IMPROVEMENTS IN REPEATING FIRE ARMS
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Imray of No. 28 Southampton Buildings, Chancery
Lane in the County of Middlesex, for an Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN
REPEATING FIRE ARMS A communication to him from abroad by Ferdinand
Mannlicher of Vienna in the Austrian Empire.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Imray at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th August 1882.
JOHN IMRAY of No 28 Southampton Buildings Chancery Lane in the County of
Middlesex "IMPROVEMENTS IN REPEATING FIRE ARMS [A communication to
him from abroad by Ferdinand Mannlicher of Vienna in the Austrian Empire.]
This invention relates to a construction and arrangement of the stock of a rifle
or fire arm so as to constitute a magazine containing a number of cartridges,
provided with apparatus or appliances for successively advancing them and raising
each in turn to a position where it can be introduced into the breech of the barrel.
For this purpose the stock has formed within its under part a magazine being a
tube of approximately elliptical section which can be charged with a number of
cartridges all lying in an inclined attitude, the bullet ends of the cartridges resting
on the bottom of the tube and presented forwards, while the flanged ends of the
cartridges occupy the upper part of the tube which is grooved or recessed at each
side to accommodate and guide the flanges. Behind the cartridges is a piston or
slide with its front inclined to correspond with the inclination of the cartridges and
this piston is pressed forwards by a helical spring so as to advance all the cartridges
towards the front of the tube which has an opening at the top a little longer than
a cartridge immediately behind the breech of the barrel. At this front end of the
magazine is hinged on trunnions a feeder which when at rest lies within the tube
at the same inclination as the cartridges presenting through it an opening into
which the front cartridge is pushed but where it is held by its flange bearing
against the upper end of the feeder which is shaped so as to form an abutment for
the Bange. When it is desired to feed a cartridge, the feeder is caused by hand or
by a spring to make a stroke upwards so as to bring the cartridge up through the
hole at the top of the magazine into a horizontal attitude, in which attitude it can
pass clear through the feeder and can be pushed into the breech. While the front
cartridge is thus raised, a pair of spring fingers embrace the next cartridge in order
and hold it in position until the feeder again descends to receive it.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said John Imray in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 8th February
1883.
"
JOHN IMRAY of No 28 Southampton Buildings Chancery Lane in the County of
Middlesex "IMPROVEMENTS IN REPEATING FIRE ARMS
A communication to me
from abroad by Ferdinand Mannlicher of Vienna in the Austrian Empire
This invention relates to a construction and arrangement of the stock of a rifle
or firearm so as to constitute a magazine containing a number of cartridges,
provided with apparatus or appliances for successively advancing them and raising
each in turn to a position where it can be introduced into the breech of the barrel.
For this purpose the stock has formed within its underpart a magazine, being a tube
of oblong cross section which can be charged with a number of cartridges all lying
close together in an inclined attitude, the bullet ends of the cartridges resting on
the bottom of the tube and presented forwards while the flanged ends of the
cartridges occupy the upper part of the tube which is grooved or recessed at each
side to accommodate and guide the flanges. Behind the cartridges is a piston or
slide with its front inclined to correspond with the inclination of the cartridges and
this piston is pressed forwards by a helical spring so as to advance all the cartridges
towards the front of the tube which has an opening at the top a little longer than
a cartridge immediately behind the breech of the barrel At this front end of the
magazine is hinged on trunnions a feeder which, when at rest, lies within the tube
at the same inclination as the cartridges presenting through it an opening into
which the front cartridge is pushed but where it is held by its flange bearing
against the upper end of the feeder which is shaped so as to form an abutment for
the flange. When it is desired to feed a cartridge, the feeder is caused, by hand or
by a spring to make a stroke upwards so as to bring the cartridge up through the
hole at the top of the magazine into a horizontal attitude, in which attitude it can
pass clear through the feeder and can be pushed into the breech. While the front
cartridge is thus raised, a pair of spring fingers embrace the next cartriage in order
and hold it in position until the feeder again descends to receive it. The mechanism
for effecting the up and down motion of the feeder by the to and fro motion of the
breech bolt is arranged in a similar manner to that used for the feeders of known
constructions of magazine fire arms.
The above described arrangement of magazine with inclined cartridges baving
their rims guided by an enlargement is also applicable to detachable magazines,
that is, such that are not permanently fixed to the stock of the gun.
Fig. 1 shews a longitudinal section of the breech end of a gun, with the before
described improved magazine applied thereto, Fig. 2 shews a cross-section of the
magazine, Fig. 3. shews a portion of the same with the feeder to an enlarged scale,
Fig. 4 shews a front view of the feeder, and Fig 5 shews the spring catch for
holding the feeder in position.
The magazine case K is widened at top at a a to a width corresponding to the
flange or base of the cartridge, so that the latter will be held in the magazine in an
inclined position, as indicated in dotted lines, its flanged base being held in the
enlargement of the magazine while its bullet end rests upon the bottom of the
latter. The other part of the magazine is of a width corresponding to the diameter
of the cartridges, and thus these are effectually maintained in the inclined position,

page_text: so as not to get out of order as they gradually advance from the rear to the front
end of the magazine. Such forward motion of the cartridges is here shewn as being
effected by a helical spring which works backwards and forwards, as it is expanded
and contracted, in a cylindrical enlargement of the magazine at 7, the front end of
the spring being made to press against a shield N with inclined face against
which the rearmost cartridge rests. Against the sides of the magazine are fixed
by screws wood cheeks, so as to impart to it the ordinary external configuration of
the breech end of the stock. The pivotted feeder Z, which effects the raising of the
front inclined cartridge to the position for introduction into the breech chamber of
the gun, is so formed that the front cartridge can be pushed into or on to it froin
the back, and is then held thereby in such a manner that the cartridge is obliged
to follow the upward motion of the feeder. The feeder Z is clearly shewn at
figs. 1, 3 and 4; it has a longitudinal aperture corresponding to the height of the
magazine so as to form a kind of frame, and it is supported by, and turns upon
lateral pivots Z'Z'. When the feeder is in its lowered, inclined position, its
opening corresponds to the form of the magazine case, or of the front cartridge, sn
that the latter can readily pass from the back through to the front of the feeder.
