A CHAIN CARTRIDGE REPEATING FIRE-ARM
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Gough at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 1st May 1878. A communication from
abroad by Benjamin Carter Gough, of Canton, Maddison County, Mississippi,
in the United States of America.
WILLIAM GOUGH, of Kilburn, in the County of Middlesex. "A CHAIN CARTRIDGE
REPEATING FIRE-ARM." [A communication from abroad by Benjamin Carter Gough,
of Canton, Maddison County, Mississippi, in the United States of America.]
This fire-arm is constructed with a tube running through the stock, which tube
is a continuation of the barrel, and into which the cartridges are placed. The tube
has two longitudinal grooves in it to receive projections formed on the cartridges,
and it may be provided with a telescopic extension extending through the end of
the stock when in use, and sliding up the stock round the tube when not required.
The outer end of the tube is closed by a cap screwed over the opening.
The cartridges are linked or connected together in any convenient manner, so as
to form a chain, which cartridges being placed in the tube are fed forward to the
barrel by means of two spring levers attached one on each side of the dog, and
which levers bearing behind the projections on the cartridges advance them forward
each time that the fire-arm is discharged.
The cases of the cartridges on which the projections are made are constructed of
brass.
The grooves in the tube are cut away, making openings in it, through which the
projections on the cartridges extend the whole length of the travel of the spring
levers.
In cocking the fire-arm after discharge the levers spring over to the back of the
projections on the cartridges, which are prevented from moving backward in the
tube by a spur on the hammer, which spur passing through a hole in the tube passes
to the rear end of the cartridge next to be advanced by the levers.
The end of the hammer inside the stock is forked, allowing the passage of the
tube through the arms of the fork. Each arm is attached to a forked lever catch,
one end of which engages with the dog, the other end being connected to the main-
spring.

page_text: When the fire-arm is discharged the outer end of the hammer, which extends
over the barrel, falls and strikes the projecting nipple of a combined nipple and cut-
off piece. This nipple and cut-off piece is fitted into a transverse groove formed in
the barrel, and when struck by the hammer it descends and separates the cartridge
from the chain, and discharges it, the cartridge being provided with fulminating
powder at the point where it is cut off; or the nipple may descend and simply
discharge the cartridge, the bullet or ball of which being linked to the case of the
previously discharged cartridge will carry it to the mouth of the barrel, when it
will become unlinked from the bullet or ball, and fall to the ground.
Springs are arranged in the groove beneath the cut-off piece, so as to raise it
when the fire-arm is cocked, thus forming a free passage for the advancement of the
next cartridge.
A plate is screwed over the groove in the barrel, and covers the cut-off piece,
which it prevents from rising too high, a hole being left in the plate for the nipple
to work up and down.