US623243A - Ammunition-belt - Google Patents

Description

No. 623,243. Patented Apr. l8, I899.

w F. m. GARLAND.

AMMUNITION BELT.

(Application filed June 80, 1898.)

(No Model.)

' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE;

FRANK M. GARLAND, OF NE\V HAVEN, CONNECTICUT.

AMMUNITION-BELT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 623,243, dated April 18, 1899.

Application filed June so, 1898.

To all 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 following is a specification.

This invention relates to a flexible belt which has clips for temporarily holding cartridges that are to be conveyed by the belt to the mechanisms which will feed them to the barrels of an automatic machine-gun.

The object of the invention is to provide a simple and inexpensive flexible belt which will surely hold and positively convey cartridges in such manner that they can be accurately fed to two parallel barrels placed in juxtaposition in an automatic machine-gun.

The embodiment of the invention which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings has a flexible body of indefinite length that is provided alternately upon opposite sides with plates that are bent to form teeth that will mesh with the teeth of the feed-wheel and to form spring-clips that will hold the cartridges, so that as the belt is advanced upwardly between the barrels of the automatic gun for which the belt is designed the feed mechanism can pick one cartridge from one side and feed it to one barrel and can then pick the following cartridge from the opposite side-and feed it to the other barrel, as more particularly hereinafter described, and pointed out in the claims.

Figure 1 of the drawings shows a full-size edge view of a portion of an ammunition-belt that embodies the invention, constructed for temporarily holding and conveying cartridges that are provided with half-pound projectiles.

Fig. 2 is a view of one face of the same section of belt. Fig. 3 is a view of one of the plates that are secured to the opposite faces of the flexible body of the belt before the plate is bent to shape, and Fig. 4 is a view of one of the plate-fastening studs.

The bodyl of the belt, which can be formed any desirable length, may be made of leather or webbing or any other light material that has suitable flexibility and strength.

The clip-plates 2 are secured to this flexible body alternately upon opposite faces, so that they will hold the cartridges upon opposite I Serial lie-684,790. (No model) sides of the belt. These plates are preferably stamped to shape insingle pieces from a strip of sheet-steel or hard brass, but, of course, other spring metal may be employed. The ends of the plates are given S-shaped bends 3 to provide the necessary flexibility, and are then curved outwardly to form the cartridgegripping clips 4. The tongues 5, that project from the edges of the plates, are bent at the widest parts of the openings 6, made through them and folded over so as to lie upon the opposite face of the flexible body from the plate proper. The ends .of' the tongues are secured to the plates on the opposite faces of the flexible body by inserting studs 7 into perforations provided and heading them over. The openings 6 are so shaped that when the tongues are bent and the plates are secured in position at suitable distances apart the portions 8 of the plates extend beyond the edges of the flexible body equal distances from each other and form rack-teeth that will correctly engage with the teeth on the feedwheel of the automatic gun with which the belt is to be employed.

The clip-plates may be fastened in position on the flexible body by a simple rivetingmachine that will set the studs first on one face and then on the other face as the body is passed along, and as the belt will be fed along by the teeth on the edges of the plates that hold the cartridges the cartridges will be accurately presented to the mechanism which picks them from the belt and feeds them to the barrels.

These belts, with the spring-clips filled with cartridges, are folded up and packed into cases. In the automatic gun arranged for this belt the flexible body, with .the springclips filled with cartridges, is drawn up from its case between the barrels, and the loadingfingers of the gun mechanism easily pick the cartridges from the spring-fingers on opposite sides alternately, the clips readily opening to permit the release of the cartridges on the side for the barrel that is ready to be loaded at the proper time.

This belt is simple to manufacture, the body may be formed of ordinary materials,

and the spring-clips stamped from common stock. A belt constructed in this manner permits the arrangement, in a gun having 2. An ammunition-belt consisting of a flexible body of indefinite length with spring-clips projecting at intervals from opposite faces of the body and feed-teeth projecting at intervals from opposite edges of the body, sub- -stantia-l1y as specified.

3. An ammunition-belt consisting of a flexible body of indefinite length and plates shaped to form feed-teeth and spring-clips secured to the body with the teeth projecting from the edges and the clips projecting alternately from opposite faces,substantially as specified,

. FRANK M. GARLAND.

Witnesses:

H. R. WILLIAMS,

E. J. HYDE.

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