IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING Draughtsman, for the Invention of ORDNANCE
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical
"IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING
Draughtsman, for the Invention of
ORDNANCE." A communication from abroad by Nathan Thompson,
of Brooklyn, in the State of New York, United States of America.
Sealed the 19th March 1872, and dated the 26th October 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 26th October 1871.
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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-
LOADING ORDNANCE," to be as follows :—
This Invention consists in a novel construction of a moveable breech
piece and mode of applying the same to the gun. The breech piece is
O composed of an arc-formed bolt, of a size and form in its transverse

page_text: section suited to close the breech of the gun, and an arm or gate to
which the said bolt is attached, or in the same pieco with which it is
constructed, said arm or gate swinging from a centre to which the
are of the bolt is concentric, and which is situated on one side of
the gun opposite or nearly opposite to the rear of the chamber. The
opening provided in the gun for the breech bolt to work in is of corres-
ponding arc form, commencing in the exterior of the gun on one
side in rear of the centre of motion of the breech piece, and curving
forward towards the rear of the chamber of the gun. The bore of the
gun is continued through the breech for the introduction of the charge
when the breech picce is open, and the breech when closed is secured
by a screw, screwing obliquely through the breech of the gun, or by
other suitable means the breech end of the bore is closed by a tompion,
A gun with the breech piece thus constructed and applied may be primed
and fired in the usual or any suitable manner; but a part of this
Invention, the object of which is to provide for the firing of a primed
cartridge, consists in a novel construction and arrangement of two firing
pins working in the breech piece, and by which the impact of a hammer
may be transmitted at a right angle to the blow. One of these pins is
fitted to work in a direction parallel or nearly so with the bore of the 2
gun when the breech piece is closed, and projects through the end or
face of the breech bolt; the other works at right angles to the first-one,
and projects through the exterior of the breech piece. The ends of the
two which come together are made of conical form, so that when the
projecting end of the outer one is struck by a hammer the cono at its 2
inner end acts like a wedge on the cone of the other one, and drives it
forward in a manner to make it impinge on the primed part of the
cartridge. These two pins are each surrounded by a coiled spring, the
tendency of which is to hold them back out of action.
Office on the 25th April 1872.
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, Mephanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
3

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of October, in the
year 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 Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special
licence that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
BREECH-LOADING ORDNANCE," being a communication to me from abroad
by Nathan Thompson, of Brooklyn, in the State of New York, United
States of America, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, tho said
Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 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):
-
This Invention consists in a novel construction of a moveable breech
piece and mode of applying the same to the gun. The breech piece is
composed of an arc formed bolt of a size and form in its transverse
section suited to close the breech of the gun, and an arm or gate to
which the said bolt is attached or in the same piece with which. it is
constructed, said arm or gate swinging from a centre to which the are
of the bolt is concentric, and which is situated on one side of the gun
opposite or nearly opposite to the rear of the chamber. The opening pro-
vided in the gun for the breech bolt to work in is of corresponding are
form commencing in the exterior of the gun on one side in rear of the
centre of motion of the breech piece, and curving forward towards the rear

page_text: of the chamber of the gun. The bore of the gun is continued through
the breech for the introduction of the charge when the breech piece is
open, and the breech when closed is secured by a screw screwing
obliquely through the breech of the gun or by other suitable means. A
gun with the breech piece thus constructed and applied may be primed
and fired in the usual or any suitable manner, but a part of this
Invention (the object of which is to provide for the firing of a primed
cartridge) consists in a novel construction and arrangement of two firing
pins working in the moveable breech piece, and by which the impact of
a hammer may be transmitted at a right angle to the blow. One of
these pins is fitted to work in a direction parallel or nearly so with the
bore of the gun when the breech piece is closed and projects through the
end or face of the breech bolt. The other works at right angles to the
first one, and projects through the exterior of the breech piece. The
ends of the two which come together are made of conical form, so that
when the projecting end of the outer one is struck by a hammer the
cone at its inner end acts like a wedge on the cone of the other one, and
drives it forward in a manner to make it impinge on the primed part of
the cartridge.
The Invention is illustrated in the accompanying Drawing forming
part of this Specification.
Fig. 1 is a side view of a gun with the improvements; Fig. 2 is a
horizontal section taken directly through the centre of the bore shewing
the breech closed; Fig. 3 is a section of the breech portion of the gun
corresponding with Fig. 2, but showing the breech open; Fig. 4 is a top
view of the breech piece detached; Fig. 5 is a transverse vertical section
of the gun in the plane indicated by the line x, x, in Fig. 2. Similar
letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several Figures.
A is the barrel of the gun, and B, C, is the breech piece. The barrel
is bored throughout and counterbored slightly larger from the breech
up to the rear of the chamber, as shewn at a, a, in Figures 2 and 3. The
breech piece is composed of the arc formed bolt C, and the arm or gate
B radial to the arc of the bolt. The transverse section of the bolt C is
of circular form corresponding in size with the counterbore a, a. The
arm or gate B is made of great depth in a vertical direction to give
stability to the connection of the breech piece with the gun, and it has
lugs b, b, at the top or bottom to form a hinged connection with the wall
of the gun.
The arm or gate and the bolt may be made of a single

