IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS ON THE TRIGGER
Year: 1791

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JAMES STURMAN SEARLES, of Sheepy Yard, in the Parish of Trinity,
Minories, in the Liberty of the Tower of London, in the County of
Middlesex, Gun Smith, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the
Third, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain,
bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of November, in
the thirty-second year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the
said James Sturman Scarles, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the
said James Sturman Scarles, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
by myself and themselves, or my or their deputy or deputies, servants or
agents, or such others as I, the said James Sturman Scarles, my
executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend my "IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS ON THE TRIGGER

page_text: OF A GUN, FOR THE BETTER DISCHARGING AND SECURING OF ALL SORTS OF
FIRE-ARMS IN GENERAL," within that part of His Majesty's Kingdom
called England, Flis Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick upon
Tweed, in such manner as to me, the said Janies Sturman Scarles, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or any of us, should in our
discretion seem meet; in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso, that if T, the said James Sturman Searles, should not par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that
then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages what-
soever thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become
void, anything therein-before contained to the contrary thereof in any-
wise notwithstanding, as in and by the said Letters Patent, relation
being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Sturman Searles, in
pursuance of and in compliance with the said proviso, do hereby
describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and declare the
same is to be performed in manner following (that is to say):
My Invention of a trigger for double guns, pistols, and all sorts
of fire-arms having more than one barrell is described in manner
following: A, B, Figure 1, represents the front of the trigger plate;
D, E, F, G, is a side view of the said plate, the two pillars F, and G,
being solid with the part D, E; IT. I, K, is a carriage turning on two
cylindrical pins a, b, in the pillars F, G, which pins are made fast by
two screws c, d; L, M, N, is the trigger which acts in the carriage
H, I, K, by menus of the pin g, h, which pin turus in the holes g, h,
and is made fast in the trigger at K, by means of the screw m; a
groove e, f, is cut in the trigger, in which a bolt a, y, is made to
slide; the part q, which, when the bolt is pushed up, slides into the
notch, in the trigger plate, and totally prevents the trigger from
acting. The right hand lock is discharged by pulling the trigger, as
usual. The lever by which that lock is discharged resting on the part

page_text: of the trigger, the left hand lock is discharged by pushing the trigger
across the stock of the gun from the right hand to the left, by which
motion the part of-the carriage K; discharges the said lock, the lever
of that lock resting on the part K. My Invention of a trigger for a
a single gun or pistol, &c. consists of a trigger plate A, B, C, Figure 2;
D, E, F, is the trigger; into which a pin X, Y, is screwed or made
solid in the hole 7, the 'end Y, being made to come in a line with
the lever by which the lock is discharged, by which means the action of
that lever is reiidered much pleasanter than usual. The trigger is
secured by a pin y, in- the piece l, m, catching in a piece a, on the
trigger D, E, F, by pusliing up the bolt b, c, (which bolt slides in 2
holes in the trigger plate A, B, C, at 1, 1); the pin..g, is 'disengaged
from the piece a, in the trigger, and the trigger is suffered to act; the
bolt c, b, and the piece l, m, are kept up by the end p, of the piece o, p,
catching in a notch in a trigger plate at q. The piece o, p,. turns upon
a pin at o, in the bolt c, &, and a pin is left in the trigger plate to keep
the end p, of the piece o, p, in its place in discharging the lock. The
part of the trigger s, lifts the end p, of the piece o, p, out of the notch
7, by means of a pin in the end p, of the piece o, p; the springt,
throws the pieces l, m, o, p, and the bolt b, c, into their former position
and the trigger is secured as before. This Invention, applied to any
sort of fire-arms, has the above effect, being made in proportion to the
size of the lock.
In witness whereof, I. the said James Sturman Scarles, have here-
unto set my hand and scal, this Twenty-fourth day of December,
in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and
ninety-one.
JAMES STURMAN SEARLES. (L.S.)
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the above-
named James Sturman Searles, being
first duly stamped, in the presence of

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fourth day of
December, in the Thirty-second year of the reign of His Majesty King
George the Third, the said James Sturman Searles came before our
said Lord the King, in Ilis Chancery, and acknowledged the instrument
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in
form above written. And also the instrument aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the several Statutes made in the sixth year of
the reign of the late King and Queen William and Mary of England,
and so forth, and in the seventeenth and twenty-third years of the reign
of His present Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the said Twenty-fourth day of December, in the year
above written.