IMPROVEMENTS IN CARTRIDGES IN CONNECTION WITH PROJECTILES FOR MUSKETS, RIFLES, CANNON, AND OTHER FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Henry Tooth, of Brixton, in the
.
County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CARTRIDGES
IN CONNECTION WITH PROJECTILES FOR MUSKETS, RIFLES, CANNON, AND
OTHER FIRE-ARMS."
Sealed the 15th March 1872, and dated the 18th September 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Henry Tooth
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 18th September 1871.
I, WILLIAM HENRY TOOTH, of Brixton, in the County of Surrey,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN CARTRIDGES IN CONNECTION WITH PROJECTILES FOR MUSKETS, RIFLES, CANNON,
AND OTHER FIRE-ARMS," to be as follows:-
These improvements have for their object the construction of metallic
cartridges which can be expelled from the guns, cannons, or fire-arms with
the projectile without leaving any residue behind to foul the barrels,

page_text: and my said improvements also avoid the great waste of powder or
explosive composition which sometimes takes place in consequence of
the powder or explosive composition being blown out of the guns without
having exploded or ignited. And my improvements enable me to
dispense with the use of paper, calico, linen, gauze, leather, skins,
string, and paste, which are now used in making ordinary cartridges,
such as the Enfield, Chassepot, and Snider cartridges. And for this
purpose I make the cartridges and projectiles or bullets either of one
piece by stamping, pressing, casting, forcing through dies, spinning on a
lathe, or passing through rollers. Or I make them of two or more
pieces and afterwards join them together, and for some purposes I have
metallic cases made to take in the projectiles and powder or explosive
composition.
In the manufacture of my cartridges I use any metal or semi-metal or
compound thereof which is not corrosive, such, for instance, as tinfoil and
compositions of lead and tin, and any other metallic substance which
will melt at a comparatively low temperature, whereby the destruction of
the cartridge is completely effected. Or for a cartridge which is itself
explosive I use, in making the body of the same, the metallic substance
or substances above enumerated with the addition of bismuth, such
cartridge to be filled with powder or other explosive composition.
It will be seen that my said metallic cartridges differ from other
cartridges inasmuch as they can be blown out of the muzzle of the gun
or fire-arm, whereas the metallic cases of other cartridges have to be
extracted or withdrawn from the breech of the gun or fire-arm, but my
cartridges may be inserted in the usual metallic cases, which will not be
discharged, though this is a system that I do not recommend.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Henry Tooth in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 16th March 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HENRY TOOTH, of Brixton, in the County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of September, in the year

page_text: .
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Henry Tooth, Her special
licence that I, the said William Henry Tooth, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Henry Tooth,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agrec
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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN CARTRIDGES IN CONNECTION WITH PROJECTILES FOR MUSKETS,
RIFLES, CANNON, AND OTHER FIRE-ARMS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said William Henry Tooth, my executors 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 William Henry Tooth, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :—
These improvements have for their object the construction of metallic
cartridges which can be expelled from the guns, cannons, or firc-arms
with the projectiles without leaving any residue behind to foul the
barrels, and my said improvements also avoid the great waste of powder
or explosive composition which sometimes takes place in consequence
of the powder or explosive composition being blown out of the guns
without having exploded or ignited. And my improvements enable
me to dispense with the use of paper, calico, linen, gauze, leather,
skins, string, and paste, such as are now used in making ordinary
cartridges, as, for instance, the Enfield, Chassepot, and Snider cartridges.
And for this purpose I make the cartridges and projectiles or bullets
either of one piece by stamping, pressing, casting, forcing through dies,
spinning on a lathe, or passing through rollers. Or I make them of
two or more pieces and afterwards join them together, and for some
purposes I have metallic cases made to take in the projectiles and

