GB503465A - Improvements in breech-closing plugs for guns - Google Patents

Abstract

503,465. Ordnance. EYRAUD, H. Aug. 12, 1938, No. 23879. Convention date, Aug. 14, 1937. [Class 92 (ii)] The breech end of a gun is sealed, when not in use, by a cartridge-like plug which is caused tightly to engage the wall of the barrel, by the closing of the breech-block. The plug may operate mechanically or by means of fluid pressure. The mechanically-operated plug may comprise a cylinder 2, Fig. 1, with a rim 3 to seat on the breech face and an abutment 4 for one end of a spring 5 whose other end seats on a cylinder 11<1> provided with a head 11. Rods 9 secured to the head 11 are coupled to levers 6, 7 mounted on a pivot 8 in the cylinder 2, in such manner that on pressure being applied to the free ends of the levers 6, 7 by the closing of the breech-block on to a dome-shaped sleeve I, the rods 9 are tensioned against the resistance of the spring 5 thereby compressing yielding joint making rings 14, 13 endwise between faces on the rim 3, the head 11 and on an interposed sleeve 15, to expand the rings into sealing contact with the wall of the barrel. The rods 9 may be replaced by a cable passing through a screw-eye in the head 11 and anchored to the ends of the levers 6, 7. The fluidoperated plug has similar rings' 13, 14, Fig. 3, the head 11 being operated to compress the rings by fluid pressure generated within a chamber 20 by a piston 16 carried by the breech-block-operated dome 1, this fluid extending into an annular space 21 formed by a sleeve 22 on the head 11. In both forms, the opening of the breech allows the spring 5 to release the pressure on the rings 13, 14 so that the plug may be removed, e.g. by the usual extracting mechanism.