IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECHT- LOADING SMALL-ARMS
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Johnson and Robert Wayne at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 12th February 1876.
JOHN JOHNSON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Smith, and ROBERT
WAYNE, of Birmingham, aforesaid, Gunmaker. " IMPROVEMENTS IN BREECHT-
LOADING SMALL-ARMS."
Our Invention has reference to the "fore ends" of those kinds of breech-loading
small-arms called drop-down guns, and our said Invention consists of the
construction and combination herein-after described of the parts of mechanism for
fastening and unfastening the said fore ends.
As ordinarily constructed the fore end has to be wholly removed from the
under side of the barrels before the said barrels can be "stripped" or detatched from
the body or action of the gun.
According to our Invention we make the fore end capable of sliding in the barrels,
so that on unfastening the fore end its removal from the abutment on the body for
releasing the barrels is effected by a sliding motion, the fore end being fastened to
the barrels in its withdrawn position, so that when the barrels are removed from
the body the fore end is carried with them. The inconvenience which results from
the complete detatching of the fore end from the barrels is thus avoided.
Our improved fore end is constructed and fastened in the following manner :-In
the metal bar of the fore end a horizontal retaining lever is jointed, its inner
hooked end, when in its normal position, crossing a longitudinal slot in the said bar;
the lever is pressed into this position by a spring acting on its outer arm.
Swivelled to the said outer arm of the retaining lever is a stud, pin, or pusher
which passes to the exterior of the fore end, and is pressed upon by the thumb to
release the fore end. In the said longitudinal slot in the fore end bar is a coiled
spring, the rear end of which works in a semi-cylindrical box at the front of the
fore end bar. This box works in a semi-cylindrical groove in the seat on the
barrels, and serves to guide the fore end in its sliding motion on the barrels by
means of the coiled spring described; the fore end, when at liberty to move, is
pressed towards and made to seat itself against the abutment on the body of the
gun. At the front end of the fore end bar is a second longitudinal slot in a line
with that first described. A seat on the under side of and between the barrels
carries a lump or loop and a hook. The loop has two holes across it a short
distance apart, a shallow groove being made between the two holes on one face of
the loop. When the fore end is put on the barrels the loop takes into the rear

page_text: slot, and the hook engages with the front slot in the fore end bar, and the coiled
spring is compressed. As the fore end takes its position on the barrels the loop
pushes back the retaining lever, and the hooked end of the latter at the proper time
passes through the rear hole in the loop, and thereby fastens the fore end in its
place and secures the barrels to the body.
To separate the barrels from the body the swivelled stud or pusher is pressed
inwards, so as to withdraw the lever from the hole in the loop and release the fore
end. By the pressure of the hand the fore end slides on the barrels towards their
muzzle ends. The hooked end of the retaining lever on the sliding of the fore end
works in the groove between the two cross holes in the loop, and the said hooked
end, being brought opposite the second or front hole, snaps or engages therein, and
thus retains the fore end on the barrels, and the barrels may now be removed from
the body or action part of the gun. The complete detatchment of the fore end from
the barrels may be effected by pressure on the swivelled stud or pusher.
The hook and loop described instead of being separate may be combined in one
loop or lump.