AN IMPROVEMENT IN FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN FIRE-ARMS."-A com-
munication from abroad by Caleb Hannum Bradley and Gideon Miles,
of West Chester. Pennsylvania. United States of America.
Sealed the 6th June 1862, and dated the 5th February 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
5th February 1862.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN FIRE-ARMS," to be as
follows:-
The object of this Invention is to enable the soldier or sportsman to release
the charge of powder from the cartridge without having resort to his teeth, as
at present, for breaking or tearing the enveloping case. To this end it is
proposed to form upon the muzzle of a musket, rifle, or other gun barrel, or
to provide the same with a cutter or a notched, toothed, or otherwise roughened
edge, by applying the cartridges to which they may be readily cut or broken,
and thus the present necessity for biting them will be avoided.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 5th August 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria; by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special license that I, the said Alfred Vincent
Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 "AN
IMPROVEMENT IN FIRE-ARMS," being a communication from abroad, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Alfred Vincent Newton, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
The object of this Invention, as communicated to me by my foreign cor-
respondent; is to enable the soldier or sportsman to release the charge of
powder from its cartridge without having resort to his teeth, as at present, for
breaking or tearing the enveloping case. To this end the weapon is provided
at the end of the barrel with a cutter, or a notched, toothed, or otherwise
roughened edge, by applying the cartridges, to which they may be readily
cut or broken, and thus the present necessity for biting the cartridges will be
avoided.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 represents in longitudinal view a

page_text: musket fitted with the improvement; Fig. 2 is a view of the end of the barrel
on a larger scale; and Fig. 3 is a section of the same. a represents a cutter
formed about half way round the muzzle of the barrel. The interior of the
muzzle is bevelled to produce a cutting edge, which has formed in it a series
of notches to facilitate the cutting or tearing of the cartridge. The process
of cutting or tearing is to hold the gun near the muzzle with the left hand,
the under side, to which the ramrod is attached, being toward the operator,
which is the proper position for loading, and then to take the cartridge in the
right hand and lay it across the muzzle, with the end to be cut or torn toward
the operator, and a small portion of it projecting over the cutter. The thumb
of the left hand is next placed upon the end of the cartridge over the cutter,
and by it the cartridge is pressed gently down upon the cutter, and at the
same time pressed endwise from the operator, and by that means the teeth of
the cutter are caused to cut or tear open the paper, after which the opening
thus made in the cartridge is brought immediately over the muzzle of the gun
into which the powder is thus deposited.
The muzzle may be notched or toothed all round instead of only half round,
as represented, or the cutter may (in military fire-arms), if thought desirable,
be formed on the upper band of the bayonet, the cutter being allowed to
project above the muzzle about the length of the cutting teeth.
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention of "An Improvement in
Fire-arms," and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish
it to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent, I
claim providing fire-arms with a cutter, or notched, toothed, or otherwise
roughened edge, substantially as and for the purpose herein specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
- set my hand and seal, the Fifth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)