IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Mc Kenzie, of 16, St. Martin's-le-Grand, in
the City of London, and Stephen Thomas Wentworth, of the same Place,
Gas Engineers, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING
FIRE-ARMS."
Sealed the 28th February 1860, and dated the 17th November 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Mc Kenzie and
Stephen Thomas Wentworth at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 17th November 1859.
We, JAMES M KENZIE, of 16, Saint Martin's-le-Grand, in the City of
London, and STEPHEN THOMAS WENTWORTH, of the same Place, Gas Engi-
neers, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS," to be as follows:-
Our Invention has for its object improvements in the construction of guns
or other fire-arms which are loaded at the breech. For this purpose we
construct the rear end of the barrel of a gun or other fire-arm with a moveable
breech-piece to receive the charge, which may be of the ordinary kind or in
the form of a cartridge according to the preference given to one or other mode
of loading. The front end of this moveable breech-piece is conically formed

page_text: -to fit accurately into a conical recess formed in the back end of the barrel,
which is fixed to the stock or carriage of the gun or other fire-arm. The
breech-piece is formed with pins or axes, which enter slots or recesses formed
on each side of a metal frame fixed to the stock, and into which the back end
of the barrel is screwed or otherwise fixed, and the breech-piece is capable of
moving on its axes (when free to do so) into an inclined position to receive
the charge. The back end of the frame which carries the breech-piece is of a
tubular form, and has a female screw cut therein, into which a cylindrical
piece is screwed, from the back end of which a central axis projects and
passes to the upper surface of the stock of the gun, and on its end a short hand
or thumb lever is fixed in order to give a partial rotation thereto. The
cylindrical piece has an internal or female screw cut therein, which is cut in
the reverse direction to the one on its external surface, the one being a right
and the other a left-handed screw, and into this cylindrical piece a screw plug
is fitted, which is prevented from rotating with the cylindrical piece by screw
pins entering recesses thereon, so that by the partial rotation of the cylindrical
screw by means of the hand lever on its axis the screw plug is is caused to
travel outwards and press on the back end of the moveable breech-piece so as
to form a perfectly tight joint between the conical surfaces on the ends of the
barrel and breech-piece where they come together. By reversing the action
of the cylindrical piece and screw plug the breech-piece will be released or
withdrawn from the conical recess in the end of the barrel, and will be moved
into an inclined position by a lever, one end of which is acted upon by a pro-
jection or cam surface on the axis of the cylindrical piece and hand lever before
mentioned, so as to raise the opposite end of the lever which acts on the
under side of the breech-piece to place it in an inclined position. The end of
the lever is also formed so as to act on a projection or incline on the breech-
piece to withdraw it from the end of the barrel or springs, or other means
may be employed to withdraw and tilt the breech-piece. The breech-piece
carries a nipple to receive a percussion cap, which is. exploded by the hammer
of a lock of the ordinary description, but other modes of exploding the charge
may be employed.
We would remark, that the mode before described of forcing the breech-
piece up to the end of the barrel by means of right and left-handed screws to
form a tight joint may readily be applied to moveable breech-pieces having
more than one chamber; and although we have particularly.described the
combination of right and left-handed screws which we prefer to employ for
forcing up the breech-piece, we do not intend to confine ourselves thereto, as a

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James MacKenzie and Stephen Thomas Wentworth in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 17th May 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
MACKENZIE, of 16, St. Martin's-le-Grand; in the City of London, and
STEPHEN THOMAS WENTWORTH, of the same Place, Gas Engineers, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters.
Patent, bearing date the Seventeeth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-ninc, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said James Mackenzie and Stephen Thomas Wentworth, Her
special licence that we, the said James Mackenzie and Stephen Thomas
Wentworth, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we,
the said James Mackenzie and Stephen Thomas Wentworth, our 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 BREECH-LOADING FIRE-
ARMS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said James
Mackenzie and Stephen Thomas Wentworth, our executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the
hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 we, the said James Mackenzie and Stephen.
Thomas Wentworth, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
Our Invention has for its object improvements in the construction of guns

page_text: or other fire-arms which are loaded at the breech. For this purpose we con-
struct the rear end of the barrel of a gun or other fire-arm with a moveable
breech-piece to receive the charge, which may be of the ordinary kind or in
the form of a cartridge, according to the preference given to one or other mode
of loading. The front end of this moveable breech-piece is conically formed
to fit accurately into a conical recess formed in the back end of the barrel,
which is fixed to a slotted frame and to the stock or carriage of the gun or other
fire-arm. The breech-piece is formed with pins or axes, which enter slots or
recesses formed on each side of a slotted metal frame fixed to the stock, and
into which the back end of the barrel is screwed or otherwise fixed, and the
breech-piece is capable of moving on its axes (when free to do so) into an
inclined position to receive the charge. The back end of the frame which
carries the breech-piece is of a tubular form and has a female screw cut
therein, into which a cylindrical piece is screwed, from the back end of which
a central axis projects and passes to the upper surface of the stock of the gun,
and on its end a short hand or thumb lever is fixed, in order to give a partial
rotation thereto. The cylindrical piece has an internal or female screw cut
therein, which is cut in the reverse direction to the one on its external surface.
The one being a right and the other a left-handed screw, and into this
cylindrical piece a screw plug is fitted, which is prevented from rotating with
the cylindrical piece by screw pins entering recesses thereon, so that by the
partial rotation of the cylindrical screw by means of the hand lever on its axis,
the screw plug is caused to travel outwards and press on the back end of the
moveable breech-piece, so as to form a perfectly tight joint between the conical
surfaces on the ends of the barrel and breech-piece where they come together.
By reversing the action of the cylindrical piece and screw plug, the breech-
piece will be released or withdrawn from the conical recess in the end of the
barrel, and will be moved into an inclined position by a lever, one end of which
is acted upon by a projection or cam surface on the axis of the cylindrical piece
and hand lever before mentioned, so as to raise the opposite end of the lever
which acts on the under side of the breech-piece to place it in an inclined
position. The end of the lever is also formed so as to act on a projection or
incline on the breech-piece, to withdraw it from the end of the barrel; or
springs or other means may be employed to withdraw and tilt the breech-
piece. The breech-piece carries a nipple to receive a percussion cap, which
is exploded by the hammer of a lock of the ordinary description; but other
modes of exploding the charge may be employed.
We would remark, that the mode before described of forcing the breech-

