IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE ARMS AND IN CARTRIDGES FOR THE SAME
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Frederick Bertie Worsley Roberts and
Benjamin Theophilus Moore at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on
the 22nd August 1882.
FREDERICK BERTIE WORSLEY ROBERTS and BENJAMIN THEOPHILUS MOORE
both of 11 Queen Victoria Street in the City of London "IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE
ARMS AND IN CARTRIDGES FOR THE SAME
Our Invention has reference to sporting guns and rifles, and to machine guns on
stanis, (such as the Gatling and Nordenfelt guns) and to the cartridges to be used
in them.
We dispense entirely with the usual gun locks with springs, hammers and strikers
and also with the percussion caps and anvils of the cartridges.
We discharge our cartridge by means of an electric current produced by a
generator contained within the stock of the gun, or, in the stand, in the case of a
machine gun.
In the case of a sporting gun, or rifle, we form one or more cavities in the stock
of the gun, and we place therein a galvanic battery of suitable form and construction
specially adapted to the purpose, and an induction coil and condenser.
The battery is connected with the trigger so that when the trigger is pulled by
the finger the battery is brought into action, and a current is sent through the
primary coil, and when the trigger is free the battery is put out of action by a
spring.
The cartridge is of the usual form and construction with the exception that the
percussion cap and anvil are replaced by a modified form of the primer known as
Abel's electrical fuze. When the trigger is pulled it causes a blunt needle to come
in contact with a small metallic disc connected with the fuze, in such a way as to
complete the electrical circuit of the secondary coil, and thus the cartridge is
discharged. With the battery charged, the gun, as described would be always ready
for firing, and in a state equivalent to that called "cocked" of an ordinary gun;
at the same time it would be safer against accidental discharge as it could only be
fired by a pull on the trigger, acting against a spring, and not by a jerk or a blow.
But to make the gun still safer, we insert a break in the wire leading from the
secondary coil to the cartridge, and make the connection, when required for
discharging the gun, by means of a small spring push or button similar to that

page_text: used for electric bells. By this construction the gun is made much safer, since two
operations must be performed to discharge it, the trigger must be pulled by the
finger, while the button is pressed by the thumb.
This construction has also the advantage that it admits of a single trigger being
used for a double barrelled gun, as the current can be shunted, or diverted so as to
discharge either barrel at pleasure. Our gun admits of greater accuracy of aim than
ordinary guns, for the trigger may be pulled before the aim is taken, the discharge
being effected by a very slight pressure of the thumb on the button or push. Thus
there is not the same disturbance of the aim, which is caused by the pull on a
trigger, necessary to release the hammer or striker of an ordinary gun.
Also, by a very simple arrangement of switch, or by a pin acting on the trigger
or push, the gun can be put out of action instantly, and be thus rendered absolutely
safe.
The battery which we prefer to employ consists of a plate of carbon and a plate
of zinc contained in a closed box of ebonite or wood. Between the carbon and zinc
is a layer of asbestos saturated with dilute acid, and the construction is such
that the zinc comes in contact with the abestos only when the trigger is pulled.
Instead of the galvanic battery and induction coil, a magneto-electric generator
may be used to produce the electric current which discharges the cartridge, the
generator consisting by preference, of a Siemen's armature revolving in the field of
a permanent magnet or combination of magnets. The armature is set in motion by
a spring, to which energy is imparted in the act of opening or closing, or both of
the breech of the gun. The spring is released by the trigger, immediately after
the pull upon it has caused electric communication with the fuze of the cartridge;
or it may be released by pressing the thumb on a button as already explained where
a battery is used. A few turns of the armature will produce a current of sufficient
intensity to fire the cartridge. The discharge might also be produced, in the case
of machine guns, by using a magneto-electric exploder (such as Breguet's) instead
of a generator as described.