IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Marc Antoine François Mennons
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
16th March 1867.-A communication from Benjamin Stone Roberts,
Major-General United States Service, residing at No. 14, Rue Auber,
Paris, France.
1, MARO ANTOINE FRANÇOIS MENNONS, of the Firm of Mennons and Teleschelf,
Home and Foreign Patent Agents, of No. 8, Southampton Buildings, in the
County of Middlesex, and 27, Rue Laffitte, Paris, in the Empire of France, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS" (a communication) to be as follows:-
This Invention consists, in the first place, in contrivances so constructed
and arranged that in raising the lever which works the swinging breech
plug in order to insert a second cartridge the piece is brought to a half-cock
without fail.
It consists, secondly, in an adjustment and construction of parts by which
in the act of cocking the gun the lover which works the breech plug is
brought home to its bearing so that the piece may be safely discharged.
It consists, thirdly, in an arrangment by which the cartridge shell after
being loosened by the retractor shall fall to the earth by its own gravity
whenever the muzzle of the piece is sufficiently elevated.
And, fourthly, in consists in the use of a cam attached to an appropriate
lever by which the brace which receives the shock of the explosion shall be
started from its bed after the piece is discharged.

page_text: The Invention is specially designed to be used in changing muzzle-loading
arms into breech-loaders; for this purpose the lever which works the breech
piece should swing upwards and forwards so as to avoid the necessity of cutting
down through the stock, or in any other way of requiring any essential change
in its form and construction.
In order to enable those skilled in the art to make and use the Invention
the following more definite description is given :-A is a swinging breech plug
working around the pivot C; B is a lever or brace pivoted to this breech
plug at C, and having a limited motion around that pivot which is shown by
the opening from h to k; the arc d, f, Fig. 3, is described from the centre of
the pivot C¹; the brace B extends to and is made to fit closely in this arc d, f;
it forms with the swinging breech plug a sort of double-jointed lever. The
piece represented in the Drawings is intended for the use of fixed ammuuition,
there being a fulminate compound arranged around within a little rim or
flange at the base of the shell; but the Invention may be readily adapted to
other modes of discharging the gun; Fig. 3 shows all the parts in readiness
for the discharge. To effect this the piece is cocked and fired in the usual
way. The hammer instead of being formed with a cavity on its striking
surface has that surface made flat and is faced with steel; it is brought down
on the firing pin o, which is made nearly in the form of the sector of a circle,
whose centre is C, around which it has a limited motion sufficient for the
purpose intended. When the hammer strikes on the anvil of this firing pin it
forces the blunt point which is at the other extremity of this sector against
the rim of the shell which contains the fulminate, and thus causes the explo-
sion. In order to prevent this firing pin from being driven so far forward as
to cause a puncture of the metallic shell or case a pin b is employed,
which passes through a slot in the firing pin, and is made fast in the breech
plug A; the motion of the firing pin is thus limited by the length of this slot.
The lever L which turns on its pivot p is then raised, which disengages the
hook R; the cam S pressing upon the plate causes the brace B to turn ou
its pivot C until its outer end rises sufficiently to clear the shoulder at d.
By this time and not before the space h, k, should be closed, and the whole
compound lever B, A, turns on its pivot C; as it rises the hook or catch i
engages with the rim of the shell of the cartridge and partly retracts it, as is
shown in Fig. 6; this shell being made slightly tapering it becomes loosened
by this retraction, so as to fall out by its own gravity when the muzzle of the
piece is sufficiently elevated, when the piece is ready for another cartridge,
this being inserted as shown at Fig. 6, the lever is brought down around its
pivot C, its outer end will strike upon the shoulder d, but a pressure being

page_text: exerted upon the former part of the brace B in rear of the joint which
separates it from the breech plug A the latter is turned around its pivot C
until the cartridge is brought home and the pivot C³ comes to the position
shown in Fig. 3; the outer end of the brace B will then just fit into the
are d, f, and the catch R urged by the springt holds the brace B securely in
its place. In order to take off all strain from the pivot C' in consequence of
the explosion, there should be rather more play around this pivot than there
is around the rule joint which separates the brace B from the breech plug A ;
in that caso the shock will be received upon the surface of the joint and not
upon the pivot. The joint uniting the breech plug A to the brace B is so
constructed as to admit of no moro motion in the one direction than merely to
bring tho lever home to its position, as shown in Fig. 3, while in the other
direction it permits the outer end of the lever to rise just clear of the
shoulder d before the space between h and k, Fig. 3, is closed. In such cir-
cumstances it will be apparent that the recoil against the breech plug would
not tend to throw the brace B out of its seat, even without the aid of the
catch R, for that lever being. rigid when in its seat, as shown in Fig. 3, the
shock of the explosion would tend to turn the whole lever around the pivot C.
In Fig. 6 will be seen the two arcs of circles d, f, and f, g; the latter of these
is described around the centre C, the former around the centre C", which is
the position that the centre of the pivot C¹ will occupy when the brace B is
in its seat. The lever, therefore, as shown in Fig. 3, cannot be thrown from
its sent by force of the explosion without forcing away the wedge of solid
metal included between the arcs f, d, and f, g, as shown at Fig. 6.
The first point of this Invention is sufficiently shown in Figs. 5 and 7. Around
the outer circumference of the firing pin o is a cylindrical surface on which
the face of the hammer is supported. It will be seen that as the brace B is
raised from its seat, as shown in Fig. 5, the rear corner of the anvil will lift
the hammer till it shall reach a distance from the pivot C equal to the radius
of the sector-shaped firing pin. The parts can readily be so adjusted that the
scer of the lock will fall into the first notch in the tumbler, or it will be
thrown past that notch so that it will fall into and remain in it, when the
brace B is thrown down again into its seat.
In regard to the second point of the Invention the hammer is constructed
with an overhanging shoulder as shown at v, Fig. 1; when this hammer is
drawn back its shoulder strikes upon a button a, Fig. 2, and before the
hammer can be brought to a full-cock the lever B is forced in this manner
home to its seat, and the catch R engages with the projection provided for
that purpose, as shown in Fig. 3.

page_text: The third point of the Invention is shown in Figs. 2 and 6, wherein L shows
the lever placed centrally over the breech; R is the catch worked thereby,
and 6, 6, are the slides placed on either side of this catch and of the brace B,
which it holds in place while it receives the shock of the discharge.
The fourth point of the Invention is illustrated in Fig. 5. The recess is
formed in rear of the chamber in such a way that its bottom or bed piece b is
parallel or nearly so with the axis of the piece, and so that the brace B may
receive the shock of the discharge in the line of its length, as shown at
Figures 5 and 6; the rear end of the brace abuts directly against the
shoulder f, d, so that no essential strain comes upon either of the pivots, as
has been herein-before stated; but in order to prevent the cartridge shell as
it falls from the chamber of the piece from lodging against this shoulder or
abutment f, d, and thus requiring to be removed by the hand, a sliding way
is formed on each side of this recess, which is shown in profile at b', Fig. 6;
these slides are so far apart as to leave the thickness of the brace B suf-
ficiently great to enable it to resist the shock of the explosion, and still
sufficiently near together to serve as a means of carrying the cartridge shell
above the shoulder d.