CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CARTRIDGES AND GUN WADS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Hall, Ironmonger, of Saint John's, in the
City of Worcester, of the County of that name, for the Invention of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CARTRIDGES AND GUN WADS."
Sealed the 10th September 1858, and dated the 16th March 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Hall at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th March
1858.
I, GEORGE HALL, Ironmonger, of St. John's, in the City of Worcester, of
the County of that name, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention
for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CARTRIDGES AND GUN WADS," to be as follows,
that is to say:-
My improvements consist, first, in so constructing cartridges that the act of
loading frees the powder, thereby rendering the biting off the end perfectly
unnecessary. I effect this by applying a light ring to the shot or bullet end of
the cartridge. To this ring a strap of any suitable material is secured, and
which strap must be long enough to pass down on one side of the cartridge,
across the powder end and up the other side, to be again secured to the
ring. When the cartridge is formed, gum, glue, shellac, or other suitable
adhesive material is applied to the paper or wrapper that covers or protects

page_text: the powder, so that when the cartridge is pushed through the ring, the strap
will be secured to the wrapper by its contact with the adhesive material or
other means of attachment. When dry, the strap must be divided, say, in the
centre of the powder end, and the effect will be as follows:-In loading, the
cartridge is placed in the muzzle of the gun, so that the ring may rest on the
end of the barrel when the act of forcing down the charge (the straps being
secured to the rings) will tear away the paper or wrapper from the powder,
thus allowing it to shake, or run down the barrel. The withdrawal of the
ramrod after loading frees the ring and straps, which may be allowed to fall
as waste.
My improvements in wads, whether used as in the ordinary way of loading
guns for fowling or other purposes, or made up in cartridges, as before described,
consists as follows:-I take a sheet of thin zinc or other suitable metal, and
cover it with any suitable adhesive material, and on this I lay a thick coating
of flock, and from such sheets (when the adhesive material is dry) I cut out
by suitable punches my wads, and as the act of cutting or punching out leaves
the wads a little convexed, I prefer that the convex side should be placed
down on the powder, that when exploded its pressure may have the effect of
spreading out the wad and cutting off all windage.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Hall in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 15th
September 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
FALL, of St. John's, in the City of Worcester, Ironmonger, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteeth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the.
said George Hall, Her special license that I, the said George Hall, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said George
Hall, 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS-

page_text: IN CARTRIDGES AND GUN WADS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said George Hall, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
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 Hall, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement,
that is to say :-
My improvements in cartridges more particularly relate to shot cartridges,
notwithstanding ball and blank cartridges for guns or rifles may be made on
the same principle, which has for its object facility and ease of loading and
certainty of ignition, without the disagreeable necessity common to the use of
cartridges, namely, that of biting or tearing off the ends. The manner in
which this improvement may be carried into effect will be understood by the
following description:-I secure by gumming, sewing, tying or otherwise, one,
two, or more straps of tape, ribbon, common string, or other suitable fibrous
material to the bottom end of the cartridge case (which may be made in the
ordinary way of common or of waterproof paper, or of the entrails of animals,
or of any other suitable material), and after charging the case with the
desired quantity of powder, and also with its wad and shot or ball (according
to the description of cartridge I may wish to make), in this stage I pass the
cartridge through a ring made of paper, leather, metal, or other suitable
material, allowing the ring to remain at or near the top of the cartridge, and
to this ring the strap or straps before referred to are brought up the sides of
the cartridge and secured. In this state the cartridge may be said to be
complete and fit for use, which is effected in the following way:-The cartridge
being slightly conical or smaller at its bottom than at its top or ring end is
readily put into the muzzle of the gun until the ring (before described) is
brought in contact with or rests on the end of the barrel, when the ramrod
may be applied to force it home in the ordinary way, but as the ring rests on .
the end of the barrel, the operation of forcing the cartridge down causes the
strap or straps to tear the paper (or other material) at the bottom of the
cartridge, which allows the powder to shake freely down the barrel and into
the nipple, and entirely empty itself from the cartridge, the empty portion of.
the case with the wad and shot or ball going down immediately on it in a
compact mass; on withdrawing the ramrod, the strap or straps will be found,

