IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE AND FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Charles Healey, of 163, Strand, in the
County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE
AND FIRE-ARMS."-Partly a communication from Charles Alger, of New-
burgh, New York, in the United States of America.
Sealed the 23rd November, 1861, and dated the 31st May 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Charles Healey
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
31st May 1861.
I, EDWARD CHARLES HEALEY, of 168, Strand, in the County of Middlesex,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE
AND FIRE-ARMS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in ordnance and fire-arms.
For these purposes a chamber is formed at the breech end of the barrel of a
piece of ordnance or of a fire-arm in which is placed a sphere having a passage
through it of the same diameter as the charge chamber at the breech end of
the barrel with this chamber the passage through the sphere communicates
when the sphere is moved into a position for introducing the projectile and
cartridge. At the after end of the cylindrical chamber in which the sphere is
placed is a screw plug which has a passage through it corresponding or nearly
so in diameter with the diameter of the passage through the sphere. The

page_text: forward end of the screw plug and the breech end of the barrel are made concave
so as to fit the sphere, and the sphere is capable of being turned between them.
The sphere has an axis fixed upon it which passes by preference through the
upper part of the chamber in which the sphere is contained, and on this axis is
a handle by means of which the sphere may be turned one quarter round.
When it is desired to load the piece the sphere is
to bring the passage through it to coincide with the charge chamber, and when
the projectile and cartridge have been introduced into the charge chamber the
sphere is turned one quarter round in order to present the solid surface of the
sphere to the breech end of the barrel.
turned by its handle so as
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edward Charles Healey in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 30th November 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
CHARLES HEALEY, of 163, Strand, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Edward Charles Healey, Her special licence that I, the said Edward
Charles Healey, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Edward Charles Healey, my 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 ORDNANCE AND FIRE-ARMS," the result partly of communi-
oation made to me by Charles Alger, of Newburgh, New York, in the United
States of America, and partly of invention and discovery made by myself,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Edward Charles
Healey, 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..

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edward Charles Healey, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularily described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-
:
This Invention has for its object improvements in ordnance and fire-arms.
For these purposes a chamber is formed at the breech end of the barrel of a
piece of ordnance or of a fire-arm, in which is placed a sphere having a
passage through it of the same diameter as the charge chamber at the breech
end of the barrel; with this chainber the passage through the sphere communi-
cates when the sphere is moved into a position for introducing the projectile
and cartridge. At the after end of the cylindrical chamber in which the sphere
is placed is a screw plug, which has a passage through it corresponding or nearly
so in diameter with the diameter of the passage through the sphere. The
forward end of the screw plug and the breech end of the barrel are made
concave so as to fit the sphere, and the sphere is capable of being turned
between them. The sphere has an axis fixed upon it, which passes by prefer-
ence through the upper part of the chamber in which the sphere is contained,
and on this axis is a handle by means of which the sphere may be turned one
quarter round.
When it is desired to load the piece the sphere is turned by
its handle so as to bring the passage through it to coincide with the charge
chamber, and when the projectile and cartridge has been introduced into the
charge chamber, the sphere is turned one quarter round in order to present
the solid surface of the sphere to the breech end of the barrel. .
Having thus stated the nature of the said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shows an external view of a gun constructed according to the
Invention; Figure 2 is a longitudinal section thereof, the opening or passage
through the sphere being turned in the direction suitable for loading the gun
through the hollow screw at the breech.
a, a, is the barrel of the gun; b is a sphere in a chamber c. At the end
of the chamber c is a screw plug d. By this screw plug the sphere may be
tightly and securely held between the inner end of the screw and the back end
of the barrel of the gun. There is a passage formed through the screw plug
to admit of a cartridge and a ball or other projectile being passed through the
screw and through the passage in the sphere into the barrel of the The
sphere turns on an axis 6', and has a handle & fixed thereon, by which the
sphere can be readily turned a quarter round in order to bring the passage
gun.

page_text: therein to coincide with the passage in the screw plug and with the barrel, and
then when the gun is loaded the sphere is to be turned a quarter turn back, to
present the solid part of the sphere to the barrel behind the charge. I havo
not thought it necessary to show any Drawing of a barrel of a small arm, as a
workman from the above description will readily apply the Invention to the
barrels of small arms as well as to ordnance in general.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Charles Healey, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
EP. CHAS. HEALEY. (L.S.)