IMPROVEMENTS IN RIPLE TARGETS AND SIGNALLING APPARATUS
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George William Hart, of Southsea, in the County
of Southampton, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN RIPLE TARGETS
AND SIGNALLING APPARATUS."
Sealed the 5th July 1864, and dated the 13th January 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George William Hart
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 13th January 1864.
I, GEORGE WILLIAM HART, of Southsea, in the County of Southampton,
5 do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN RIPLE
TARGETS AND SIGNALLING APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in rifle targets and signalling
apparatus. For this purpose I make a framework of wrought or cast iron so
as to form the top, bottom, and two sides of the target, and the back I
O enclose with iron shutters or doors so as to give access to the working parts
when required. I make the front of the target instead of being in one.or
two pieces, as usual, in separate pieces nearly square, varying in size from 13
inches to 8 inches. These plates I attach to hooks at the back of the plates,
and suspend the said plates by the said hooks upon iron rods which run from

page_text: side to side of the said target, and I cause them to incline outwards at bottom
by attaching a sufficient counterpoise to each plate, or to levers acting on each
plate, so that the whole number of plates when so suspended from the aforesaid
rods have the appearance of a venetian blind or a set of louvre boards, the
bottom edge of the top row of plates projecting over the top edge of the row
next beneath them. And as a further improvement to prevent bullets from
striking on the space between any two adjoining plates in the same row,
I cause the plates in each row to be set alternately in advance and behind
each other so that each alternate plate shall overlap and cover the edges of
the plates on either side of it, and so prevent any bullet entering or striking
on edges of any two adjoining plates.
The mechanism attached to the front plates I make as follows:-I attach
at the back of each plate a bent lever with one end of same in such position
that when the plate in front of it is struck by the bullet, and driven back, it
shall strike one end of the said lever, and the lever being bent at an angle the
other end is raised or lowered, and by means of such raising or lowering, and
by means of a rod attached thereto suitable triggers or detents are released,
allowing a weight or weights to descend, and by the descent of such weight,
or weights suitable signals are elevated or made to revolve, conveying the
information required, viz., the direction of the shot and its approximate
distance from the centre of the target. The signals I construct of one or
more discs and two arms, the arms are elevated by the descent of the weights
to different degrees of elevation which are adjustable, and the discs are also
turned by the falling of the weights, or by their own gravity. These are so
connected that each plate in the target face when struck by the bullet does
act upon the detents or triggers before described, and allow one or more
weights to descend, and by their descent hoist the proper arm
disc or discs which form the signal proper.to such plate struck. In the above
signals the arms are made to shew the direction of.. the ball. Thus a right
arm shews that the shot was to the right of the target, and the elevation of
the arm corresponds with the height of the. ball, whether high or low.. The
left arin in like manner, and the discs.are intended to shew the quality of the
shot or approximate distance from the centre, thus in a large target in which
there may be three concentric rings or squares the arms alone would shew
the outermost plate; the next smaller square or circle would be shewn by
the arms and one disc; the second inner square or circle by two discs, and
the arms and the bull's eye or centre by the two discs alone, and the number
of rings or squares can be increased at pleasure by increasing the number
or revolve the

page_text: of discs hoisted at the same time. When a shot has been fired, and a signal
raised, it remains up until a wire passing from a lever, at convenient part of
the ground, to the target by rotating a wheel or pulling a lever raises to their
original places those weights which have fallen on being liberated by the
blow, and on the weight being so removed from the signals they fall of their
own gravity, and the discs are revolved so as to present only their edges to
view, and thus become nearly invisible at a distance.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George William Hart in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 13th July 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
WILLIAM HART, of Southsea, in the County of Southampton, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of January, in the year of our.
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said George William Hart, Her special licence that
I, the said George William Hart, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as 1, the said George William Hart, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and 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 RIFLE TARGETS AND SIGNALLING
APPARATUS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said George
William Hart, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in, writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 George William Hart, 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 :-

page_text: This Invention has for its object improvements in rifle targets and signalling
apparatus. I make a framework of wrought or cast iron so as to form the
top, bottom, and two sides of the target, and the back I enclose with iron
shutters or doors so as to give access to the working parts when required. I
make the front of the target instead of being in one or two pieces, as usual, in
separate pieces nearly square, varying in size from 13 inches to 8 inches, these
plates I attach to hooks at the back of the plates and suspend the said plates.
by the said hooks upon iron rods which run from side to side of the said
target, and I cause them to incline outward at bottom by attaching a sufficient
counterpoise to each plate, or to levers acting on such plate, so that the whole
number of plates when so suspended from the aforesaid rods have the
appearance of a venetian blind or a set of louvre boards, the bottom edge of
the top row of plates projecting over the top edge of the row next beneath
them. And as a further improvement to prevent bullets from striking on the
space between any two adjoining plates in the same row, I cause the plates in
each row to be set alternately in advance and behind each other, so that each
alternate plate shall overlap and cover the edges of the plates on either side
of it, and so prevent any bullet entering or striking on edges of any two
adjoining plates.
The mechanism attached to the front plates I make as follows:-I attach
at the back of each plate a bent lever with one end of same in such position
that when the plate in front of it is struck by the bullet and driven back, it
shall strike one end of the said lever, and the lever being bent at an angle the
other end is raised or lowered, and by means of such raising or lowering, and
by means of a rod attached thereto, suitable triggers or detents are released
allowing a weight or weights to descend, and by the descent of such weight or
weights suitable signals are elevated or made to revolve conveying the
information required, vizt., the direction of the shot and its approximate
distance from the centre of the target. The signals I construct of one or
more discs and two arms, the arms are elevated by the descent of the weights
to different degrees of elevation, which are adjustable, and the discs are also
turned by the falling of the weights or by their own gravity. These are so
connected that each. plate in the target face when struck by the bullet acts
upon the detents or triggers before described, and allows one or more weights
to descend, and by their descent hoist the proper arm or revolve the disc or
discs which form the signal proper to such plate struck. In the above
signals the arms are made to show the direction of the ball, thus, a right arm
shows that the shot was to the right of the target and the elevation of the arm

