IMPROVE- MENTS IN BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Augusto Albini and Francis
Augustus Braendlin at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 30th August 1866.
We, AUGUSTO ALBINI, of. Genoa, and also of No. 1, New Broad Street
Buildings, in the City of London, Captain in the Italian Navy, and FRANCIS
AUGUSTUS BRAENDLIN, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Mechanical
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS," to be as follows:-
Our Invention relates to breech-loading fire-arms in which the breech ends
are opened for charging and closed for discharge by a block or closer hinged
to the breech end of the barrel, and which fire-arms are discharged by the
use of self-ignition cartridges having metallic cases, or cases requiring to be
extracted from the barrels.
Our improvements consist of the arrangement or combination of parts.
berein-after described for fastening down the hinged blocks or closers of the said
fire-arms, and at the same time discharging the self-ignition cartridges in the
breech end of the barrels. The block or closer by which the breech end of
the barrel is closed may either be hinged to the top or side of the barrel. In
the axis of the said block or closer a pin or striker works for discharging the
cartridge in the breech of the barrel; the advance motion of the pin or striker

page_text: being effected in the manner herein-after explained, and the return motion
may be effected by a coiled spring, or by the shutting down of the breech. In
the rear of the hinged block is a cylindrical or other shaped hole, into which
the head of the striker projects when the said striker is in its normal position.
The striker is projected forward and the breech block fastened down in the
following manner :-Passing through an opening in the rear end of the breech
chamber, into which the breech block shuts down, is a cylindrical or other
shaped bolt; the said bolt may be in a line with the pin or striker in the said
block, and also coincident with the hole in the rear of the said block; or the
the bolt may be situated at an angle with the pin or striker. The rear end of
this bolt is connected to the hammer of the gun, the upper part of the said
hammer being bent or cranked nearly at right angles to the other part, so as
to bring that end to which the bolt is connected nearly in a line with the axis
of the barrel. By the motion of the hammer the said bolt slides in the hole
in the rear end of the breech chamber, and may be made to enter the opening
in the rear of the breech block. When the hammer is raised to half-cock the
front end of the bolt is within the hole in the rear end of the chamber, and
the breech block is free to be raised for the introduction of a self-ignition
cartridge into the breech end of the barrel; the said cartridge having a
metallic or partly metallic case. The cartridge having been introduced into
the barrel, the breech block is turned upon its hinge and made to completely
fill up the breech chamber, and close the barrel behind the cartridge; by now
raising the hammer to full-cock the gun: is ready to be discharged; on pulling
the trigger the hammer falls, and the bolt connected to it is driven through
the rear end of the chamber into the opening in the rear of the hinged block,.
and holds or fastens down the said hinged block during discharge. The
end of the bolt after it has. entered the hinged block strikes upon the head of
the pin or striker and forces its front end through the front of the block into
the cartridge in the end of the barrel and discharges the gun. The breech
block is thus fastened down, and the cartridge discharged by the nearly simul-
taneous action of a bolt worked by the hammer of the gun. The cases of the
exploded cartridges may be extracted from the barrel by an extractor of any
convenient construction. In some cases, however, we use cartridges which
are capable of being extracted by hand. The self-iguition cartridges which
we use with our improvements may either have the same diameter throughout,
so that the whole of them, except the flange at their base, may enter the
breech of the barrel, or have an expanded base, which expanded base projects
from the breech end of the barrel into the chamber into which the hinged
block shuts down. These cartridges with expanded bases enable the case to

page_text: be removed from the barrel without an extractor by gripping the expanded
base by the thumb and fingers after the breech block has been raised. When
cartridges of the last-described kind are employed a recess is made in the front
of the hinged block for the expanded base of the cartridge to lie in when the
hinged block is shut down.