IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MOUNTING AND WORKING OF ORDNANCE
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Moncrieff, of the United Service Club,
Edinborough, Captain of Militia, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MOUNTING AND WORKING OF ORDNANCE."
Scaled the 30th November 1866, and dated the 4th June 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Moncrieff at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th June 1866.
I, ALEXANDER MONCRIEFF, of the United Service Club, Edinborough,
Captain of Militia, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MOUNTING AND WORKING OF ORDNANCE," to be as
follows:-
The object of this Invention is to afford protection to battery guns whilo
being loaded and to the men detailed to serve them. This I effect by
mounting the gun on a carriage, which is itself supported on a moving
fulcrum which admits of the gun being lowered below the level of the parapet
and out of the line of fire by the effect of the discharge, while the recoil is
met by a counterweight retaining the force of the recoil to bring up the gun
into the firing position again when required.

page_text: In carrying out this Invention I prefer to support the carriage on a pair of
wheels or rollers, which I connect with the carriage near their periphery by a
transverse axle. From these wheels or rollers, which work on rails on the
traversing frame or platform, I suspend a counterweight, connecting it
thereto at a point opposite that at which the carriage is attached. The
tendency of this counterweight will therefore be to restore the gun from its
depressed to its clevated position, or to raise the gun to the firing position.
The trail of the carriage may either be supported by pins resting in or upon
fixed guides, or it may be clongated and run back on supports at the rear of
the carriage, or else it may be supported on a radius bar mounted on a fixed
fulcrum. Instead of rollers I may use segment blocks for supporting the
carriage, a rolling motion over the traversing frame being given to them by
the recoil of the gun to bring the gun out of the line of fire for reloading, and
their clevation being restored by the action of the counterweight. Suitable
catchics will be provided in all cases for retaining the gun in the depressed
position for loading and until it is required to be discharged, and stops arc
also to be provided for limiting the movements of the gun.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander Moncrieff in the Great Scal Patent Office on the
4th December 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
MONCRIEFF, of Culfargic, Perthshire, Scotland, Captain of Militia, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of Junc, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Alexander Moncrieff, Her special licence that I, the said Alexander
Moncrieff, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Alexander Moncrieff, 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 THE MOUNTING AND WORKING OF ORDNANCE," upon the

page_text: condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alexander Moncrieff, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and scals, 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 Alexander Moncrieff, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, referenco being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
The object of this Invention is to afford protection to guns in battery and
to the men serving them. The Invention consists in mounting guns on a
carriage which is itself supported on a moving fulcrum, and in the application
thereto of a counterweight (or spring of equivalent power), which balances
the gun, so that when the gun is fired it recoils below the level of the
parapet, and the force of the recoil is met and its energy stored by the
counterweight or spring of equivalent power in such a manner that the gun
will again rise into the firing position when required. This I effect by
mounting the gun on a carriage which is supported by, two wheels, curved
rollers, or segment blocks, which I choose to call "clevators;" these clevators
have a rolling motion on the rails which support them, and are connected
together by a transverse axle near their periphery on which the gun carriage
rests. To the opposite ends of these elevators (or those ends which are
lowest when the gun is in the firing position) I attach a counterweight or
spring of equivalent power as a balance to the gun, the point of contact
between the "clevators" and the rails which support them being the moving
fulcrum above referred to. When the gun is fired the transverse axle which
supports the gun (and which I choose to call the gun axle) descends in a
cycloidal curve until the action of the counterweight or spring of equivalent
power exhausts the energy of the recoil by putting a strain on the opposite
ends of the clevators to those on which the gun is supported. When the
recoil is ended the gun axle will be at its lowest position, and the gun which
that axle supports will be in the loading position; in that position it is held
by a check; when that check is removed the action of the counterweight or
spring of equivalent power will tend to bring the gun back to the firing
position by causing the elevators to roll forward by the strain thus brought
upon them.

page_text: In carrying out this Invention I prefer to support the rear of the gun
carriage in one of three ways, viz., first, by fixed guides, in or on which
pins supporting the rear of the gun carriage will slide; second, by elongating
the gun carriage into a trail, which would be supported by a transverse bar
at the back of the frame; third, by radius bars having a fixed centre below
the frame.
The accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1, represents a gun mounted according
to my Invention. In this case a pair of wheels E are used for the "elevators"
The frame F traverses on a central pivot p and racers 1. The rear of the
gun carriage is supported by a radius bar B working on a centre C. Upon
the gun being discharged it recoils and carries with it the gun axle T, which
must consequently descend to the position T. At the same time the rolling
motion of the wheel or elevator E will raise the counterweight from the
position W to that of W, shewn in dotted lines. When W is raised to W,
and T depressed to T, the gun is in the loading position, and is there held by
check leverf. When check fis released the elevator E will roll forward
by the weight of W, and the gun will tend to rise into the firing
position.
Fig. 2 represents a gun mounted according to another application of my
Invention. In this case the elevators E are segment blocks, and on the gun
being discharged they roll back into the position indicated by dotted lines.
Under the elongated cheeks of the carriage or trail are racks which work on
pinions fixed on a strong transverse axle; this axle has a break wheel at each
extremity, and this break wheel can also be used as a purchase by means of a
small pinion which gears into it, and is worked by a handle 2. The check is
got by working pawls on the main pinions, viz., those on the transverse axle,
and these pawls are worked by a hand lever 3. When the gun springs up
into the firing position it is withheld from going too far by a tensile buffer 6
working by means of a rod 5, which is hooked inwards (see sectional view,
Fig. 3,) so as to catch the end of the trail when the gun reaches the firing
position, the hooked point also bears down on guide rail 16 and prevents the
rack below the trail rising out of gear with the main pinion 10. The rails
on which the elevators roll have conical-headed pins projecting out of them;
these pins fit into holes in the tyre of the elevator, and thereby prevent that
clevator slipping out of its position. The counterweight C is suspended from
a transverse axle 12 between the two clevators.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improvements in
the Mounting and Working of Ordnance," and explained the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above

page_text: in part recited Letter Patent I claim, lowering and raising mounted ordnance
in the manner and for the purpose above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Moncrieff, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the First day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
A. MONCRIEFF. (L.S.)