US41984A - Improvement in breech-loading ordnance - Google Patents

Description

2 sheets -Sheet 2.

G. H. FERRISS.

Breech-Loading Ordnance;

Patented Mar 22 1864 C1 TQ \lwq mvEmoR. 10 44,

WIT ESSES.

N-PETERS, PHOTO-UTMOGRAPHER, WASHINGTON. D. C. I

enonen H. ruenrss, or union, new roux.

IMPROVEMENT IN BREECH-LOADVING ORDNANCE.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent -No. 41,984, dated March 22, 1864; antedaied March 9, 1861.

To aZZ whom it may concern Be it known that I, GEORGE E. FER-miss, of Utica, in the county of Oneida and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Breech-Loading Ordnance; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, and of which- Figure 1 is a side elevation of my improved breech-loading cannon; Fig. 2, an end view of the same with the breech-screw E and its supporting-nut D removed; Fig. 3, a vertical longitudinal central section of my cannon with the loading-aperture in its breech closed by the screw-encircled recoil-seat E; Fig. 4, a top view thereof, as it appears with the breech-screw E and recoil-seat E withdrawn from the breech and turned aside, to allow the gun to be loaded. Fig. 5 represents a portion of the chase of the gun. Figs. 6 and 7 are end views of therecoil-seat E, showing the arrangement of the expanding double flange N fitted thereon. Fig. Sis a detached view in detail of portions of said expanding flange N.

Similar letters indicate like parts in each of the drawings.

The nature of my invention consists in a novel mode of closing the chamber of a breechloading gun, whereby I obtain greater security and accuracy in the joint and a more perfect gas-check than in the usual mode of securing the breech-piece.

My improved cannon is built of a central core, 13, of wrought -iron or other suitable metal, so formed as that it shall gradually increase in hardness from center to circumference, and which is incased within rings or bands of steel a a a, driven and firmly secured thereon. Its chamber K is closed by a screwencircled recoil-seat, E, Fig. 3, secured to a proper operating-screw, E, by .means of a tenon-and-mortise joint, d, and dowel-pin 00, passing through the same, as illustrated in Fig. 3. This recoil-seat E is encircled by a screw, which works into a perforation properly formed and grooved to receive it in the rear end of the chamber K of the gun, and is necessarily made somewhat larger in diameter than the bore of said chamber. The ends of the screw-threads encircling the recoil-seat E are cut square, and a slot, at, Fig. 2, is channeled out in the lower portion of the screwaperture, extending longitudinally across its threads, Fi 3, hence any dirt which may collect in the screw is carried forward by the ends of the threads until it drops into this receiving-slot 12, Figs. 2 and 3.

An expansive double packing-flange composed of a slitted outer casing, N, and a segmental inner casing, c e e, is combined with the inner end of the recoil-seat E by means of set-screws in such a manner as that the joints or slits in the two casings shall alternate. The form of said casings and the manner of combining them with each other and with the recoilseat E is clearly represented in Figs. 3, 6, 7, and 8 of the accompanying drawings.

It will be observed that the peculiar arrangement of the segmental portions 0 e e e of the inner casing is such that any one of them may be readily withdrawn and replaced with out disturbing the remainder.

The expansive packing-flange N thus in ranged forms, in combination with the end or face of the screw-encircled recoilseat E, a closing-piece for the rear open end of the chamber K, which is so turned as to contract inwardly very gradually to the depth of the flange N, so that as the flange is forced into I place to close the chamber it is compressed and made to fit with perfect tightness and accuracy therein. The edges of the segmental portions or staves e e e, forming the inner casin of the. iackin -fian e, are so beveled outwardly as that when forced into the chamber they will cut away all accretions or fouling upon the sides of the chamber so far as they enter the same. 7

It is evident that the expansion of the double packingflange N, (made as described,) under the influence of the discharge of the gun, will, in connection with the device by which it is securely held in place, form a complete gas-check. By withdrawing the dowel-pin w, by which the recoil-seat E is secured to the breech-screw E, the former may be quickly removed for repair or carried away to render the gun useless.

The operating breech-screw E (which I prefer to make smaller in diameter than the screw-encircled recoil-seat E,) is supported in a screw-aperture formed within a pivoted nut, D.v The nut is pivoted and supported between two projecting arms, 0 and c, in a verand secured to the gun opposite to the arm 0" after the nut D has been put into its proper position. I therefore secure this'arm G to the gun, or to its outer incasing-ring, by means of a serrated, beveled, or dovetailed joint, as seen in Fig. 4..

The breech-screw E is operated or turned backward and forward by means of a crank, F, Figs. 1, 3, and 4c, and the pitch of its screw- .threads is coincident and uniform with that of the serew-threads encircling the recoilseat E. I contemplate the application of my screwoperated and screw-encircled recoil-seat E to all forms and descriptions of breech-loading guns, however its exterior nut, D, may be pivoted or supported, for I consider the use of a recoilseat or breeclrscrew which screws both through a sup )orting-nut and into the breech of the gun as an important and novel improvement in the mode of closing the chamber of the gun.

, Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim therein as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, isa 1. Closing and opening the chamber of a gun from the rear by means of a screw-actuated and screw-encircled recoil-seat or breechpiece, E, when said recoil-seat or breechpiece is received into a screw-perforation in the breech of the gun and combined exteriorly with a supporting-nut, D, or its equivalent, substantially in the manner and for the purpose herein set forth.

2. Then the chamber of a gun is rearwardly opened and closed by means of a screw-actuated recoil seat, E, combining a tubularshaped expansible double flange, N, constructed as described, with the inner face of said recoil-seat, substantially in the manner and for the purpose herein set forth.

3. IVhen the chamber of a gun is closed and opened by a screw-encircled recoil-seat or breech piece, E, forming a longitudinal groove or slot in the lower portion of the screw-cut portion of the opening to said chamber, to serve'as a receptacle for the dirt that may accumulate in the serew-threads of the same, substantially in the manner herein set forth.

The foregoing specification of my impror'ements in breech-loading ordnance signed by me this 22d day of July, A. D. 1863.

JAMES 'l. B. COLLINS, D. O. l\'[ -\CO)IBER.

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