Improvements in or relating to Toy Guns.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 26th May, 1891-Accepted, 27th June, 1891
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Toy Guns.
A communication from abroad by THE RUBBER TIPPED ARROW COMPANY, of
Boston, in the State of Massachusetts, United States of America.
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, F.C.S., M.I.M.E., of the Agency for
Foreign Patent Solicitors, 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, and 6, Bank Street,
Manchester, both in the County of Lancaster, and 323, High Holborn, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention has for its object to provide a toy gun, actuated by a spring, and
it consists of a toy gun having a helical spring in the interior of its barrel, said
spring having one end fastened at the butt end of said barrel, a catch for the said
spring whereby the free end thereof is hell after it has been compressed, said catch
being an arm on the forward end of a rod or rock shaft located in the forward
part of the stock, said catch projecting through an orifice in the barrel at a point
where it will be adapted to retain the spring in its most compressed position, an arm
or operating lever on the rear end of said rod projecting through a slot in the stock,
and a hammer and releasing trigger therefor, said hammer being adapted to fall upon
the said operating arm or lever at the rear end of the said rod thus displacing the
arm or catch at the front end thereof and releasing the spring within the barrel, all
of which will now be described.
On the accompanying drawings forming a part of this Specification,
Figure 1 represents a side view of a toy gun embodying the improvements.
Figure 2 represents a longitudinal section of a portion of the same, on the line 22,
Figure 4.
Figure 3 represents a section on line 33, Figure 1, looking toward the left or
toward the butt of the gun.
Figure 4 represents a section on line 4 4, Figure 2, looking toward the right or
toward the muzzle of the gun.
Figure 5 represents a longitudinal section of the gun showing the spring
uncompressed.
Figure 6 represents a top plan view of the rod or rock shaft removed from its
bearings.
The same letters of reference indicate the same parts in all the figures.
In the drawings:-
The
a represents the butt of the gun, which is preferably of wood or other light
material, but may be of any suitable form. represents the main portion of the
stock, preferably of metal and constructed in two sections, as shown in Figures 2
and 3, said sections receiving between them the rear portion of the barrel c.
rear end of the barrel c is provided with two holes through which a screw dis
adapted to pass, said screw passing through the holes in the barrel without engaging
the same and being engaged with the two sections of the stock through which it
also passes, said screw thus serving to bind said sections together at this point and
to hold the barrel c in place. e represents a helical spring which is placed in the
barrel c.
The rear end of the springe has a loop or eye through which the pin or
screw d passes, said pin thus serving to retain the said spring in the barrel. The
convolutions of the spring e are of less diameter than the interior of the barrel, and
the spring is therefore enabled to work easily in said barrel.
с
It is preferred to provide the outer or free end of the spring e with a cap e¹ which
may be a piece of thin metal bent or clamped over the last convolution of sa.d

page_text: spring. The object of this cap is to enable the spring to be compressed by a rod
introduced into the muzzle of the barrel, and to prevent the end of said rod from
becoming jammed, in the last convolutions of the spring, as might occur were the
rod of smaller diameter than the said spring. The provision of the cap e', covering
the end of the spring, enables a rod of any diameter that will enter the barrel to
be used.
represents a rod or rock shaft which is journalled in the stock b. The forward
end of said rod is bent at right angles to its length and projects upwardly
through a slot or orifice in the barrel eat a point just in front of the point where
the forward end of the spring e will rest when fully compressed, forming a catch
adapted to retain said spring in its compressed position. The said catch of the
rod is normally held in a position in which it projects into the barrel c by a spring g,
one end of which bears on the catch and presses it upwardly into the barrel c,
while the other end has a bearing on one of the lugs or bearings in which the rod f
is journalled. The forward side of the catch is bevelled for a purpose which
will presently be explained.
The rear end of the rod is also bent at a right angle to its length, and
projects out through a slot in the stock b, forming an operating arm or lever by
which said rod may be rocked or oscillated. Outside of said stock the arm fis
again bent at a right angle, its extreme end being in a line parallel with the length
of the rod, as shown in Figure 1. The arm 2 of the rod f is in such position
that it will be operated by a hammer h. The hammer his provided with any of
the well known suitable devices for allowing it to be cockel' and then released
by the trigger i. When the hammer is thus released it will fall upon the arm 2
of the rod f
The operation of the gun is as follows:-
The hammer being cocked, the spring e is compressed by introducing into the
barrel cany suitable rod and forcing said spring as far back in the barrel as it will
go. The end or catch of the rod will be held in its normal position pro-
jecting into the barrel, but the bevelled forward edge of said catch permits the
convolutions of the spring to ride over it. When the spring has been fully
compressed, pressure on the rod introduced into the barrel may be relaxed, and the
front end of the spring will be caught by the catch, the spring being thus held
in its compressed position.
To discharge the gun it is now only necessary to pull the trigger i; the hammer h.
will fall on the rear arm of the rod and causing, the same to move downwardly
in the slot in the stock through which it projects, will cause the rod to make a
partial rotation thus bringing its forward end or catch out of the barrel e,
leaving said barrel unobstructed and releasing the spring e.
It will be observed that both of the arms and project from the same side
of the rod so that when the arm is depressed by the hammer the catch fi
will also move downwardly.
It will also be obvious that the spring operating the hammer is of greater
strength than the spring g which holds the catch in its normal position projecting
into the barrel " the latter spring, indeed being preferably one of very light
tension.
When the cap e' is used on the spring e, a bullet or any equivalent missiles may
be used with this gun, said cap filling up substantially the entire diameter of the
barrel and forcing out whatever may be front of it when the spring e is released as
before described.
This gun may be also used with the form of vacuum tipped arrow a' shown in
Figure 2, and when this is the case the cap el is not necessary as the end of the
arrow shank is provided with a bevelled flange j, which will ride over the catch f¹
and which the said catch engages, thus holding the arrow in the barrel and at the
same time holding the spring e in its compressed position, as shown in Figure 2.
When the catch is moved to release the spring as already described, the arrow
will be discharged as will be readily seen. It will be obvious that when the said

