US1191742A - Projectile. - Google Patents

Description

J. B. SEMPLE.

PROJECTIL E.

APPLICATION ElLED IAN.13, 1916.

Patented July 18, 1916;

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P1205 EGTILE.

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Application filed. January 13, 1916.

To all whom it, may concern Be it known that 1, JOHN B. SEMPLE, residing at Sewickley, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, a citizen of the United States, have invented or discovered certain new and useful Improvements in Projectiles, ofwhich improvements the following is a specification. Y

My invention relates to improvements in projectiles, and is particularly applicable to that class of projectiles known aswgrenades which are hurled either by hand or by catapult or other machine.

As will appear in the sequel, the invention is applicable to any projectile which in flight rotates on an axis not coincident with the line of flight.

-A grenade of my invention cannot be excan the train of explosion be started, until the grenade has been thrown and has traveled through a portion at least of'its trajectory. Thus accidental bursting of the grenade while still in the hands of the user or within the trench where it is bein used is guarded against with certainty.

itly invention. is illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

The two figures are views in medial and longitudinal section of two grenades diiiering in certain respects and operating in somewhat difierent manner, as will presently be explained, but both ofthem embodying my invention.

Confining attention first to grenade will be understood to be of substantially cylindrical form, and to consist of a hollow casing adapted to contain a body of explosive and to be fragmented by the explosion of such contained body into destructive missiles, and of a use "for efi'ecting explosion. In the drawings the casing is indicated at 1 and the fuse at 2.

It is with the fuse that my invention has primarily to do. The arrangement shown or the fuse in the casing is the preferable one: through and-is secured in one of the ends or heads of the cylindrical casing.

The fuse includes in its structure a suitable steel: or casing, within which are arranged and mounted a primer (which conveniently takes the .i orm of a percumion a firing-pin, and (if the burster charge be of a high explosive) a detonator. firing-pin and the percussion cap are movable one with respect to the other to efiect Figure 1, the

it is axially arranged and extends Specification of Blotters Eatent. 19 -543 1 11 1 1 18 363216,

Serial Ho. 1,970.

tiring, and as is well understood either the hammer which bears the firingpin or the anvil which bears the percussion cap may be the movable element, or both may be movable. i prefer, however, the arrangement shown; the percussion cap 0 is carried in a stationary seat 3 in the fuse stock, and the hammer 4 which bears the firing-pin moves 'in an axial runway. The detonator (3 (when present) is carried in a seat 5 and receives the-flash of the percussion cap when the latter is struck by the firing-pin. The detonator is detonated on ignition and imparts detonation to the burster charge which fills the hollow casing and in proximity to which the detonator is situated.

it will be observed of the arrangement of cap and firing-pin that they are in axial aline'ment and that they are normally held spaced apart by a spring 6; and it will be understood that, whenthese parts are free to move one with respect to the other, a shock exerted in a longitudinal or a more or less nearly longitudinal direction, and of sufficien-t intensity to overcome the tension oi spring 6, will eiiect the firing of the cap and the consequent bursting of the grenade. I Means are provided to positively hold primer cap and firing-pin apart, and the means are removable (in the normal course of handling) on, and only on, the rotation of, the projectile in flight, on an axis not coincident with its trajectory.

The means so characterized. are embodied in a nut 7, screwed upon the threaded posterior end of the hammer block l which projects through the fuse-block and outwardly from the structure as a whole. So long as this nut is in place, engaging the threaded hammer block and bearing from the outside against the outer surface of the structure (theposition shown in the drawings), movement of firing-pin to impinge upon the percussion cap is certainly and efiectually prevented. The nut may be unscrewed, and, when it is so removed from its preventing position, the firing-pin isleit free to respond to firing shock and, 0v rooming the ten sion of spring 6, to impinge upon and fire 8, which conveniently clot l to nut T, as by a of wire 9. constitutes the of .mg the nut-TI from its pre venting pos 1011 described. The hammer block 4 (otherwise free in this respect) is Y line of fiight but causes it to rotate on an Ail axis transverse to the line of flight. As the grenade flies, rotating as it flies, the tall or drag 8 holds nut 7 against rotation and thus causes it to be unscrewed from its operation-preventing position. This occurs during flight. strikes the ground or other object the shock of striking, to the extent that it is exerted longitudinally of the structure, impels the firing-pin in an axial direction inward; and the hammer block overcoming the tension of spring 6, moves inward and causes the firing-pin to impinge upon and fire the percussion cap.

