IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Edward Newton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
8th June 1875.-A communication from abroad by Darius Davison,
of the City and State of New York, United States of America.
I, HENRY EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE," to be as
follows:-
This Invention is applicable to both breech-loading and muzzle-loading
ordnance, and consists in the construction of an elastic breech plug a
locking ring for and forming part of the same, and of the breech
portion of the cannon for the reception and the operation therein of the
elastic breech plug and ring, whereby provision is made for effectually
securing the plug in the bore at the breech so as to prevent it from
being blown out of or moved bodily backwards in the bore, and to
prevent the escape of gas when a charge of powder is exploded in the
gun or cannon.
In carrying out the Invention there is a piston head with an elastic
cylinder at the back thereof. The rod of the piston head is made either

page_text: straight or partly straight, and partly conical so that this combination of
parts will operate as an elastic plug within the bore at the breech in
connection with a locking ring and breech plate. By this means not
only the requirements herein-before specified are fully secured, but
every facility is afforded for the quick insertion and removal of the
entire plug, moreover the jamming or undue strain on the locking ring
is prevented, and the Invention can be readily applied to cannon
previously made or in use.
The principal feature of novelty in this improved construction of
ordnance is a backwardly contracting conically-shaped enlarged chamber
made in the bore of the cannon at or near its breech, made to receive an
elastic cylinder in combination with a piston head at the forward end of
a spindle made conical with its largest diameter at or near the piston
head for adjustment and operation in the bore of a cannon. The outer
end of this spindle is screwed and passes through a locking ring provided
with locking lugs and a stop lug which take into channels in the
breech plate and into recesses at the rear. The locking ring is also
provided with recesses. There is a movable breech plate which has
handles, and is provided with projecting pins for operation in the
recesses in the locking ring. On the conical spindle a locking nut is
screwed to lock and secure all the movable parts.
An enlarged conical cavity is sometimes made in the inner face of the
locking ring, and in this is fitted a conical hollow rubber cylinder so as
to operate in connection with the conical spindle and large rubber
cylinder within the bore of a cannon so as to form a perfect gas
check.
The plug when put together to be inserted in the bore is of about
uniform diameter with the regular portion of the bore so as to slide
easily therein, and turn with the locking ring till one of the lugs, rests
against the end of the right-hand recess. The locking nut at the end of
the spindle is then screwed up to any required degree of tightness. By
screwing up this nut the piston head is drawn backward and compresses
the elastic plug or block of rubber longitudinally. The conical portion
of the spindle is also drawn backward in the centre of the elastic plug or
rubber cylinder, and aids forcibly to expand it laterally.
After the cannon has been fired the locking nut may be loosened by
a wrench, and the elastic plug or rubber cylinder allowed to expand

page_text: lengthwise till it is of a uniform diameter with the regular portion of the
bore, when the whole plug including the locking ring may be partially
turned backwards till the lug strikes and rests against the end of the
left-hand recess, and the whole plug is in line to be easily withdrawn
from the cannon. When the plug is used in a cannon which is a
breech-loader, these herein-before described operations of the plug are
repeated at each charging and firing.