Such forward motion is, however checked by the contracting front edges of the
opening, which overlaps somewhat the top flange and the lower part of the
casing uu of the cartridge, as is the case with ordinary feeders of repeating rifles
with magazines in the fore end of the stock, while when the feeder is raised the
cartridge can also be pushed forward out of it by the breech bolt.
In order to enable the cartridge to be raised with the feeder notwithstanding
that it enters it freely at the back, its lower end is inade to move on to the botton
or end surface S of the feeder so that as this is turned up into the position shewn
at Fig. 1 it carries the bullet end of the cartridge up with it, while the flanged base
is held in position, by the form of the upper end of the feeder opening and also by
the pressure against it of the next cartridge, which support is still afforded to the
base when the feeder is in the raised position. When in this position, the flanged
base of the cartridge is immediately in front of the sliding breech bolt and is
sufficiently raised above the upper edge of the feeder, as indicated by the dotted
lines, to enable it to be seized edge of the sliding breech bolt, as this is slid
forward, so that by such motion the cartridge is pushed from the feeder into
the breech chamber of the gun. The holding of the feeder in its upper and lower
positions can be effected by any known arrangement of spring catches. An
improved form is shewn at Fig 5. S is a curved spring, whose lower end 1 bears
against a fixed point immediately below the pivot of the feeder, while the upper
end 2 takes into a notched projection on the trunnion, and consequently moves to
and fro with such notch, being brought alternately on opposite sides of the vertical
centre line as the feeder moves from the one position to the other, so that, the
spring will move the feeder with a jerking action in one direction or the other
and will tend to hold it in the end position until it receives an impetus in the
contrary direction, any sliding action of the spring and consequently wear of the
parts being thus avoided. Instead of causing the spring to act in tension as
described, it may be so arranged as to act with compression.
When the rifle is not used as a repeater, the feeder remains in its lowered
position, the the cartridges which are then introduced through the open breech bolt,
being in that case supported at each end by projections, so that they cannot
fall down.
The filling in of the cartridges into the magazine is, in the arrangement shewn,
effected from below, the hinged flap K¹ being for this purpose pressed back, and
the cartridges pushed in through the opening of the feeder beneath the projecting
rim u u, the spring with its shield N being thereby gradually pushed back, after
which the flap K' is closed again.
It is to be observed that the advance of a fresh cartridge from the magazine into
the opening of the feeder cannot take place so long as the feeder is not completely
raised and the cartridge upon it has not been pushed forward by the breech bolt,

page_text: as the last nained cartridge naturally prevents this. When the feeder is partiany
raised and lowered, any following of its movements by the front cartridge is
This catch, which at the same time
prevented by the spring catch f Figs 1 and 3.
can act as locking spring for the feeder, is, only on the complete descent of the
feeder, pushed on one side sufficiently to allow a fresh cartridge to pass into the
feeder. Another arrangement for this purpose consists in causing the flange y of
the feeder, on the rising of the same, to place itself in front of the next cartridge,
so as to prevent its advance.
Having thus described the nature of this Invention and in what manner the
saine is to be performed, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent,
I would state that I am aware that in Lake's Specification N° 1786 of 1879 and
also in Nordenfelts Specification No 1488 of 1881, a magazine or cartridge hopper is
described, in which the cartridges are arranged closely one above the other, and are
caused to move vertically upwards or downwards with their rims guided in a
vertical groove or enlargement, and I do not claim these arrangements but I claim
in respect of repeating rifles or fire arms having gun stocks for firing from the
shoulder:-
First. The use of cartridge magazines so arranged that the cartridges are situated
closely side by side therein with their bullet ends directed downwards and having
their flanged bases retained and guided in an enlargement in the upper part of the
magazine as they are moved forward by the action of a spring in the rear end
thereof, substantially as herein described.
Second. Constructing a cartridge magazine in the butt end of the stock in which
the cartridges lie side by side in slanting positions with their flanged bases in an
enlargement in the upper part of the magazine, so that the cartridges are guided
thereby and prevented from assuming wrong positions in the magazine as they are
urged forward by a spring acting on a correspondingly inclined shield, substantially
as herein described.
Third. The arrangement of cartridge magazines referred to in the preceding
claims in combination with a rocking feeder whereby the front cartridge is raised
from an inclined to a horizontal position, substantially as herein described.
Fourth. The herein described frame like construction of the feeder whereby the
cartridges are enabled to enter the feeder from behind, but are limited in their
forward motion and are made to follow the feeder in its upward motion.
Fifth. The described arrangement of the locking spring for of the feeder itself
whereby the second cartridge is prevented from advancing until the feeder has
delivered the previous cartridge and has again completely descended.
Sixth. The herein described arrangement of spring catch S for the rocking feeder
whereby the friction of the catch and consequently wear of the parts is prevented.
Seventh. The described arrangement for filling the magazine by directly inserting
the cartridges from below through the opening of the feeder.
Eighth. The described construction of the butt end of the stock, consisting of the
cartridge magazine K of the form shewn, having cheeks of wood fixed on each side
thereof.
In witness whereof I the said John Imray have hereunto set my hand and
seal this eighth day of February in the year of our Lord One thousand
JOHN IMRAY (L.S.)