GB263875A - Improvements in or relating to multi-barrel machine guns - Google Patents

Abstract

263,875. Baldwin, A. M. Dec. 31, 1925, [Convention date]. Machine guns; magazines.-In machine guns firing several barrels simultaneously the cartridges of the several barrels are arranged in a single container, which constitutes the chamber of the gun barrels at the moment of firing, and a number of such containers, loaded with cartridges, are arranged in a magazine and fed in succession automatically during firing. The barrels 3, Figs. 1 and 3, together with the casing 1, recoil on a base 2 against a spring 40. During the recoil, a pinion 33 carried by the casing is rotated by a fixed rack 35 on the base 2, and, by its engagement with another rack 34 on the breech-block 29, retracts this breech-block at a faster rate than the recoiling barrels, thereby opening the breech. The chamber 5. from which the cartridges have last been fired, are then moved aside over a discharge outlet 22, while a fresh chamber 5 is moved from a magazine 4 into alignment with the gun barrels. This movement of the chambers 5 is brought about by means of a transverse slide 19, which is reciprocated by means of a spring pin 24, Figs. 15 and 16, on the base 2 in engagement with an oblique slot 25 in the base of the chamber 5, in conjunction with a return spring 26, the chambers being fed onwards by spring pawls 20 on the slide 19, which pawls yield during the return stroke of the slide. Several chambers 5 are loaded in a longitudinal magazine 4 and are gradually brought over the transverse slide 19 by means of a coiled spring 18. When the breech-block 29 is retracted, a bell crank 55, Fig. 9, is rocked inward by a fixed cam face 56 and cocks a spring hammer 47. During the run out, the breech-block again closes the breech, reloaded with fresh cartridges, and becomes supported by a pair of cushions 36, which are moved laterally inwards behind the breech-block by means of pins 37 on the base 2 in engagement with oblique grooves 38 in the cushions 36, this same mechanism having moved the cushions out during the recoil. At the end of the run out, pins 53 on the cushions 38 trip triggers 49, releasing the hammer 47 which strikes a number of firing pins 45, one for each barrel. The cartridge chamber 5, Figs. 13 and 14, embraces the cartridge cases 9 up to the shoulder 10, and has a tubular extension 16 fitted with a. packing ring 17. The base of the chamber is closed by a plate 11 provided with holes 15 for the firing pin, and made detachable to enable the reloading of the chamber with cartridges. The plate 11 is held in place by spring tongues 12 thereon snapped over studs 14 on the side of the chamber 5. Firing is started by hand. The gun is recoiled by means of a handle 42 rotating a screw 41 carried by the base 2 and engaging a half-nut 43, Fig. 4, carried by the casing. Then the nut 43 is swung away from the screw 41 and the gun runs out and fires a first time. After this, the operation proceeds automatically until the stock of cartridges is exhausted. The firing may also be stopped by hand by tilting a bell-crank lever 61, thereby releasing a spring plunger 58, which comes in front of and thus locks the cocked spring hammer 47.