page_text: arrow is used, no other rod is used to compress the spring e, the arrow itself being
used for that purpose.
The head or cap e' may also be a small block of wood which may be affixed to
the front end of the spring e.
It will be obvious that the rod or rock shaft f instead of being bent up at its ends
to form the catch f1 and the operating lever d² may be provided with two arms
affixed to said rod in any suitable way, said arms constituting the catch f' and
operating arm or lever f
Although it is preferred to provide the improved toy gun with a hammer adapted
to strike the operating lever, as already described, it will be seen that the
hammer may be omitted and the operating lever moved by hand or otherwise to
rock the rod and move the catch to release the spring e.
The stock is here shown as made in two sections 22 which are connected by
the screws d d so that they may be readily separated to permit the removal of the
barrel, which is secured by the rear screw d passing through holes in the rear end
of the barrel. When the sections are assembled and connected by said screws they
clamp the barrel between their inner .sides. Said inner sides are provided below
the barrel with inwardly projecting ears or.lugs 55 which constitute the bearings
of the rod f. The rod is adapted to turn freely in said bearings and is prevented
from moving end wise therein by the projection of the arm 2 at its rear end
through the slots in the stock, the said slot confining the arm f' so that the rod f
can rock but cannot move endwise.
Figure 7 shows the spring divided into two sections separated by a head or
disc which is suitably engaged with the outer end of the section and with the
inner end of the section e² so that when said head e is pushed inwardly into the
barrel by pressure exerted directly upon it, the section will be compressed and
the section e will simply follow the inward movement of the head e. The cap e
at the outer end of the spring has a hole e through which a small rod may be
passed to press the heade inwardly and compress section e³ without compressing
section e². The object of this arrangement is to enable the arrow or projectile to
be thrown with less force than by the entire spring. The rod is provided with
another arm which is arranged to engage the head e and hold the section in a
compressed condition.
When it is desired to use only the section e³, the operator in preparing to operate
the gun inserts a rod or wire through hole e and presses head e back until section e³
is compressed, the head et being held by the arm f³ when pushed back, as shown in
Figure 7. When the entire spring is used, the cap el is pushed in and engaged
with the arm f¹. It will be seen therefore that the whole or half of the spring
may be used as desired.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by
my foreign correspondents, I declare that what I claim is:
1. In a toy spring gun, the rod or rock shaft journalled in suitable bearings,
having a spring retaining arm or catch on its forward end and an operating arm
or lever on its rear end, whereby said rod may be rocked or oscillated in its bearings
and caused to withdraw its catch and release the spring, as set forth.
2. In a toy spring gun, the rod or rock shaft journalled in suitable bearings,
having a spring retaining arm or catch on its forward end and an operating arm or
lever on its rear end, whereby said rod may be rocked or oscillated in its bearings
and caused to withdraw its catch and release the spring, and a spring adapted to
normally hold the said catch in its spring retaining position as set forth.
3. The improved toy gun comprising a stock, a barrel set thereon, a spring in
said barrel, and a rod under the barrel having its forward end bent up and
projecting through an orifice in the barrel forming a catch for the forward end of
the spring when compressed, the rear end of said rod being also bent and adapted

page_text: to be moved to bring, the forward end,or catch above-mentioned out of the barrel,
thus releasing the spring, as set forth.
4. In a toy gun the combination with a stock, a barrel set, thereon, a spring in
said barrel, a spring operated hammer, and a releasing trigger therefor, of a rod
journalled in, the stock below the barrel.having its forward end bent. up-at-sub-
stantially a right angle to the length of the rod. and projecting into the barrel
through an orifice therein and forming a catch for the forward end of the spring
when compressed, the rear end of said rod being also bent substantially at .right
angles to the length of the rod and projecting through a slot in the stock, at a
point where it will be struck by the hammer when the same descends, the two
projecting ends of said rod being so arranged that when the rear end is depressed
by the hammer the front end or catch will be moved downwardly out of the barrel,
releasing the spring, and a spring e adapted normally to hold the said catch in
position in the barrel as set forth.
5. In a toy gun the combination with the barrel, the spring therein, and the
stock provided with a side slots, of the rod or rock shaft extending lengthwise of
the barrel and mounted to rock or oscillate in the stock, said rod having at one
end an arm arranged to serve as a catch or detent for the outer end of the spring
when the latter is compressed, and at the other end an arm projecting through the
slot 8, said slot permitting the rocking motion of the rod and preventing endwise
movement thereof, as set forth.
6. The combination with the barrel and the rocking rod having two arms fƒ³
adapted to project through slots into the barrel, of the spring made in two
sections e²e connected at their meeting ends by a. head e adapted to engage the
arm when the inner section is compressed, the outer end of the section e being
adapted to engage the arm fl when the entire spring is compressed as set forth.
Dated this 25th day of May 1891.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Agents for the Applicant.