US43681A - Improvement in attaching trunnions to ordnance - Google Patents

Description

n. GIBBoNs.

Ordnance.- No. 43,681. 1 v Patented Aug. 2, 1864.

A UNITED STATES RODMOND GIBBONS, OF

PATENT OFFICE.

OAKLAND, oALIEoENIA.

. Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 43,681, dated August 2, 1864.

To all whom it may concern: I

Beit known that I, RoDMoNDGIBBoNs, of the city of Oakland, in the county of Alameda 'and State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ordnance; and I do hereby declare that the following specification, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings hereinafter referred to, forms a full and complete description of the same, together with such parts as I claim and desire to have secured to me by Letters Patent of the United States.

It is well known that the peculiar crystallization of the cast metal about the trunnions of guns causes this portion of the gun to be comparatively weak, and that the longitudinal strain between the trunnions and the bottorn of the bore in firing causes the destruction of many pieces of ordnance. To avoid these difficulties I am aware that separate trunnions have been put on after the gun was wrought, and that a trunnion-ri-ng withtrunnions upon it has been shrunk' or screwed onto the gun, andthat atrunnion-ring,trunnions,and breeching have been used, but so made as that each has upon it some portion of the other one of the three things, so that an accident to one part renders the whole useless until a new ring, trunnions, and breeching are furnished.

The nature of my invention consists in the use of false trunnions, a trunnion-band, and a breech-strap, all made in separate pieces, and put onto the gun and attached to it and to each other, as hereinafter described.

Figure lis a side elevation of a gun with my improvements. Fig. 2 is a horizontal longitudinal section of the same, taken in the plane of the line A B, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a transverse Vertical section taken in the plane of the line C D, Fig. l. Fig. 4 is a rear end elevation; and Figs. 5 and 6 are detailed views, hereinafter referred to and described.

l In the drawings, a is the trunnion-band; b b,

the false trunnions screwed into the band, the one entering with a right-hand thread, the other with a left-hand thread, and having heads c c, to which is fitted a suitable handspike, d, Fig. 6. e is the breech-strap, (more of the gun about the knob and forward over the false trunnions. The trunnion-band a, false trunnions b b, and breech-strap e should be of the best steel and annealed. The trunnion-band a is turned out from the inside to fit the slope of the gun, and is put on heated -to such a degree that in its contraction, the breech-strap being in position, it shall draw said strap firmly to its place, and thus prevent the gun from turning.

It will be seen that by my invention guns not only may be cast without trunnions and great additional strength secured, but that the labor and expense of their manufacture may be diminished.

It will be observed that by reason of the false trunnions screwing into the trunnionband in reversed ways the gun may be speedily and effectually disabled by the removal of one or both trunnions.

Having thus described my improvements in ordnance, I shall state what I claim as my invention, and desire to have secured to me by Letters Patent, as follows:

The combination of and attachments between the false trunnions, trunnion-band, and breech-strap, said false trunnions being sestantially as herein set forth and described.

EoDMoND GIBBoNs.

Witnesses:

' RoBT. L. HARRIS,

WM. MACDONALD.

particularly shown in the detailed drawings, Fig. 5,) which strap extends around the breech cured to thetrunnion-band by screws, all sub`

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