IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CARTRIDGES
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Francis Preston, of the City of Manchester,
Mechanical Engineer, and Henry William Garrett, of Salford, in the
County of Lancaster, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CARTRIDGES"
Sealed the 1st May 1860, and dated the 24th November 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Francis Preston and
Henry William Garrett at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 24th November 1859.
We, FRANCIS PRESTON, of the City of Manchester, Mechanical Engineer,
and HENRY WILLIAM GARRETT, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CARTRIDGES," to be as follows:-
The nature of our Invention consists in an improved mode of constructing
cartridges for rifle or other fire-arms or ordnance, whereby the operation of
loading is facilitated, and the charge is securely retained. In performing our
Invention we make use of a paper or other case into which the ball, bullet, or
sbot, wad, and powder are put in the ordinary manner; the powder in the end
of the cartridge is retained by a piece of paper or other material twisted up or
perforated and fixed within a short tube which fits on the case of the cartridge;
in loading, this short tube is placed over the end of the barrel, and the case of
the cartridge is pressed upon with sufficient force to cause the case to slide

page_text: within the tube, thereby untwisting or bursting the perforations in the paper
or other cover within it; the powder is thus liberated and drops into the barrel,
and the ball, bullet, or shot and wad are forced down by the ramrod in the
usual manner.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Francis Preston and Henry William Garrett in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 22nd May 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, FRANCIS
PRESTON, of the City of Manchester, Mechanical Engineer, and HENRY
WILLIAM GARRETT, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster, Civil Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said Francis Preston and Henry William Garrett, Her 'special licence
that we, the said Francis Preston and Henry William Garrett, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Francis Preston
and Henry William Garrett, our 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CARTRIDGES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Francis Preston and Henry William Garrett, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their,
or one of our or 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 we, the said Francis Preston and Henry William
Garrett, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement (that is to say) :-
The nature of our Invention consists in an improved mode of constructing

page_text: cartridges for rifle or other fire-arms or ordnance, whereby the operation of
loading is facilitated, and the charge is securely retained. In performing our
Invention we make use of a paper or other case into which the ball, bullet, or
shot, wad and powder, are put in the ordinary manner; the powder in the
end of the cartridge is retained by a piece of paper or other material twisted
up or perforated and fixed within a short tube which fits on the case of the
cartridge; in loading, this short tube is placed over the end of the barrel and
the case of the cartridge is pressed upon with sufficient force to cause the case
to slide within the tube, thereby untwisting or bursting the perforations in the
paper or other cover within it; the powder is thus liberated and drops into the
barrel, and the ball, bullet, or shot and wad are forced down by the ramrod
in the usual manner.
And in order that our Invention may be fully understood and readily
carried into effect, we will proceed to describe the accompanying Sheet of
Drawings, reference being had to the figures and letters marked thereon.
Fig. 1 represents a complete cartridge suitable for the fire-arm known as
the Enfield rifle; Fig. 2 is a section through the complete cartridge, shewing
its position over the end of the barrel of the rifle; Fig. 3 is a section through
the cartridge when the powder has been discharged into the barrel. a is a
paper case containing the powder, and 6 the ball, which is wrapped in paper
and attached to the case a by a strip of paper and paste in the usual manner,
as shewn at c; d is a short tube of paper or other material to which is attached
the retaining paper e, which when twisted up securely retains the powder in
the case a; the tube d fits freely on the case a, and is secured to it by a strip
of paper fand paste, this strip of paper may be perforated. The tube d
should be rather more in external diameter than the internal diameter or bore
of the rifle or other fire-arm to be loaded, and it must also be so attached to
the case a, that the end of the case a projects slightly beyond the tube d.
The operation of loading is performed in the following manner :-The
cartridge is placed over the end of the barrel marked g, with the end of the
case a entering slightly the barrel, and the end of the tube d resting on
the end of the barrel, as shewn in Fig. 2; sufficient pressure is then applied
to the cartridge to overcome the resistance of the paste by which the strip of
paper fis attached to the case a, or to burst the perforations in the strip of
paper f, and to force the case a partly into the barrel, as shewn in Fig. 3;
this sliding forward of the case a within the tube d untwists the paper e, by
which the powder was retained, thereby liberating the powder, which then
drops into the barrel; the position of the cartridge is then reversed, and the
ball with the paper surrounding it are inserted into and forced down the barrel

page_text: by the ramrod in the ordinary manner; the paper wrapped round the ball
may be greased to answer the purpose of a wad, or a wad may be inserted in
the cartridge as now customary. By means of these improvements in the
construction of cartridges the operation of loading is greatly facilitated, as the
biting or tearing away of the end of the cartridge to liberate the powder is
dispensed with. Our improvements also insure the full charge of powder being
delivered into the barrel as the powder is only liberated when the end of the
cartridge is in the barrel, consequently every grain of powder must fall into
the barrel, and the loss by spilling or by the wind is avoided.
Having thus stated the nature of our Invention, and described the manner
of performing the same, we declare that we claim the improvements in the
construction of cartridges, as shewn and described, and particularly the tube
marked d, within which the case of the cartridge is made to slide.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry William Garrett, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of May, in the year of our 1
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
HENRY WILLIAM GARRETT. (L.S.)