Improvements in or connected with Gun Carriages.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 12th Oct., 1897-Accepted, 18th Dec., 1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or connected with Gun Carriages.
I, AUGUST REICHWALD, of 9 New Broad Street, in the City of London, Steel,
Iron, Metal and Mineral Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
(a communication to me from abroad by the firm of Fried. Krupp of Essen, in
the German Empire, Cast Steel Manufacturers) and in what manner the same is to
be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
In guns which are required to fire quickly, it is necessary not only to reduce the
recoil as much as possible, but also to allow the gun to have automatically such
an amount of running out movement, as will cause it to return wholly or nearly
into its original position. The checking of the recoil may be effected by means of
friction, hydraulic brake, spring brake, etc. The automatic running out of the
gun may be effected by means of gravity or even by means of springs.
In the case of a variable nature of the running surface of the gun, the recoil and
also the running out become irregular, or non-uniform, if the recoil brake, and the
running out apparatus, cannot be adjusted to suit the nature of the said running
surface.
The want of uniformity of the running surface is especially great in the case of
guns which are fired whilst situated on ordinary soil or ground, because the said
ground is generally of very variable nature, and may also be inclined in different
directions. If, for example, a recoil brake and a running-out apparatus be so
arranged that the recoil and the running out. of the gun will be approximately
equal upon medium horizontal ground, then the said gun will have considerably
too much recoil and too little running out movement in the case of soft ground
having an inclination to the rear, whereas the same gun will have too little recoil
and too much forward movement in the case of hard ground having a forward
inclination. It is therefore important to be able to regulate the force of the recoil
check, and of the running out movement to suit the nature of the running surface,
in order to keep variations from the normal movement, within allowable limits.
The apparatus hereinafter described is now designed to solve this problem. The
drawings illustrate the apparatus in its application to a spur for wheeled gun
carriages as for example as described in English patent Specification No. 3165 of
1895 it can however be applied to any other recoil checking device having a
running out movement. In Figures 1 to 5 of the drawings, A is the pressure bolt
of the spring column B which is compressed during recoil by the sour S by means
of the head of the pressure bolt A, whereby the recoil is checked and the neces-
sary work is stored for running out the gun. The pressure bolt A does not bear
with its front end in a fixed bearing or support, as is the case with the ordinary
spring spur, but it bears in a thrust bearing. This thrust bearing (Figs: 3, 4,
and 5) consists of the fixed bearing casing D, the adjustable bearing steps e and of
the thrust plate h, which latter is situated in a slot of the pressure bolt A. The
bearing steps e and also the halves (separated by the slot ) of the pressure bolt,
may be pressed against each other and against the thrust plate h, by means of a
thrust screw f through the medium of an elastic intermediate layer (shewn in the

page_text: In the present arrangement,
nearest the head a is thicker
drawings as consisting of the compression springs g).
the rod of the pressure bolt A is conical, and its end
than the other end. This has for result that according as the shank of the thrust;
bolt enters the thrust bearing during the compression of the spring column 13,
the bearing steps e are forced apart and consequently the compression springs
are compressed, thereby increasing their tension, and consequently also the pres-
sure between the bearing steps and the thrust bolt or thrust plate. In case this
olfect is not required the rod may have a cylindrical form. The brake operates in
the following manner: By the pressure of the thrust screw upon the spring
and consequently upon the bearing steps, friction is produced between the bearing
steps, the thrust plate, and the thrust bolt, which friction has a tendency to resist
the motion of the thrust bolt. If during the recoil of the gun the thrust holt is
forced forward by the spur, the work of recoil is diminished by the sum of the
work of the spring tension and the work of the bolt friction, whereas after the
termination of the recoil only the difference between the work of the spring and
the work of friction is availaide for the purpose of running out the gun. There-
fore, the stronger the thrust screw is tightened up, the more energetically will the
recoil be braked, and also at the same time the running out movement bo
facilitated.
The conical form of the shank of the thrust bolt, and the thereby resulting
variability of the friction, enables the difference between the tension of the spring
column and the friction, that is to say the force for running out the gun, to be
kept within determined limits in all positions of the spur, that is to say at all,
stages of the recoil. By tightening the thrust screw with more or less power,
the said force can be varied very abundantly, or within very wide limits, and con-
sequently can be adjusted to the nature of the surface un which the gun is
supported, ., of the running surface of the gun, so that in this manner the recoil
and the running out movement can be regulated accordingly.
The action of the above described apparatus is not altered if instead of a spring
column for checking the recuil, then be employed another cheeking force, such for
example as a hydraulic brake, and instead of a spring spur for producing the
running out movement, there be employed another forer, such for example as that
of gravity, compressed air, etc. In such cases only the connection of the regulat-
ing apparatus with the brake is modified.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said in-
vention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is:-
An apparatus for regulating the recoil and running out movements of guns
having automatic recoil checking mechanism, and automatic running out
mechanism, characterized by a slotted cylindrical or conical rod, sliding in a
compressible bearing: the friction of which rod in the bearing and in a plate h
(traversing the slot) of the bearing, diminishes the recoil and the running out
movement accordingly.