page_text: piece of cast or wrought iron or steel, or be made of two separate pieces,
and firmly secured together by a screw or otherwise. A recess c, c,
is cut in the wall of the gun on one side and in rear of the chamber
for the reception of the arm or gate B, and mortises are made in this
recess for the reception of the hinge lugs b, b. A hole is drilled vertically
through the wall of the gun in front of the recess c, c, and opposite to
the rear of the chamber for the reception of the pin D which secures
the arm or gate to the gun, and upon which the breech piece swings,
the said pin passing through the lugs b, b, of the gate B.
An opening
d, d, is bored or otherwise produced in the direction of a horizontal arc
through the side of the gun concentric with the hole provided for the
pin D to receive the breech bolt C, with the form of which the said
opening precisely corresponds. This opening crosses the counterbore
a, a, obliquely and meets the chamber of the gun at the front of the said
counterbore, and the breech bolt moves within it towards and from the
chamber. The breech bolt C may be of square or other polygonal form
in its transverse section, and in such case the opening d, d, must be of
corresponding form. It is however preferred in all cases that the end
of the bolt should be round. E is a screw screwing through a tapped
hole made obliquely through the breech or rear portion of the side of
the gun between the counterbore a, a, and the breech bolt opening d, d.
This screw, which is worked by a handle at its outer end, enters when
the breech piece is closed into a notch or recess; in the back of the
breech bolt and serves to secure the breech piece in place. fand g are
the two firing pins fitted to holes bored at right angles to cach other
through the breech piece B, C, the pin projecting through the face
or front end of the breech bolt in such manner as to be parallel with
the bore of the gun when the breech piece is closed, and the pin g
projecting through the exterior of the breech piece. These pins meet
each other, their meeting ends being of conical form, as shewn in Fig. 2,
and each has a spiral spring e applied to it within the hole provided for
it in the breech piece in such manner as to exert a constant tendency
to press it backward.
The outer pin g is confined within the breech
piece by a fixed collar screwed into the breech piece from the exterior,
and the said pin confines the pin f, but both are free to be moved inward
by any force sufficient to overcome the outward pressure of their springs.
F is a hammer attached to the exterior of the breech piece in a manner
to strike upon the pin g; the blow upon this pin driving it inward causes
its conical end to act like a wedge upon the conical end of the pin f, and

page_text: so to drive forward the latter pin in such manner as to make it impinge
upon and explode the priming. The hammer may be operated by a
spring under the control of a trigger or otherwise. These pins will of
course only be used when ammunition containing or having attached
priming is employed. They may be used in connection with any other
sort of breech piece when it may be desired to transmit the force of the
blow of a hammer at an angle. The breech piece thus constructed
and applied may be swung on its hinge to open and close it by inserting
a lever into a hole provided in a lug i on the exterior of the gate B, the
screw E being screwed back out of the notch ; before opening, and
being screwed forward again into the said notch after closing. The
charge is inserted directly through the counterbore a, a, into the chamber
of the gun while the breech is open. The mouth of the counterbore is
fitted with a tompion G, the object of which is merely to protect the
counterbore and breech bolt from the weather and from dirt.
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention of "Improvements
in Breech-loading Ordnance," as communicated to me by my forcign
correspondent, 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,-
First. The breech piece composed of the arc formed bolt C and the
gate or arm B, and arranged substantially as herein described to work
on a hinge or hinges at the side of the gun in an arc formed opening
in the latter through which the bolt moves towards and from the
chamber.
Second. The combination with the said breech piece of the screw E
arranged substantially as herein specified.
Third. The firing pins f, g, with impinging conical ends applied to a
swinging breech piece and operating substantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, the Twenty-fifth day of April, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
A. V. NEWTON.
(L.S.)