AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF CARTRIDGE.
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Evan Birchley, of Upper Severn Terrace, in the City
of Worcester, Attorney's Clerk, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
CONSTRUCTION OF CARTRIDGE.".
Sealed the 18th March 1859, and dated the 8th October 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Evan Birchley at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 8th
October 1858.
=
I, EVAN BIRCHLEY, of Upper Severn Terrace, in the City of Worcester,
Attorney's Clerk, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OP CARTRIDGE," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a novel construction of cartridge, which will permit
of the powder being discharged from the case into the barrel of the fire-arm
required to be loaded, by simple pressure of the cartridge between the thumb
and finger of the sportsman, thus avoiding all necessity for tearing off the end
of the cartridge with the teeth, or ripping up the case by means of tapes or
other contrivances. This improvement I effect by forming the case of stiff
paper, or other suitable material, and closing that end which is to receive the
powder by pasting or cementing over it, a less tenacious material, such, for
example, as tissue paper prepared or not with a varnish that will resist
moisture. Over the powder, when inserted in the case, I place a wad, and
cement it to the case, and when blank cartridges are required I lap the edges

page_text: of the case over the wad, and thus complete the cartridge; but when shot
are to be added, this wad forms the bottom of the shot chamber, which is in
like manner closed by a second wad.
When making ball cartridges, I insert the ball (if it be conical) point
downwards in the case, so that about one half the ball will be enveloped in
the case. This will ensure its being readily detached from the case after the
powder has been discharged from the cartridge into the barrel of the fire-arm,
and so permit of its insertion into the barrel disencumbered of the case.
When loading a gun with this novel construction of cartridge, the sportsman
places the rear end of the cartridge near the muzzle of the gun, and pressing
it between his finger and thumb, bursts the cartridge and discharges the loose
powder into the barrel; he then has merely to ram down the charge of shot
or the ball, as the case may be, with the ramrod, and cap the gun, as usual.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Evan Birchley in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 8th
April 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EVAN
BIRCHLEY, of Upper Severn Terrace, in the City of Worcester, Attorney's
Clerk, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Evan Birchley, Her special license that I, the said Evan Birchley
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Evan Birchley, 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 "AN IMPROVED CON-
STRUCTION OF CARTRIDGE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Evan Birchley, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Evan Birchley, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):
This Invention relates to a mode of making ball, shot, and blank cartridges
sufficiently strong to permit of their being carried and handled without liability
to injury, and yet admit of their giving way or bursting under the pressure of
the thumb and finger of the sportsman or soldier, when the discharge of the
powder from the case into the barrel of the gun is required to be effected.
To attain this end I employ in the construction of the powder chamber two
different qualities of fabric, which shall have, the one the property of com-
parative tenacity or strength, and the other of weakness or fragility. These
substances I so arrange as to give strength to the cartridge, and yet permit
of its readily yielding to pressure, and to this end I form my cartridge by
cutting stiff paper or other suitable material into a convenient shape, with
four projections, as shewn in the accompanying Drawings at Fig. 1. The
paper or other material so shaped I lap round a former, and convert it into
a tube or cylinder, as shewn at Fig. 2. The projections a, a, a, a, (which
are sufficiently long to extend when bent inwards beyond the half diameter.
of the case of the cartridge) I then bend down, and secure them to each
other with paste, glue, gum, or other cement, so that they shall overlap each
other, as shewn in plan at Fig. 3, thus closing the rear end of the case which
is to receive the gunpowder, and making the apex or centre of such closed
end of the case of four thicknesses of paper or other material. Having thus
securely closed the rear end of the case, I cut or perforate the same, when
dry, in the centre, as shewn in plan at Fig. 4, making three, four, or more
cuts diverging from the apex or centre of the closed end of the case. These
cuts or perforations may be made with any suitable instrument, but I prefer
perforating or piercing the case with a sharp-pointed "four-square" instrument,
which insures the cutting away of the centre, the cuts then being at right
angles with each other, as shewn in the Drawing. This piercing of the end
of the case, without detracting materially from its strength as respects its
power of retaining the powder while the cartridge is being fairly handled,
will ensure the ready bursting of the cartridge when subjected to pressure at
its extreme end; but to prevent the grains of powder from working out
through the perforation during the transit of the cartridges, I take a circular
or other shaped piece of tissue paper or other fragile material, prepared or
not with varnish that will resist moisture, and paste or cement it over the

page_text: perforation in the end of the case, either inside or outside, but I prefer lining
the inside of the perforated end of the case with such tissue paper or other
fragile material, and then applying a varnish that will resist moisture to the
whole or a part only of the external surface of the case. I then insert in
the case a suitable charge of gunpowder, and over it I place a wad, and
cement it to the case; and when blank cartridges are required, I either lap
the edges of the case over the wad, or cut off such edges, and cover the wad
with a paper label, and thus complete the blank cartridge. When shot are
to be added, this wad forms the bottom of the shot chamber, which, after
inserting the shot, is in like manner closed by a second wad. Fig. 5 is a
longitudinal section of a complete shot cartridge, constructed as above
described; Fig. 6 is a longitudinal section of a cartridge with the rear end
containing the gunpowder, constructed as before described, but with a
spherical ball secured in the case by a second wad. Instead, however, of
using a second wad, the edges of the case may be cemented to or over the
ball at the point 6, the front end of the case containing the ball being in this
instance greased to prevent leading; Fig. 7 is a longitudinal section of a
cartridge with the rear end containing the gunpowder, constructed as before
described, but with a conical ball, which I secure in the case either 'by a
second wad, or by turning down the edges of the case, and to prevent leading
I grease the front end of the case. When conical balls are used, I prefer
that the wads be entirely omitted, in order the better to expose the square or
rear end of the ball to the action of the fire. Fig. 8 is a longitudinal section
of a cartridge with the rear end containing the gunpowder, constructed as
before described, and with a conical ball inserted in the case point downwards,
so that about one half of the ball will be enveloped in the case, the edges of
the case being cemented to or over the ball; this insures its being readily
detached from the case, if desired, after the gunpowder has been discharged
from the cartridge into the barrel of the fire-arm, and so permit of the ball
being inserted into the barrel either with the case, or disencumbered of it.
In order to load a gun with the improved cartridge, the sportsman or
soldier places the rear end of the cartridge near the muzzle of the gun, and
pressing it between his finger and thumb, bursts the case, and discharges the
loose powder into the barrel; he then has merely to ram down the ball or
charge of shot, and to cap the gun as usual, and the piece is ready for
firing.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "An Improved
Construction of Cartridge," and explained the manner of carrying the same
into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not claim as of my Invention

page_text: the principle of constructing cartridges which will burst by pressure, as the
same object has been heretofore essayed, although, as I believe, with indifferent
success, but what I claim under the above in part recited Letters Patent is
forming the powder chamber of cartridges in the manner above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Evan Birchley, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Fifth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
EVAN BIRCHLEY. (L.S.)