US14820A - Improvement in repeating fire-arms - Google Patents

Description

2 Sheets--Sheet1 LEONA R D.

Revolvers.

Patented May 6, 1856..

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2 Sheets--Sh,eet 2 G. LEO NA R D. I

Revolvers.

Patented'May 6,1856.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE LEONARD, OF SHREWS-BURY, MASSAGHUSE'ITS.

IMPROVEMENT IN RE PEATING FIRE-ARMS.

Specification forming part'ot Letters Patent No. 14,820, dated May 6, 1856.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE LEONARD, of Shrewsbury, inthe county of Worcester and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have iii'vented new and useful Improvements in Fire-Arms; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exactdescription.

Figure 1 is a side view of a fire-arm containing said improvements. Fig. 2 is a top View of the same. Fig. 3 is a central vertical and longitudinal section of it. Fig. 4 is a side view of it with the side plate and stock detached andthe chamber turned down from the breech in a position for capping the cones for cleanin g, &c. Fig. 5 is a back view of the chamber. Fig. 6 is a front view of the barrels. Fig. 7 is a side view of the revolving hammer. Fig. 8

- is a cross-section of the chamber. It is pierced turned down from the breech, as seenin Fig;

4, for the purpose of capping the cones for cleaning, 850. The back of the upper part of the chamber A, Fig. 3, has a locking-recess, 0, adapted to receive a catch, P, on the front end of a lever, 16, turning on a fulcrum, R, lying within a recess, 0, in the breech, and having a thumb-piece, t h, on the back end. The thumbpiece t 71. rests .upon and is kept up by the upper leaf of a V-spring, 8, whose lower leaf, a,

has a stud, d, extending downward through a corresponding aperture in the breech and entering and bearing on the bottom of some one grooves of r. cylindrical shaft of a revolvmmer. undle, G liig. 3, is firmly and unalterabl y sci ed into i center or axis of the chamber at M. It passes through a cylindrical bore or passa e, H, in the center of the piece I, composing the barrels K K K K K, Fig.6, the number of which is equal to that of the bores in the chambers. The back of the spindle G, Fig. 3, projecting from the chamber has a screw, M, a continuation of that at M, and is adapted to a corresponding nut, N, in the back part of the bore H. A portion of the front of the bore H is made somewhat larger than the back'part of it. It is of the same size as the head of the screw L, which is screwed into the front end of the spindle. It has a shoulder, s h s h, at the back part, so that when the barrels are unscrewed at M and N from the chamber they can be slid back on the spindle G until the head of the screw L, which projects on all sides over the spindle, touches the should er s h s h and no farther. In loading, unscrew the barrels at M and N, draw'thein forward on the spindle G until the head of. the screw L strikes the shoulder s h s h, grasp the barrels in the left hand, hold them vertically, and with the right hand turn each bore of the chamber severallyintoaconveuient position and load it, screw down the barrels so that each one may exactly range with its appropriate borein the chamber, press thcthumbpiece t h of thelever l e so as to raise the catch P from the recess 0, turn down the chamber, as in Fig. 4, cap the cones, and then return the chamber to its first position. The fire-arm is now loaded.

The central screw, by which the barrels and chamber are attached and disconnected for loading, I admit has been'employed for many years. I do not say I was not the original inventor; but I regard it by itself as of little value. When the fire-arm is wholly separated into two parts the liability of dropping one while loading, especially when in a hurry or on horseback, is so'great as to preclude the general use of any expedient for such separation but the combination of the central screw with a spindle having a projecting head, formed in this case by the head of the screw L, this head sliding in a bore of its own size, but larger than that for the spindle, with ashoulder to strike the projection of the head and hinder the barrels from being entirely detached, I regard of great importance, withoutwhich this fire-arm would be comparatively valueless.

The hammer '1, Figs. 3 and 7, consists ot'a straightcylindrical shaft, 8 h a, playing through two apertures in the breech c and f, Figs. 3 and 4, and which has a transverse groove, '5, around it near the back part to receive the 'mainspring U, Figs. 3 and 4, and allow it to work a beak, b-c, Figs. 3 and 7, which by the I do not consider new.

. blenumber of e-quidistantlon'gitudinal grooves, yy 9, Fig. 7, are sunk in the surfaceof the shaft.

These are crossed in the proper places at a. suitable acute angle by anequal number of equidistant oblique grooves, h h h. The bottom of the front part of the straight grooves is sunk deeper into the shaftthan the bottom of the corresponding part ofthe ebliquegroovos, and

the'bottom of the back part of the oblique gFooves is sunk deeper into the shaftthan the bottom of the corresponding part ofthe straight grooves. The direct and rotary'motion's of the hammer are actuated as follows: When the fire-arm is in its usual position, Fig. 3, the stud dis pressed by the spring a'to the .bottom of the back partof an oblique groove. In cocking, thehammer is drawn back and the studd, followingthe oblique groove, partially rotates the hammer until the studreaches the straightgroove, to the bottom of which it is instantly driven by the spring 8. In discharging, the hammer is driven'forward and the stud d, following the straight groove keeps the beak of the hammer in the proper position, until just before it strikes the cap the stud reaches the next oblique groove, into which'it is instantly driven by-the springs, and so on.