It will be understood that the screwthrea'ded engagement of nut 7 and hammer block 4 may be either normal or right-handed or it may be reversed or left-handed. As suming it to be right-handed, and assuming the grenade when in the vertical position shown to be grasped by a right-handed man, the structure will when thrown function in the manner described. And it will be unproper functioning, grasp it in inverted position.

The hammer block and retaining nut may be arranged as shown, the hammer block extending, when the parts are in normal inoperative position, through and protruding beyond the nut 7 and in this projecting end the hammer block may be perforated, as at 12, to receive a cotter-pin, and a cotter-pin there introduced will, obviously, secure but 7 against accidental removal. cotter pin may be removed when .the grenade is to be used.

I have said of the drag or tail 8 that it may be secured to the nut 7 by a loop of wire. This wire may be of suitable length and may at all times prior to use he coiled around the grenade, and its free end may be thrust in the hole 12 in the firing pin, in place of a cotter-pin, to serve the ends described.

The grenade of Fig. 2 is in all save some minor respectsidentical with that of Fig. 1, and these may be briefly indicated.

The grenade of Fig. 1 is designed to be fired on impact, and it will be understood accordingly that, if the shopk of impact is block.

\Vhen thereafter the grenade transverse, or nearly so, the grenade will not be fired. In order to fire 1t, the shock of impact must be wholly or measurably longitudinal. The grenade of Fig. 2 is designed to be fir'edin flight. Accordingly, a ham- .mer-block-impelling spring 13 is provided which tends to drive ithe. hammer-block inward and to cause the firing-pin to impinge upon the percussion cap; and the function of this spring 13 to this end is prevented and controlled by nut 7, so long as nut 7 remains in its engagement, with the hammer In this case also the hammer block is held to rotate as a unit with the grenade by the rod 1% working in bore 15. Of course any convenient means of effecting this unity in rotation may be employed.

I In the operation of the grenade of Fig. 2, as soon as the unscrewed nut 7 releases the hammer-block (and this occurs as the gre nade flies) the tiring-pin will descend and the percussion cap will be fired.

It is manifestly desirable that the restraining nut 7 shallbe removed after the grenade has traveled only a relatively short distance from the hand of the user; and it may be desirable that the bursting of the grenade may be delayed until the grenade has had time to travel farther, or after it has reached its intended mark. To this end, a slow-burning pellet 3) may be interposed between the primer 0 and the detonator d, the effect of which will be to delay the explosion. If such a slow-burning pellet be used, a gas escape should be provided from it to the atmosphere-otherwise, the desired delay may not be attained. Accordingly a canal 16, 17 is shown, leading through the body of the fuse stock and of the hammer block to the atmosphere.

I claim herein as my invention:

1. In a hand grenade the combination of two relatively movable parts one of said partsbeing provided with a primer and the other with a firing-pin, means normally holding said parts from relative movement, and further means effective as the grenade flies rotating as it flies on an axis angularly disposed to the line of flight and efiective by such rotation for removing the means first named from such normal position.

2. In a hand grenade the combination of a hammer member and an anvil member movable the one, with respect to the other,

a stop-nut screw threaded upon one of the two said members, and a drag-afi'ording means borne by said stop-nut and non-symmetrically arranged with respect to the center of turning of the nut.

3. In a hand grenade the combination of two relatively movable parts provided one with a primer and the other with a firing pin, a locking nut' screw threaded upon one 4 of the two said parts, and a drag borne by said locking nut.

An essentially cylindrical grenade provided with a fuse structure which includes a movable element extending axially with respect to said cylindrical grenade, rotatable in unison with said grenade, and movable in axial line to effect firing, a stop member screw threaded to said member first named and limiting such member in its axial movement and a rotation preventing tail borne by said stop member.

5. In a hand grenade capable of being projected While rotating on an axis transverse to the line of its flight, a firing member movable in the direction of the axis of such rotation, andprojecting through the end Wall of the structure, a guard nut screw threaded upon the projecting end of said firing member, and a drag secured to said guard nut.

6. In a hand grenade the combination of a hammer member and an anvil memer movable the one within the other, the inner of the two said members projecting beyond the outer, screw-threaded on such projecting part and provided with a'transverse in such projecting part, a stop member correspondingly threaded and removably borne by the projecting part of the inner member, Wire secured to said step member otherwise free end capable of introduction into and removal from the said bore in the inner menibeiyand a drag member secured to said wire. 7

in testimony Whereoi I hare hereunto set my hand.

JOE SEMPLE.

Witnesses I Gno. B, BLEMING, BAYARD H. CHRISTY.

Copies oithis patent ma; be obtained for five cents each, by addressing-the Commissioner or Washington, D. G.

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