AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE PAN, TOUCH HOLE, AND PAN COVER, OF A GUN LOCK
Year: 1813

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
ROBERT PRETYMAN, of Ipswich, in the County of Suffolk, Esquire, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third
did, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Nine-
teenth day of July, in the fifty-third year of His reign, give and grant
unto me, the said Robert Pretyman, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns,
His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the
said Robert Pretyman, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, during the term
of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick
upon Tweed, my Invention, of AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE PAN, TOUCH
HOLE, AND PAN COVER, OF A GUN LOCK;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Robert Pretyman,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a par-
ticular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and imme-.
diately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by
the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said Robert Pretyman, do hereby declare that my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly
described and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereunto annexed,
and the following-description-thereof-(that-is-to-say)
My Invention or improvement upon gun locks, consists in a method
(never before adopted) of rendering the pan when shut air-tight, and of
course preventing the access of water into the priming, an inconvenience
attending the old constructed gun locks, so that the rain or mist falling
or condensing upon the breech of the barrel or on the face of the pan
cover is immediately-conducted-in-a-stream-down.into the pan, damps
the powder, and clogs the touch. hole, which, the utmost caution under
some circumstances cannot prevent. To obviate this inconvenience is
the design of my present improvement, and is accomplished by forming
a channel round-the pan in order to carry off the water which may fall
upon the barrel or pan cover, and to protect the priming from: the
intrusion of damp by rendering the pan air and water. tight. Fig. 1,
represents the lock of a gun with my improvement. (a) the pan to.
receive the priming; (6) the channel round the same to carry off the
water; (c) the steel or pan cover, having in the under side, or that part
(d) which closes upon the pan, a cavity with a leather wadding fastened
into it, and a plate of metal screwed or rivetted thereon to préserve the
wadding from damp, or a wadding of soft metal may be used. The
cover when shut down overhangs the pan, and the leather wadding
being thus brought in close contact with the rim of the pan becomes a
valve; the pan is by this means rendered air-tight and impenetrable
to water; other parts as in common gun locks. Fig. 2. represents the lock
as seen looking down upon the breech. (a) the pan; (b, b) the channel for
carrying off the water, which in this view will be seen to pass between
the pan and the barrel; (e) a tube through which is a communication.
from the touch hole to the barrel.
-
Fig. 3, exhibits the breech and.
shewing by the dotted lines the
the pan (without the cover or lock),
passage of the touch hole to the barrel; (a) the pan; (b, b) the channel
to carry off the water; (e) the pan tube fitted into a socket wadded
with leather to render it air-tight, through which the powder in the.

page_text: pan communicates with the loading.
Fig. 4, is a section of the barrel
and pan; (a) the pan; (b) the channel between the pan and barrel;
(e, e) the pan tube; (f, f) the socket with leather wadding; (9) the
touch hole; (h) the loading. If I wish to apply my said improvement
to gun locks of the old construction I cut away that part of the lock
plate to which the pan is affixed, and attach one of my improved pans
in the following manner :-I enlarge the touch hole to about one third
of an inch diameter and work a female screw therein, and having
provided a pan, such as before described, but with a tube sufficiently
long to reach into the bore of the barrel, I work a male screw upon the
pan tube and screw it into the barrel, as represented in Fig. 5; or my
improved pan and tube may be attached to the barrel by means of solder,
or pluged in, or cut out of the solid, or by any other way I may think
proper to attach it to the same, the letters referring to the same parts
in every Figure. It will be perceived I claim no improvement in the
construction in any part of the gun lock, except that for securing the
priming from injury by damp, which is effected by rendering the pan
air and water-tight, and providing channels to conduct away the water.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Pretyman, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Fourteenth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fourteen
ROBT PRETYMAN. (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of January,
in the year of our Lord 1814, the aforesaid Robert Pretyman came
before our said Lord the King, in His Chancery, and acknowledged
the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained
and specified, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid
was stampt according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Seventeenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fourteen.