page_text: powder or explosive composition. And my Invention also refers to an
improved manufacture of gunpowder or explosive composition hereafter
described for charging the cartridges or otherwise.
In the manufacture of my cartridges I use any metal or semi-metal
or compound thereof which is not corrosive, such, for instance, as tinfoil
and compositions of lead and tin and any other metallic substance which
will fuse or melt at a comparatively low temperature, whereby the
destruction of the cartridge is completely effected. Or for a cartridge
which is itself explosive I use in making the body of the same the
metallic substance or substances above enumerated with the addition
of bismuth, such cartridge to be filled with powder or other explosive
composition.
It will be seen that my said mettallic cartridges differ from other
cartridges inasmuch as they can be blown out of the muzzle of the gun
or fire-arm, whereas the metallic cases of other cartridges have to be
extracted or withdrawn from the breech of the gun or fire-arm, but my
cartridges may be inserted in the usual metallic cases, which will not be
discharged, though this is a system that I do not recommend.
The practical application of this Invention can be effected according
to the following details :-
No. 1. To make metallic cartridges (a) which will fuse or melt in the
barrel on firing the gun I make use of the following alloys of metal,
namely Tin, 7½ parts; lead, 13 parts: or (b) tin, 21% parts; lead,
17 parts or (c) tin, 14½ parts, lead, 13 parts: or (d) tin, 6 parts;
lead, 1 part or (e) tin, 9 parts; lead, 1 part: or (f). tin, 2 parts;
lead, 1 part or (g) tin, 1 part; lead, 1 part.
No. 2. To make a cartridge which will ignite and inflame and also
fuse or melt away in the barrel of the gun, but will not explode, I use
the following alloys:-(a) 6 tin, 1 lead, 1 zine; or (b), 4 tin, 2 lead,
1 zinc; or (c), 3 tin, 1 zine; or (d), 2 chemical equivalents of bismuth,
1 chemical equivalent of lead, and 1 chemical equivalent of tin.
These cartridges I prefer to manufacture by casting them in moulds
and forcing them through dies or rollers with a hollow core or plunger
open at its ends. The before-mentioned cartridges can, as regards those
under head No. 1, be made with bullets all in one piece and of the same
alloy of metal. But in the case of those under head No. 2 I prefer to

page_text: dispense with the zinc, since that substance would cause a festering
wound as zinc is generally combined with arsenic, and therefore the bullet
in this case should be in a separate piece (dispensing with the zinc),
and such bullet should be combined with the cartridge by casting the
before-mentioned alloys around the same and afterwards forcing the
whole through dies or rollers, as before mentioned.
No. 3. Under this head I proceed as follows:-I take the before-
mentioned alloy metal and roll the same into thin sheets like tinfoil
sheets, which I cut up into suitable sizes to form cartridges, and I place
these to soak for, say, 15 minutes in a strong solution of nitrate of
potash. I then take the same out of the solution, allow them to dry,
and then soak them again for another 15 minutes or thereabouts.
Another mode of accomplishing this object is to place the sheets of
any of the before-mentioned alloys of metal on sheets of paper and
roll them together between a pair of strong calendar rollers, so as to
get paper on the one side and metal on the other. Or I take the
common tinfoil or silver covered paper and treat it in the same way as
before described, that is, I soak it in nitrate of potash (or nitrate of
soda), although the latter will not so well accomplish the object. To
form these matters into a cartridge I take an ordinary bullet and I make
up the following composition, that is to say:-Starch say one pound, with
a solution of one pound nitrate of potash and ½ pound of gunpowder,
triturating or mixing them well together in a mortar or a mill, and then
take a brush and spread out a portion of the mixture sufficient to make
the sheet adhesive and roll the same on a mandrill with the bullet at the
end, the mandrell and bullet being simply made equal to the size of the
bore of the barrel in which it is to be used. This last-mentioned cartridge
is an explosive cartridge and in addition to which I use the before-
mentioned explosive compound, which consists of 2½, drams of gun-
powder, 3 grains nitrate of potash, one grain oxide of manganese, and 2
grains chloride of potash, but I reduce these proportions when required
according to the strengths of the barrels of the guns, and I find that
even one grain of nitrate of potash is quite sufficient when added to the
charge of powder to produce an explosion in the barrel. The basc or
cap of the cartridge I prefer to make in one piece, stamped or pressed
out to form a hollow chamber in the centre for the reception of the
fulminate. The size of base is of course made to suit the size or
diameter of cartridge to which it is fixed. The same solution as hercin

page_text: described may be adopted for saturating paper which may be used
as an explosive agent, but I do not recommend this as it will not
answer the purpose so well as the cartridges and arrangements above
described.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature and
object of my Invention, and in what manner the same may be
performed or carried out in practice, I hereby declare that I do not
confine myself to the precise details herein contained as it will be
obvious to practical men that they can be varied according to the
circumstances of the case, setting them forth simply as matters of fact,
knowing they will accomplish the object for which they are intended,
and any deviation from the details, equivalents, or proportions of
substances herein stated, I consider within the scope of my Patent
so long as the general characteristics herein-before described are
adhered to.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Henry Tooth, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of March,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seventy-two.
Witness,
WILLIAM H. TOOTH. (L.8.)
THOMAS MORGAN,
Secretary,
Inventors' Patent Right Association (Limited),
21, Cockspur Street.