page_text: corresponds with the height of the ball, whether high or low; the left arm in
like manner and the discs are intended to show the quality of the shot or.
approximate distance from the centre, thus in a large target in which there
may be 3 concentric rings or squares the arms alone would show the outermost
plate, the next smaller square or circle would be shown by the arms and one.
disc, the second inner square or circle by two discs, and the arms and the
bulls-eye or centre by the two discs alone, and the number of rings or squares
can be increased at pleasure by increasing the number of discs hoisted at the
same time.
When a shot has been fired and a signal raised it remains up
until a wire passing from a lever at convenient part of the ground to the
target by rotating a wheel or pulling a lever raises to their original places
those weights which have fallen on being liberated by the blow, and on the
weight being so removed from the signals they fall of their own gravity and
the discs are revolved so as to present only their edges to view, and thus
become nearly invisible at a distance.
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood, and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the Drawings hereunto
annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
In Figures 1 and 2 A is a back view of the disc used to indicate bulls-eyes;
A side view of ditto, showing the half pulley by which it is raised; B is a
bracket in which the pulley at back of A turns; C is a pipe supporting the
bracket and protecting the chain communicating with A, when this chain is
pulled A becomes horizontal; D and E are pipes through which pass chains
attached to the arms II, which are fixed one on each pulley F and G, when
these chains are pulled the arms rise; K, K, is the frame of the target, into
the top plate of which the pipes C, D, and E are secured; L, M, are two
wide pulleys to which the chains from pipes D and E are secured; when
these pulleys revolve they wind the chains upon themselves and so raise the
arms.
a¹, a, a, b, b, 61, are 6 pulleys having a projecting stop, to each of
these pulleys is attached a weight; a', a, a, are also attached to L by
chains &,,, to M by chains also; k, k, k, k, k, k, are six catches which
prevent the rotation of any of the pulleys until raised out of the way of, the
stop piece on each pulley; N is pulley attached to the chain that passes.
upwards through the pipe C to the half pulley at back of A. Now when a
plate is struck the mechanism shown in Figures 3 and 4, 5 and 6 act upon

page_text: and raise one or more of the catches and the pulley, the catch of which is
thus raised, is free to revolve by the weight attached to it, and as it revolves it
causes either L or M, as the case may be, also to revolve, and the revolution of
these pulleys causes the arms to be raised; in order to regulate the position of
the arms, the weights attached to the pulleys are limited in the distance they
can fall, thus a', 6', fall 9 inches, a", 6, 6 inches,, a, 6, 3 inches. No
weight is attached to N inasmuch as the disc being unequally balanced falls
instead of being raised. S is a large wheel to which the two chains X, X,
are attached at one end, at the other end these chains are attached to the
pulleys L and M respectively, so that when pulled by the revolution of S they
cause the pulleys L and M to turn in the reverse direction to that in which
they revolved by the action of the pulleys with the weights, consequently by
pulling round S the small pulleys are returned into their places as before the
striking of a plate and the weights are again wound up, a chain also from N
resets that pulley also and raises the disc A into the horizontal position. The
wheel S is put in motion by a wire or chain actuated by a hand lever at a
convenient distance. Figure 3 shows the way in which the plates are hung,
seen in vertical side section; Figure 6 shows the same in perspective on a
larger scale; b, b, are stout round rods passing through the target from side to
side; a, a, a, a, are iron arms bolted to the backs of the plates, and hung
upon b, b, as shown, free to swing backwards; c, c, are upright bars of Tiron
to which the brackets d are bolted, in these brackets are the square rods m
turning on pivots at their ends; on these square bars are the pieces g, h,
and hand k, so that when the bars turn these pieces are all moved, a rod e
is screwed into the back of each plate and carries a weight f as a counter-
balance to make the plate return to its position after being struck, a pin e¹¹ on
the rod e when pressed against g causes the rod m to turn, and by so doing
it lifts h which lifts the vertical rod i by the pin ". In Figure 6 two plates
are shown connected to one sigual, in this case whether it be the upper or
lower plate struck, the vertical rod i is raised, and a pin on this rod catches
under the piece h", causing m to turn and lift the catch k which is on the
same rod, this catch then as before described liberates a pulley and the weight
attached falls falling round M, and raising one of the arms, it will be seen by
the position of the pieces h, h, that one plate acts without interfering with the
other. Figures 7 and 8 show other parts of the apparatus also on an enlarged
scale.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention and the manner of
nerforming the same, I would remark that I do not confine myself to the

page_text: exact details described. Also that I am aware that similar signals are used
on railways, and semaphore signals are in use for targets, but these have
hitherto been moved by hand, I claim therefore the combination of the two,
and the mechanism by which the bullet is made to hoist the signal proper to
the spot on the target struck by it.
In witness whereof, I, the said George William Hart, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
GEO. W. HART. (L.S.)