IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MEASURING CHARGES OF POWDER AND SHOT
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I.
MICHEL BOCHE, of Paris, Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by
Her Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain,
bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-second day of May, in the
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Michel Boche, my exors, adiñors, and
assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Michel Boche, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Michel Boche, my exors, adñors, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and law-
fully might make, use, exercise and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR MEASURING CHARGES OF POWDER AND SHOT;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that 1, the said Michel Boche,
shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her
said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next

page_text: and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more
fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said provisoc, I, the
said Michel Boche, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are
fully described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof,
reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the
figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say:
My Invention consists of improvements in the construction and
arrangement of the apparatus for measuring powder and shot applied to
powder and shot flasks. And in order that the Invention may be fully
understood and readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the
Drawing hereunto annexed, in the various Figures of which the same
letters of reference are used to indicate the same parts. Figure 1,
represents two edge views of a flask, having my improvements applied
thereto. Figure 2, shows the two side views of the flask. And I would
state that the flask shown is of leather, and is therefore more suited for
receiving shot than powder, but I have not thought it necessary to show
a flask of metal suitable for powder, as it will be evident that the
apparatus for measuring may be applied to a metal or other flask.
Figure 3, shows two similar sections, but the position of the parts for
measuring are shown in the two positions they are capable of taking,
the one for receiving a charge into the measuring apparatus, and the
other position being that in which the measured charge is delivered
into the barrel of a gun. Figure 4, is another section of the parts
taken transversely. The other Figures shew the separate parts of the
measuring apparatus. a, is a cylinder, fixed by means of a screw b; the
ends of this cylinder have glass let in to them on the hollow stem c, to
the flask there being an opening at e, out of this cylinder; within the
cylinder a, the hollow plug ƒ works, and there are two openings f', f²,
in this plug opposite each other. g, is the mouth-piece or outlet tube,
which is fixed to a curved shield h, and this mouth-piece or outlet tube is
affixed by screws at j, j, to the plug f, there being two rings k, k, placed
on the ends of the plug, one on either side of the cylinder a, before the

page_text: screws are introduced at j. j, so that the screws hold the shield h, the
rings k, and the plug f, together, so that when the mouth-piece is
raised or lowered it will turn the plug, by which means, when the
mouth-piece is in a vertical position, the flask being upwards, powder
or shot (as the case may be) will be allowed to descend into the mea-
suring apparatus, and on the mouth-piece being turned, the change so
measured will be cut off' and lic within the plug, and in that position
the mouth-piece may be introduced into the barrel of a fowling piece.
It should be understood that the plug has two cuds or covers, l, m, are
at each end, which closes the plug in those directions, and if the charge
was at all times to be the same, then those end covers might be per-
manently fixed, but as it is desirable to have means of varying the
charge, one of the end covers m is fixed on to a short tube or cylinder
m', which enters the plug, so that, according as the tube is pushed in
or drawn more or lesss outward, so will be the extent of the interior of
the measuring apparatus. n, is a slot formed in the plug, through which
a screw is passed into the tube or short cylinder m', and according as
the stem of the screw is in the slit (1, (2) or (3), so will be the extent
of the charge. On the shield h, is fixed a spring o, which has a friction
roller at the other end, which passes through the opening ', in the
shield, so that the roller presses on the cylinder a, and when the outlet
tube or mouth-piece is brought into the vertical position the roller
enters the recess p, formed in the cylinder a.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, I would have it understood that I do not con-
fine myself to the 'details so long as the peculiar character of the
Invention be retained. But what I claim is, the mode of arranging the
measuring apparatus of a powder flask, as herein described; and I also
claim the ends of the cylinder a, of glass, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Michel Boche, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of October, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-
five
MICHEL (L.s.) BOCHE.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-third day of
October, in the year of our Lord 1845, the aforesaid Michel Boche
came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknow-
ledged the Specification aforesaid, and all and everything therein con-
tained and specified, in form above written. And also the Specification
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for
that my