IMPROVEMENTS IN CERTAIN PARTS OF BREECH-LOADING SMALL- ARMS
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Dudley at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 20th October 1877.
.
GEORGE DUDLEY, of Aston, near Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Gun
Finisher. "IMPROVEMENTS IN CERTAIN PARTS OF BREECH-LOADING SMALL-
ARMS."
In breech-loading small-arms in which the strikers are driven forward to dis-
charge the said arms by the action upon them of external or internal hammers, as
in drop-down guns and Snider rifles; the said strikers have been made by their
rebound to lift the hammers to half-cock, or to a position of safety, and my Invention
has reference to rebounding mechanism for lifting the hammers and strikers to a
position of safety; and my said Invention consists in constructing and arranging
the said strikers and parts connected with them in the manner herein-after described,
whereby the said rebounding strikers are simplified in construction, are efficient in
action, and are very durable.
In constructing the said strikers according to my Invention, I make at the
middle of the stem of the striker a collar which joins the part above it by a conical
shoulder, and I fix, by screwing to that part of the stem above the middle collar, a
strong hollow hemispherical head, the summit of which has a nipple-like projection
on which the hammer strikes to drive forward the striker.
The interior of the strong hollow head of the striker is conical, the part of
greatest diameter of the couical hole being situated at the open end of the hemi-
spherical head. At the base of the said head, and around the conical shoulder
above the middle collar is a strong band spring, consisting of a single ring or circular
piece of steel, having a portion of the circlo cut away, the two opposite ends being
at a short distance apart. This ring spring is capable, when pressure is put upon it,
of being closed or compressed, and when the pressure is removed, of expanding to
its original shape and size. When the striker is secured in its place in the break off
of the drop-down gun, or in the breech block of the Snider rifle, the band or ring
spring described bears or rests upon the said break off or breech block. When th
striker is driven forward by the hammer falling upon it, and the gun or rifle dis-
charged by the action of the inner end of the striker, the conical hole in the interior,

page_text: of the strong head of the striker passes over and encloses the band or ring spring
and thereby closes or contracts the said spring, that is, causes its ends to approach
one another. On the falling hammer coming to rest, the band or ring spring within
the hollow head of the striker expands or opens to its normal size, and this recoil
or rebound of the said spring raises the striker in the break off or block, and the
latter raises the hammer; the said striker and hammer are thereby raised into a
position of safety.
The ring or band spring may be applied to the nose of the hammer instead of to
the striker. In this case the nose of the hammer is made hollow and conical, and
receives the band or ring spring, which spring, on the striking of the hammer against
the nipple, is compressed or closed, and by its expansion or opening out, effects the
lifting of the hammer to a position of safety.
Instead of using a striker with a hollow conical head, as before described, a striker
with a solid head in one piece with the stem may be employed; the said solid head
having under it a conical shoulder, around the narrow end of which conical shoulder
the band or ring spring is situated. When the hammer falls the striker is driven
forward and the conical shoulder made to pass into the ring or band spring so as to
expand or open the latter instead of closing it, as in the first-described arrange-
ment. On the hammer coming to rest the ring or band spring closes or contracts
upon the conical shoulder, and in doing so raises the striker and hammer to a
position of safety.