IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS AND ORDNANCE, AND CARTRIDGES FOR BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Charles Stiff at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
27th June 1868.
I, WILLIAM CHARLES STIFF, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS AND ORDNANCE, AND
CARTRIDGES FOR BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS," to be as follows:-
My improvements in breech-loading fire-arms have reference to
breech-loading fire-arms in which a sliding plug or closer is employed.
for opening and closing the breech.
My improvements consist, firstly, in making the opening at the top.
of the breech chamber or shoe through which the cartridge is introduced
into the said chamber in the following manner:-I make the said
opening of a length about equal to one-half the length of the cartridge,
and the front part or end of a breadth equal to the diameter of the
fore part of the cartridge. The rear end of the said opening is made
of a diameter somewhat greater than that of the rim of the cartridge..

page_text: In introducing the cartridge it is held in an inclined position, the
projectile end being highest. The base of the cartridge is introduced
into the rear end of the opening, and the cartridge pressed backwards
until the projectile or fore end falls into the breech chamber. By the
pushing home of the sliding plug the cartridge is pushed forward to
its place in the barrel. When self-consuming cartridges are employed
no extractor is required, but when metallic cartridges or cartridges
the cases of which require to be extracted after discharge are employed
I use an extractor, which withdraws the cartridge case by its rim. In
order to remove the extracted case from the breech chamber or shoe I
employ the arrangement constituting the second part of my Invention.
My improvements consist, secondly, in making on the under side of
the breech chamber or shoe 'an opening nearly equal in length to the
case of an exploded cartridge. The said opening is situated at the
rear of the said breech chamber or shoe, its front end approaching but
not being quite under the rear end of the opening at the top of the said
breech chamber herein-before described. When the cartridge case has
been withdrawn from the barrel by the extractor and is brought over
the said opening, the weight of the base of the said case causes the
front end to tilt up, and the case then falls from the said opening.
There is no danger of the cartridge when introduced at the upper
opening in the manner herein-before described falling through the
lower opening, as the weight of the projectile in front of the cartridge
prevents the tilting which takes place when the case of the exploded
cartridge is brought over the said lower opening. When it is wished
to remove an unexploded cartridge from the breech chamber it is only
necessary to turn the gun so as to invert the positions of the openings
in the breech chamber when the weight of the projectile tilts the
cartridge and it falls out at the opening at which it was introduced.
In consequence of the smallness of the opening at which the cartridge
is introduced the weakening of the breech chamber or shoe by the
cutting away of so large a portion of the said chamber or shoe as is
necessary when the cartridge is introduced in the ordinary way is avoided.
The improvements described with reference to fire-arms are also
applicable to ordnance.
My improvements in cartridges for breech-loading fire-arms consist
in so connecting the projectile with the part containing the powder

page_text: that the cartridge shall be flexible at the junction. On introducing
the cartridge into the breech chamber it can bend at the said junction,
and thus permit of its introduction at a smaller opening in the breech
chamber than when it is rigid.