US479798A - Thirds to ebenezer b - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

F. M. GARLAND. AMMUNITION BELT.

No. 479,798. Patented Aug. 2, 1892.

UNiTE STATEs FFICE,

FRANK. M. GARLAND, OF NEYV HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR OF TIWVO- THIRDS TO EBENEZER B. BEECHER, IVILLIAM A. FOSKETT, AND FRED" ERICK P. NEIVTON, OF SAME PLACE, AND THOMAS II. SHERMAN, OF IVASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

AMMUNITION-BELT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 479,798, dated August 2, 1892.

Application filed September 19 1891. Serial No. 406,257- (No model.)

To whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, FRANK. M. GARLAND, a citizen of the United States, residing at New Haven,in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ammunition-Belts, of which the followlng is a full, clear, and exact specification.

This invention relates to the class of belts to used in connection with machine-guns for feeding cartridges to the loading mechanism.

The object of the invention is to provide a simple and cheap belt of this class having a body so flexible that with the cartridges it can be folded into a box and fed directly therefrom into the gun, the flexible body of the belt having cups with strong grasping-arms, which so firmly hold the cartridges that they cannot be shaken out, but from which they can readily be removed without the use of complicated mechanism in the gun or destroying the belt, so that it may be again used.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of the belt holding a 2 5 few cartridges. Fig. 2 is a side view illustrating the manner in which the belt and cartridges are drawn into the gun. Fig. 3 is an enlarged plan of the blank from which the cartridge-cups are formed. Fig. 4 is an enlarged transverse section of the belt and one of the cups.

In the views 1 indicates the body of the belt, which is made of paper, cloth, webbing, leather, or the like material having sufficient tensile strength to lift the cartridges, which is cheap, thin, and quite flexible, so that it will readily unfold from the box into which, with the cartridges, it has been packed and. feed into the gun. To one face of the body 0 are secured cups 2 for holding the cartridges, while the ends are provided with loops and hooks for engaging other belts, so that several belts may be fed continuously. These cups are preferably cut or stamped to shape 5 from sheet metal, as brass, in the form of the blank shown in Fig. 3, having a body to form the grasping-arms 3, and projecting wings at on either side to form bearings for the legs of any common cartridge removing comb or picker 5, as well as clips for securing the cups in place along the belt. The grasping-arms of the cups are shaped to firmly grasp and hold the cartridges, so that they cannot be shaken therefrom, and the ends of the wings may be bent downward, passed through perforations in the body of the belt, and clinched on the under side, so as to hold the cups securely to the flexible body of the belt.

In the plan View, Fig. 1, one form of comb or picker is shown in full lines to illustrate the use, object, and advantages of the invention, although the picker is in no way connected with the belt, nor is it a part of the invention. This comb is secured to the frame on the interior of the machine-gun in which the belt is to be used near the path of the belt by any common means in any well-known manner.

It is essential that the belts be very flexible,

and it is also necessary that the cartridges be grasped firmly by the cups, so that they cannot be shaken out by any jar during action. Consequently considerable pull is required, to remove the cartridges from the cups. As the belt, with the cartridges, is drawn into the gun by a feed-wheel 6, the cartridges are removed from the tightly-holding grasping-arms by a comb 5, which straddles the belts and strips it from the cartridges as they pass up with the feed-wheel, the ends of the comb resting upon wings on either side as the cartridges are removed, so that the cups are not stripped from the belt at the same time.

By means of this construction a cheap, light, and very flexible body or web may be used, which, with the cartridges in the cups, will closely pack into boxes, and from which it can be readily drawn and fed into the gun. The cups are securely held to this flexible body and firmly hold the cartridges without danger go of their being shaken out when the gun is in use. The cartridges can be readily and easily removed from the belt without any complicated withdrawing mechanism and without danger of stripping the cups from the belt with the cartridges and clogging the loading mechanism of the gun. The belts may be made of such cheap material that they can be discarded after use or may be reused, if desired, as they are not damaged, and the cups can be quickly refilled with cartridges.

I claim as my invention 1. An ammunition-belt consisting of a flexible web bearing upon one face a number of cups for firmly grasping the cartridges, open on one side, so that the cartridges may be removed therefrom laterally, and provided with projecting Wings on the edges to afford a bearing for the cartridge-removing device, substantially as specified.

2. An ammunition-belt consisting of a flexible Web bearing upon one face a number of cups for firmly grasping the cartridges, open on one side, so that the cartridges may be removed therefrom laterally, and provided with projecting Wings on the edges to afford a bearing for the cartridge-removing device, the ends of said wings passing through the web and clinched on the opposite face, substantially as specified.

FRANK. M. GARLAND.

WVitnesses:

J. P. WRIGHT, H. R. VVILLIAMs.

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