The preceding method of.eflecting the (iirect and rotary motions of a shaft or hammer I r I used {a similar method, as well as some others, many years ago to produce the same motions in long run-- ner d'rills worked by doublei'ron brakes. The

device was not then new to me. Thebreech of a chambered fire-arm manufactured at Windsor, Vermon t, about twenty years ago, was retracted, rotated, and guided in itsforward motion by this identical expedient. It is now in ex istence, and was made in a large armory, so

that all the circumstances attending its construction are well known. The samefcontrivance has been used for some years in some sewing-machines, the models of which, I presume, are at Washington.- Neither do I assert any invention or originality inmy use of 'several concentric barrels in firearms. Though their long-continued use is nudoubted,-it may.

be well to admit that I have reason to-believe they were manufactured in this town fifty years ago. They were made by Edwin Wesson, then of this town, more than twenty years ago, and

by Ethan Allen, now of the flrmof Allen & Thurber, of Worcester, more than fifteen years ago; but I do regard themachine or fire-arm made by a combination of a hmumerconstrucb. ed and operated as before stated, with several v concentric barrels, as quite new and original with me. Such a hammer without a series of concentricbarrels could never bemade into a machine or fire-arm like the one in question,

or with similar properties or advantages.

sear-from. the mainspring. springhas driven forward the hammer the The maiuspring U, Figs. 3and 4, is bifurcated at the top, as seen in its front view at k, Fig. 9, and is hooked. into the groove 1' of the hammer. The trigger V, Figs.'3 and 4, is carried by and turns up'ou the pin it in the cocking-lever- X, which cocking-lever turns on the pivot O. I In the operation ofcockin g, the cock-1 ing-lever carries back'the trigger by means of thepin n, and forces a notch, M), Fig. 3,"near its back part, on its under side, against themaiu- I spring, which is carried back until the catch W of the sear a 0, Figs. 3 and 4, drops and catches -it at k ",--Fig; 9, and holds it firmly in 'a cooking position. The-sear previous to catching the mainspring enters-a .slot inv the center of the back part of the trigger, as seen in a top View of the trigger, Fig. 10. The catch W of the sear s 0, Figs. 3 and 4, is kept down by the operation of the sear-springm, which presses against it below the pivot 12 i. The scar has a thumb-piece, Z, projecting through the back part of the breeck; If said thumb-piecebe pressed against by the thumb and the cookinglever be gradually eased down by the finger, the-firearm can-be uncooked without discharging it.

The fire-arm is discharged bydrawing the trigger, which raises the'bottom of the slot b, Fig. 10, in its back end against the front end of the scar, and disengages the catch of the After the maintrig'ger and cocking-lever are carried forward by the trigger-sprin g 1?, Figs. 3-and 4, which presses against the back part 'of the trigger.

From the preceding it appears that the firearmcanlnot be uncooked by drawing the trigger and easin'g down the cocking-lever. .The trigger contributes to the operation of uncookin g only so far as it has some of the properties of a cocking-lever, as it has when cooking and uncocking in the notch n o and in its connec- -tion with the cocking-lever by the pin it. On

the combination of a cocking-lever and trigger with properties similar to those just stated I have now a patent. A sear with qualities like the one in question may not be new, but a combination of this sear with a cocking-lever and trigger havingthe properties as stated I regard asa new and original invention and indispensable to the -eflicicncy of this fire-arm. With out the sear the cocking-lever must be held' back by one finger while the trigger'is drawn- 7 by another.

This was thexconstruction used by 'me in a large lot of pistols. exterior'thumb-piece, Z,Fig's.3 and-4, the the arm cannot be uncooked without discharge; andif the trigger had the usual properties, and only the usual properties, hich it has in amusket, rifle, or pistol, no suchsear with an exterior thumb-piece would be required to uncock the firearm.

1. I do not claim the invention of a central screw by which several concentric barrels may be attached to and disconnected from a chamher with a proper number of bores; but I claim Without the the invention, in fire-arms, of an'expedient for connecting several concentric barrels to a chamber having an equal number of bores, and for partially butnot wholly disconnectin g the same for the purpose of loading, cleaning, &c., consistin g of a combination of acentral screw with a spindle having a projecting head, and a bore of two difierent diameters in the center of the concentric barrels, the front part of the bore being larger than the back part and of the di-' ameter of the projecting head, and the back barrels, nor of several concentric barrels having anything special or peculiar in their construction; but I claim the invention, in firearms, of a combination of several concentric barrels with a. revolving hammer fortheir successivediseharge,thereciproeatingand revolving motions of which hammer are governed and guided by straight and oblique grooves sunk in its surface, each kind of groove to be equal .in number to the barrels, the whole to be constructed substantially as herein described, but independent of any accidental properties.

3. 1 do not claim the invention, in fire-arms, of a sear havinga thumb-piece or arm projecting beyond the breech or stock, so that the fire-arm may be uncocked by pressing on said thumb-piece orarm and easing down the hammer; but Iclaim the-invention, in fire-arms, of a combination of a cockin g-lever,trigger,and sear with a-thumb-piece, the combiuationto have such characteristics that the fire-arm can be uncocked without discharge only by pressing said thumb-piece and easing down said cocking-lever, the whole to be constructed substantially as herein described, but independent of any accidental properties.

In testimony whereof I, the said GEORGE LEONARD, hereto subscribe my name, in the presence of the witnesses whose names are written below, on this 1st day of February, A.

GEORGE LEONARD. In presence of-- Jon 0. STONE, MARY A. TYLER.

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