IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1881

page_text: A
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Edward Newton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 19th October 1881.
communication from abroad by the Colts' Patent Fire-arms Manufacturing
Company (Incorporated), of Hartford, in the State of Connecticut, United
States of America.
HENRY EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECH-LOADING
FIRE-ARMS." [A communication from abroad by the Colts' Patent Fire-arms
Manufacturing Company (Incorpo rated), of Hartford, in the State of Connecticut,
United States of America.]
This Invention relates chiefly to an improvement in the lock mechanism for
revolving fire-arms and particularly to that class which are constructed so that the
hammer may be either cocked by hand or by pulling the trigger, the object being
to utilize the mainspring of the lock as the spring not only for the hammer but for
the trigger, sear, pawl which rotates the cylinder, and also to throw back the
hammer after it has delivered its blow; and the Invention consists in an arrange-
ment of levers between the mainspring, hammer, and trigger, whereby the
mainspring is applied to produce the above result, as more fully hereinafter
described.
The hammer is formed with a projection or tail piece extending forward which
engages a shoulder on an arm extending upwards from the trigger and forming the
Bear and upper arm of trigger when the hammer is thrown back to full cock and
holds it in that position.
A hook shaped "dog" or stirrup hangs to the arm of the trigger and extends
down so that its hooked nose lies below the tail piece of the hammer, hence when
the trigger is pulled the dog will rise with the arm of the trigger and engage the
tail piece of the hammer, and raise it to about the cocked position, at which point
the dog will escape from the arm of the hammer, and permit the hammer to fly
forward by the force of the main spring.
In rear of the hammer pivot but formed in the hammer is a recess which acts as
the fulcrum to a lever, the shorter arm of which extends rearward and is attached

page_text: to the mainspring. The forward arm engages with the dog so that the power of
the mainspring is applied not only to the hammer through the fulcrum but to the
dog, the difference in the lengths of the two arms of the lever making the force of
the mainspring upon the dog proportionately light when compared with its force
upon the hammer.
The engagement of the long arm with the dog is best made by a notch in the
arm which rests on the nose of the dog. This bearing of the lever upon the dog
by the force of the mainspring also applies that force to the trigger in rear of the
pivot, tending always to force the trigger forward, so that the mainspring serves
as a trigger-spring. When the hammer is set at full-cock the tail piece of the
hammer is carried above the nose of the dog; hence in pulling the trigger the nose
of the dog will raise this arm of the lever until the sear escapes from the hammer,
the lever rocking on its fulcrum for this movement of the trigger, and when the
trigger is so pulled against the pressure of the lever and its spring so as to free
the hammer then the power of the spring is applied to the hammer through the
fulcrum to throw it forward.
To apply the mainspring to the pawl for rotating the cylinder as well as to the
hammer and trigger, the pawl is formed with a pivot to extend through the arm
of the trigger. This pivot extends also through the dog and forms also the pivot
of that dog, but the bearing for the dog on the pivot is made eccentric to the
bearing of the pawl, and so that the bearing of the dog comes forward of the centre
of the bearing of the pawl; hence the power of the spring upon the dog will pull
downward upon its eccentric part of the pivot (as upon a crank) tending to turn
the pawl forward and bear it against its ratchet, so that as the trigger is pulled
the pawl will rise and turn the cylinder in the usual manner.
In order that the cocking by hand may draw back the trigger and also operate
the cylinder the tail piece of the trigger extends up over the arm of the hammer
so that the arm will be thrown upward, carrying with it the pawl until it comes
to full cocked position. The arm also takes a bearing upon the front of the
hammer so that the end of the arm will strike there upon above the pivot and
force the hammer to the rear.
The arrangement of the lever and the connection between its forward arm and
the trigger eccentrically upon the pivot of the pawl may be used without the self
cocking arrangement of the connection or dog so that the hammer can only be
cocked by hand; or those parts may be used without the shoulder and
corresponding notch in the tail piece of the hammer and thereby be only
self-cocking.
While designed with special reference to revolving fire-arms it may be applied
to other breech-loading arms, and with special advantage in the case of breech-
loading arms known as "hammerless" and which are necessarily made self-cocking.
In this case the dog instead of hanging downward extends upward and engages
the arm extending rearward from the hammer. The lever also is inverted and has
its fulcrum forward of the pivot instead of in rear of it, and the bearing surface
on the hammer is below the pivot instead of above as in the first instance. In
this case as in the first the trigger is pulled to cock the hammer.
Instead of making the lever of the third order it may be a lever of the first
order, that is to say, the spring takes its bearing between the hammer and dog.