page_text: Figure 1 shows a longitudinal section; and Figures 2 and 3 show trans-
verse sections of a breech-loading gun or rifle, constructed according to our
Invention, a is the moveable breech-piece, which is capable of moving on its
axes into an inclined position to receive the charge, as shewn; and in this
arrangement the moveable breech-piece a is capable of sliding to and fro a
short distance, its axes entering slots in the sides of the frame b, to the front
end of which, at b', the back end of the barrel c is firmly screwed, the end of
which is conically formed to receive the conical end of the breech-piece a. .The
back end of the frame b, which carries the breech-piece, is tubular, and has an
internal or female screw b² formed therein, in which the cylindrical screw d
screws, the stem or axis d¹ fixed on the back end of the screw d, passing out
horizontally to the outer surface of the stock of the gun, to the end of which
axis the hand or thumb lever d² is fixed, to give a partial rotation to the
screw d and this lever is so formed as to fold down (when the gun is loaded)
and lie near to the side of the stock of the gun. The cylindrical screw d has
an internal or female screw formed therein, which is cut in the reverse direc-
tion to the one on its external surface, the one being a right and the other a
left-handed screw, and into this female screw d³ the solid plug e is screwed, the
end of which is hollowed out to the shape of the back end of the breech-piece a,
against which it bears when the breech-piece and barrel are forced together
to form a tight joint by the action of the compound screws just described.
The screw plug e is connected by links e¹, e', on each side of the axes a¹ of the
breech-piece, and the links e' serve to withdraw the breech-piece from the end
of the barrel, and by working in slots formed in the sides of the frame b the
screw plug is caused to travel to and fro without rotating.
The breech-piece a is tilted into an incline position when it is withdrawn
from the end of the barrel by the cam surface d', formed on the back end of

page_text: the screw d, which acts on the projection f¹ of the lever f, which moves on an
axis carried by the slotted projection 5*, fixed to the under side of the frame 6,
the other end of the leverf passing through a slot in the pin or projection a*,
fixed on the under side of the moveable breech-piece a, by which it will be
tilted into an inclined position as shewn by the time it is withdrawn by the
screw e, from the end of the barrel c, and f" is another projection on the lever f
which is acted upon by the forward movement of the screw d, to lower the
moveable breech-piece a, into a horizontal position ready to be forced forward
to make joint with the end of the barrel c. The parts are so arranged that the
trigger cannot be pulled to discharge the piece by accident until the moveable
breech-piece is in a proper position for the discharge to take place, and this is
accomplished by means of the arm 9, which is connected to the trigger h, by
a pin joint at h¹, and the trigger h can only be pulled when the recess or
passage i formed on the axis of the screw d, is opposite to the end of the arm g,
so that it may enter the passage i when the trigger is pulled. Figure 4 shows
longitudinal section; Figure 5 part of a plan; Figure 6, a transverse section
and Figure 7 an outside view of part of a gun or rifle constructed according to
this part of our Invention, differing only in the arrangement of the parts for
tilting and lowering the moveable breech-piece to that previously described,
the parts being marked with corresponding letters of reference. In this
arrangement the back, end, or arm of the lever f passes upwards and around
the axis of the screw d, on which there is a projection d*, which acts on the
inner surface of the end of the lever arm f, so as to tilt the moveable breech-
piece when it is withdrawn, by the screw d, from the end of the barrel c, and
it also acts to lower the breech-piece into a horizontal position when the parts
are being forced together by the screw d, to make joint. Figure 8 shows the
form of the lever f separately. The locks employed for exploding the charge
are of the ordinary description.
a
It will be evident from the foregoing description that moveable breech-
pieces having more than one chamber may be readily moved into and out of
position to be charged, and to form a tight joint by means of right and left-
handed screws, at the same time we have not thought it necessary to describe
the same more minutely, as a mechanic, aided by the above description, would
readily apply our improvements to breech-loading fire-arms of this description,
and although we have only shewn and described our improvements in con-
nection with right and left-handed compound screws, we do not intend to
confine ourselves thereto, as other arrangements of screws may be employed
for forcing moveable breech-pieces up into position to make a perfectly tight
joint with the barrels of fire-arms without departing from our Invention.

page_text: Having thus described the nature of our Invention and the manner of per-
forming the same, we would have it understood that we do not claim any of
the parts separately, nor do we claim the application of right and left-handed
screws to form a tight joint in breech-loading fire-arms, a Patent having been
granted us for the purpose, dated the Thirty-first day of August One thou-
sand eight hundred and fifty-nine, N°. 1984, but what we claim is the
combination and arrangement of apparatus for withdrawing and tilting the
breech-pieces of breech-loading fire-arms as herein described.
In witness whereof, we, the said James Mackenze and Stephen Thomas
Wentworth, have hereunto set our hands and seals, the Sixteenth
day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty.
Witness,
J. G. TONGUE.
JAMES MACKENZIE.
(L.S.)
STEPHEN THOMAS WENTWORTH. (L.S.)