MEN IN ALARM GUNS
Year: 1883

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said William Burgess at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 18th January 1883.
WILLIAM BURGESS of Malvern Wells in the County of Worcester
MENTS IN ALARM GUNS."
"IMPROVE-
My Invention relates to an improved breech loading, central fire, alarm gun for
giving warning of the presence of burglars, poachers, and other thieves or
trespassers and wild animals, applicable also for scaring birds and animals and for
giving distress or other signals at sea and for giving alarms by military and police
outposts, and for other purposes for which an alarm gun is generally employed, and
the improvement consists in a cheaper and better mode of constructing the breech
closing and firing parts of the gun.
Such alarm guns, as heretofore made by me have been closed at the breech end
by a gun metal cap screwing on the barrel and provided with a striking pin
separate from and fitted to slide in the breech closing cap. These parts are
comparatively expensive to make, the screwthreading and tapping of the barrel
and cap, and the fitting of the striker on the latter, requiring more or less skilled
labor. Moreover the screwing of the cap on the barrel is otherwise objectionable
in consequence of the liability of the parts to rust and set fast by exposure to
moisture, to which the gun necessarily subject.
Now my present Invention has for its object to provide a cheaper and more
efficient substitute for the screw cap and loose striker, and the Invention consists
in closing the breech by a plug or plunger fitting into the breech end of the barrel
and having a nose or projection fixed or formed on its front end in such position as
to come in contact with and explode the fulminate of the cartridge, the wholo
plunger being sufficiently free to slide in the barrel to answer the purpose of a

page_text: striker. The motion of the plug or plunger is guided by a rod to which it is
attached sliding through ears on the side of the barrel and is limited by a stop on
the rod made readily removable to enable the plunger to be withdrawn from the
breech for the purpose of loading the gun.
In order that the Invention may be more readily understood, I bave illustrated
it in the accompanying drawings and will proceed to describe it with reference
thicreto.
Figures 1 and 2 are elevations of the gun set in position for operation.
Figure 3 is a longitudinal section (half size) of the gun, and Figure 4 is a section
of the barrel and a view of the breech closing plug or plunger detached as in
loading the gun. Figure 5 shows the catch and safety pin.
The gun consists of a stout short barrel A of malleable or wrought iron or gun
metal having a pair of projecting lugs a upon it at one side. The barrel is bored
to receive a cartridge such as used in sporting guns but not loaded with shot and
the breech end is chambered or bored out to a slightly larger gauge to receive
within it the flange at the base of the cartridge, the chamber also receiving the
broech closing plug or plunger B which fits therein as shown. This plug B is made
preferably of a cylinder of brass or gun metal with a conical nose or pin b of iron
or steel fixed centrally in its front face to explode the cartridge. This plug is
attached to the elbowed or bent end of an iron rod C which is parallel with the
axis of the plug and barrel and passes through corresponding holes in the lugs a.
c is a cross pin, a split key for instance, passed loosely through a hole in the rod C
just above one of the lugs a to retain the plug in place in the breech, this pin being
readily removable for the purpose of loading the gun. The lugs a have each
another hole of square or other angular form to fit on a guide rod D of corre-
sponding section as shown in Figure 1 which is fixed upright in the ground or
upon a suitable stand, the holes in the lugs being in line and parallel with the axis
of the barrel. The gun A is shown in Figure 1 as placed with the breech end
downwards and is held near the top of the rod D by a catch d to which is attached
a line d¹ led in such direction that the person or animal of whose approach the gun
is intended to give warning, will come in contact with the wire (whose other end
may be made fast to a suitable point) and so cause the withdrawal of the catch d
which supports the gun A and allow the latter to slide down by its own weight
and explode the charge by the striking of the breech closing plug or plunger upon
an iron block E or other suitable anvil placed upon the guide rod D and resting on
the ground.
The catch d is of the form shown in Figure 5 and is hung loosely by its upper
hooked end on a pin e fixed to the upright rod and takes under the upper lug of
the gun as shown. Its lower end has cars f at one side in which slides a safety
bolt g, whose point when the bolt is in the position shown in dotted. lines in
Figure 5, enters a hole in the rod D and thus prevents the accidental release of the
gun whilst the wire is being arranged. This pin has a lug g' which serves to
retain it between the two ears f. 92 is an eye on catch d to which the wire is
attached. When all is ready, the pin g is drawn back out of the hole in the rod D,
leaving the gun supported only by the catch d in readiness to be released therefrom
by a pull caused by the contact of any person with the wire, the catch a coming
quite away and remaining attached to the wire.
F is a greased cork inserted tightly in the muzzle to keep the cartridge dry, the
barrel being made of extra strength to support the strain due to the plugging up
of the muzzle. Instead of allowing the gun to fall, the block E may take its place
and the gun be supported breech upwards at a short distance from the ground on
a wedge or key h fixed in a slot in rod D, as shown in Figure 2 so that the weight
when released, will fall on the breech plug..
Having described the nature of my Invention and the manner of performing
the same, I declare that what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters
D-L

page_text: The improved alarm gun consisting in the combination with the barrel of the
combined breech closing plunger and striker and the means for guiding and
retaining it in position in the breech all constructed, substantially as shown and
described.
In Witness whereof I the said William Burgess have hereunto set my hand
and seal this seventeenth day of January, A.D. 1883.