page_text: still attached to the ring, which with the strap or straps may be allowed to fall
as waste, or preserved as the user likės.
In my Provisional Specification I have referred to wads made of metal and
covered with flock, the same being made of a concave form, but not having
had sufficient time and opportunity to test the merit of gun wads so made, I
shall decline describing or claiming their use. But in order that I may be
well and clearly understood as to the nature, character, and use of my self-
priming cartridges, I will proceed to describe the Drawings hereunto annexed,
reference being made to the figures and letters marked thereon.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 represents the side view of a cartridge made according to this my
Invention, A being the ring, for which we have found common curtain rings
to answer well, or rings made of hard or bright iron wire, which, to prevent
rusting, may be coated with a deposit of copper in the ordinary way, an
operation done at very little cost, nor is it necessary that the ends of the wire
forming such rings should be soldered together, for if the wire be hard the
entirety of the ring may be sufficiently maintained without the expence or
use of soldering. B is the cartridge case; the red lines c, d, and d, e, repre-
sent narrow tape, ribbon, or other suitable fibrous material attached to the
cartridge in the following way:-The ribbon, tape, or other material being
passed through the eye of a suitable needle is by its means passed through
the sides of the cartridge case, say, at or about f, coming out at d, from
whence it is brought up to the ring at c, and secured to the ring either by
tieng, gumming, or otherwise, and the red line e is managed identically in
the same way, first entering the case at g and out at d, then carried up to e,
and united to the ring. This cartridge may be made parallel, but I prefer
making them slightly taper as it facilitates their ready placement in the gun.
Figure 2 is a perfect vertical section of Figure 1, in which it is seen that.
the wad H (which may be made of thin metal covered with flock or made in
the ordinary way) is. placed on the powder I, and by preference made a little
concaved, without which the conical form of cartridge here given could not
well be obtained, but from its convexed side being placed downwards it is
evident that when the powder is ignited its explosive power will have the
effect (from its upward pressure) of making this wad assume a flat form,
which will increase its circumference, thereby filling up the bore of the gun,
and prevent the escape of gas, and it will also be seen that the shot is placed
or wrapped in a case before. placing them down on, the wad H, this may be

page_text: unnecessary, but it completely ensures their compactness and entire separation
from the powder. On the top of the shot the wad K is placed, and secured
by the application of a piece of paper of a round or Vandyked shape secured
on the top of the cartridge, as a label, by gum or other adhesive material, as at
Figure 3, which is a top view of Figure 1, and Figure 4, a bottom view,
shewing the tape, ribbon, or other material emerging from its centre.
Having thus described my Invention, and what I believe to be the best
mode of constructing or making such cartridges, I will now describe the
manner of applying or using the same.
L, Figure 5, represents as much of a gun barrel as is necessary for this
purpose, the upper part being shewn in section for the purpose of exhibiting
the cartridge B placed within it, the ring A resting on the extreme end of the
barrel, as at n, n, the cartridge being now ready to be pushed down the barrel
by the ramrod, an operation sufficiently exhibited at Figure 6, which also
represents the end of a gun barrel, the biggest portion being shewn in section;
the ramrod marked N is broken off at the top end for convenience of space,
which being pressed on the top of the cartridge forces it down the barrel, but
in doing which, the straps being securely united to the ring in order to free
themselves from the cartridge tear the paper at the bottom, which imme-
diately allows the powder to shake down, and by the further pressing down
of the cartridge causes that part of its case which before held the powder to
crumple up, as here exhibited, marked P, that by the time the shot and wads
are pushed home on the powder the whole will form a compact mass, and on
the withdrawal of the ramrod the ring A and straps c, d, and e, d, may bo
allowed to fall as waste or preserved at the option of the sportsman.
Having thus given a general description of my Invention, and the manner
in which the same may be carried into effect, I wish it distinctly understood
that I do not purpose confining myself to the exact details herein described
and exhibited, as the whole may be considerably modified and altered without
departing from the spirit and character of my Invention, as, for instance, the
ring at the top may be composed of any suitable material, and so also with
the straps, and the mode of attaching them either to the bottom of the cart-
ridge, for the purpose of tearing it, or to the ring by which they are held ;
but what I claim, and wish to protect by these my in part recited Letters
Patent, is, the construction of cartridges, as herein described, or in or by a
similar manner to that herein described, whether such cartridges be what are
called shot, blank, or ball cartridges), by which means the act of loading or
applying the cartridge frees the powder, thereby making the cartridge self-

page_text: priming without having recourse to the necessity of biting or tearing off the
ends as heretofore.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Hall, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
JAMES S. COCKINGS, Patent Agent,
Ann Street, Birmingham.
GEORGE HALL. (L.S.)