IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING SMALL-ARMS
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edwin Charles Green at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd September 1871.-A. communication from abroad by Frederick
J. Abbey and James H. Foster, both of the City of Chicago, United
States of America.
I, EDWIN CHARLES GREEN, of Cheltenham, in the County of
Gloucester, Gun Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING SMALL-ARMS," to be as
follows:-
These improvements refer to breech-loading small-arms of the kind
called drop-down guns or guns the barrels of which turn in a vertical
plane upon the body to expose their breech ends for charging, and the
said improvements consist of the following arrangement or combination
of parts for fastening down the barrels to the body, and for preventing
the separation of the breech ends of the barrels from the face of the
break-off on the discharge of the gun..
The barrels are bolted down by means of a horizontal sliding bolt,
working in the break-off, and taking into a notch or hook part in the

page_text: face of the lump on the under side of the barrels. The lower part of the
said face of the lump is curved or inclined, and the nose of the horizontal
bolt is also inclined; the said bolt is withdrawn to release the barrels by
means of a lever. A spring pressing on the said lever tends to force
home the said bolt. The open breech ends of the barrels are securely
held against the face of the break-off on the discharge of the gun, and
the escape of gas thereby prevented by means of two lateral bolts sliding
in the upper part of the break-off at right angles to the axes of the
barrels, the said lateral bolts taking into a projection at the upper part
of the breech ends of the barrels. These lateral bolts are actuated by the
sliding horizontal bolt in the following manner:-Behind and parallel to
the face of the break-off are two vertical levers, crossing one another and
turning on a common centre. The lower short arms of these vertical
levers are engaged in a V slot in the horizontal bolt of the gun, and the
upper arms of the said levers take into slots in the lateral bolts. By
means of the V slot in the horizontal bolt the motion of the said bolt, in
one or other direction, causes the arms of the vertical levers to approach
to or recede from one another. When the barrels are shut down the
projecting part beyond the face of the barrels drops into a recess at the
top and middle of the break-off. The said projecting part of the barrels
has a lateral hole in it of a size proper to receive the inner ends of the
lateral bolts, the said hole, when the barrels are shut down, coinciding
with the lateral bolts. When the upper arms of the vertical levers at
the back of the break-off recede from one another the lateral bolts are
simultaneously withdrawn from the hole in the projecting part of the
barrels, and when the upper arms of the said vertical levers approach
one another a corresponding motion is given to the lateral bolts, and the
latter snap into the hole in the projecting part of the barrels. On
shutting down the barrels the lump pushes back the horizontal bolt,
the motion of the said bolt being transmitted to the lateral bolts by the
vertical levers described. The lateral bolts are thereby withdrawn from
the recess in the top of the break-off, in which the projecting part of the
barrels takes, and on the complete shutting down of the barrels the
horizontal bolt snaps into the lump, and the lateral bolts by the same
motion are made to snap into the hole in the projecting part of the
barrels, and, the barrels are bolted to the body as well as to the face of
the break-off. The withdrawal of the horizontal sliding bolt by its lever
simultaneously withdraws the lateral bolts and releases the barrels.

page_text: The vertical levers may turn upon independent centres instead of upon
the same centre; in this case the position of the V slot in the horizontal
bolt which actuates them is reversed.
The barrels are jointed to the body by means of a cross pin or bolt
passing through a lug on the under side of the barrels. The rear face of
the said lug is inclined, and when the barrels are shut down the said
inclined face of the lug seats itself against the inclined end of the slot
in the body of the gun in which the said lug works.