed at. This arrangement does not permit of such rapid firing as the one pre-
viously mentioned but allows a wider space or slit to be used for the same ranges. In
using this form of our invention the figures marked on the plate or strip give the
ranges corresponding to the width of the space or slit at the different positions so
that when the range is found by this means the sliding bar on back-sight can be
adjusted to suit.
In other cases to attain the same object we attach a small magnifying glass or
similar arrangement to the stock of the rifle to be used with either the range-
finder on back-sight or the independant one previously mentioned.
In other cases instead of having the plates or plate with space or slit aforementioned
we attain the same object by attaching to the rifle an object glass having hair lines
on it and marks by means of which the range corresponding to the apparent
height of the man can be read off. We also provide one or more lenses moving in
a slot on rifle for focussing purposes and hinged so that they may be folded close to
the rifle when not in use.
Dated this 25th day of August 1887.
H. HARMS WORTH,
Agent to the Applicants.

page_text: We, HENRY CLAUDE WALKER, Engineer, and HENRY CHARLES HEFFER Artist
both of 6 Roberts Place Falmouth Road London S.E. do hereby declare the
ature 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:-
Our invention relates to improvements in the method of sighting rifles and in
range-finders and has for its object in the first part to ensure correct aiming when the
range is known and in the second part to provide a simple means of finding the range
with sufficient accuracy for all practical purposes.
With ordinary rifles especially when used at long ranges it is of the utmost
importance that the rifle should be so held at the moment of firing that the back-
sight is truly vertical because if it is not so it causes the shot to travel in a
vertical plane at an angle to the line of sight instead of in the same vertical
plane. It has been proposed to use for ensuring the verticality of the back-sight a
pendulum or pendulums pivotted below the notch in sliding bar and having an
upper arm with a notch coinciding with the notch in sliding bar when back-sight
is truly vertical but when it is moved away from the vertical the upper arm will
obscure.the notch. It has however been found that owing to the total length of pen-
dulum being limited by the depth of the sliding bar it has not been possible to make
the upper arm of pendulum long enough to obscure the notch as rapidly as desirable
and that before the notch was totally obscured the back-sight might be moved suffi-
ciently away from the vertical to cause a sensible error in shooting. In the back-
sight of our invention we preferably use two pendulums pivotted as near to the ends
of sliding bar as may be convenient with long arms to obscure the sight at about
right angles to the weighted part of pendulum.
In the second part of our invention we provide a range-finding apparatus and attach
it to the ordinary backsight or construct it separately and attach it to any convenient
part of the rifle the principle upon which it is based being the difference in the
apparent height of a man at different distances from the observer. In carrying out
this part of our invention we preferably attach two strips of brass or other suitable
material vertically to the back of the back-sight. These strips do not touch each
other but a vertical space or slit is left between them-wider at the bottom than the top
and of such a width opposite the various ranges marked on the back-sight as will
correspond to the apparent height of a man at such range when viewed with the eye
at the usual distance from the sight in sighting. This part of our invention may be
used either with or without the arrangement previously described for ensuring the
verticality of the backsight.
In some cases we attach an independent apparatus preferably some distance further
away from the eye than the ordinary backsight chiefly to aid persons whose sight is
not sufficiently accurate to observe small variations in the apparent height of the man
aimed at. This arrangement does not permit of such rapid firing as the one previously

page_text: mentioned but allows a wider space or slit to be used for the same ranges. In using
this form of our invention figures marked on the plate or strip give the ranges
corresponding to the width of the space or slit at the different positions so that when
the range is found by this means the sliding bar on back-sight can be adjusted to
suit.
In other cases to attain the same object we attach a small magnifying glass or
similar arrangement to the stock of the rifle to be used with either the rangefinder on
back-sight or the independent one previously mentioned.
The accompanying drawing shows the manner in which we preferably carry out
our invention.
Fig. 1 is a cross section and Fig. 2 an elevation of a back-sight with pendulums for
ensuring the verticality of back-sight and with range-finding apparatus.
A is the back-sight of ordinary construction pivotted at a to the rifle.
B is the sliding bar with sighting notch and recess in which are placed the
pendulums.
Care the pendulums pivotted at c to the sliding bar. These pendulums have a
small independent movement and are weighted at their ends c'. They are provided
with light arms c² to obstruct the vision through notch b when the backsight is not
truly vertical.
Dare thin plates secured to the back of A and having a tapered space d between
them.
In using this apparatus the rifle is rotated until the back-sight is horizontal then
the sliding bar is moved along it until that part of the space or slit immediately
against the notch in sliding bar corresponds to the apparent height of the man aimed
The rifle is now sighted and is rotated back again until the back-sight is perfectly
upright then aimed and discharged.
at.
It will be obvious that the space or slit aforementioned could be graduated to suit
any object of known height other than a man.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we wish it to be particularly
understood that we do not bind ourselves to the exact details shewn and described but
we do declare that what we claim is :-
1. The combination and arrangement of back-sight substantially as shewn in
Figs. 1 and 2 and as hereintofore described.
2. The combination of a range-finder with a back-sight by attaching to the back-
sight two vertical strips of suitable material or their equivalent having a tapered space
between them of such a width opposite the various ranges marked on the back-sight
as will correspond to the apparent height of a man at such range.
3. The range finder comprising two metallic strips or their equivalent having a
tapered space between them graduated to suit the apparent height of a known object
at various ranges substantially as set forth and described.
Dated this 17th day of May 1888
HENRY CLAUDE WALKER.
HENRY CHARLES HEFFER.