US933254A - Automatic firearm. - Google Patents

Description

UNITED sfrATEs PAE. IYFFIC rnaNxLrN, r. KNoUs', or Naw HAVEN, coirNEc'rIcU, assIGNon 'ro WINCHESTEB nnrna'rme Amas co., or NEW HAVEN, GQNNEQTIGUT, A conronacrxon.

nuroma'rlo RIRE To all whomI 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANKLIN F. KNoUs,

a citizen of the United States, residing at New Haven, in the county of vNewv Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a newand useful Improvement in Automatic Firearms; and I do herebyk declare the following, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and the numerals of y; reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear,

and exact description of the same, and whlch said drawings constitute part of this l 5 a View in side elevation of the volley-fire lever. Fig. 6' a reverse broken plan view of the breech-bolt which has a balancing extension in the form of two forwardly eX- tending arms. Fig. 7 a detached View on an 3e enlarged scale of the yielding trigger stop. My invention relates to an improvement in that class of shoulder arms which have heretofore been commonly designated as automatic for the reason that they have been constructed so that the explosion of the cartridge vhas been utilized as the motive power for the extraction of the spent shell',

the introduction of another cartridge into' the cartridge chamber of the gun-barrel land 4o the cooking of the hammer preparatory to the explosion of the cartridge so introduced. Automatic guns of the class above referred to have been operated bythe gases of exv plosion 'as well as; by the recoil of explosion. Strictly speaking these shoulder guns are semi-automatic rather than automatic for the reason that the 'hammer is not automatically released for firing. Indeed much ingenuity has been expended in safe-guarding them against volley-firing by constructin, ;l

them so that the trigger must be 'consciously released bythe user after each shot.

The object of my present invention iato combine in a so called automatic shoulder arm the advantages of a single lire or semi- Specilcation of Letters Patent. Application led February 33, 1

retorted sept. v, ieee, Snial Re. 47953913. l I

v'automatic gun with the advantages of an automatic or voHey--re gun.

With these ends in view my invention consists in a self-loading, self-ejecting and selfcooking shoulder gun having meansor conf verting it from a single fire to a volley lire o My invention' further'consists in certain details of construction and combinations of parts as will be hereinafter described and 55 -pointed out in the claims. f

For the illustration of my invention, I

have' shown it as embodied in an automatic firearm constructed substantially in accordance with United States Patent No. 681,481 7.9 granted August 2-7, 1901. I have however, shown only those parts of the gun of thatr patentluecessary for the disclosure of my present invention. y

In carrying out my invention as herein shown I employ va sliding or longitudinally movable sear 2 having a longitudinally eX- tended pivot-hole 3 through which the pivot 4 of the trigger 5 passes, the sear andtrigger turning independently of each other upon 80 the pivot. `At its forward end `the sear is formed with a cooking-nose 6 adapted to i enter a cooking-notch 7 formed in the heel of the hammer 8 which is not formed' with any half-cooking notch. The rear end ofthe sear gg, terminates in a `flattened finger 9 for coaction with a single-.tire notch 1(1-and a volleyiire notch 11 formed in the upper rear corner of the trigger 5, the notch 11 being located A in front of and below the notch 10.- The notches 10 andv 11 are separated by a horizontal lifting face 12 coactinv with the notch 11, while a corresponding time 13 coacting with the notch 1t) is located back of and above the same. Back of these notches 10 95 and 11 the trigger is furnished with a groove 14 for the reception of a wire trigger-spring 15 locatedin a spring-chamber 16 formed in the lower tang 17 of the gun frame 18. At its forward end the Sear 2 is furnished with an 10o offsetting lvoll'eyfire finger 19 having its front face formed with a bevel 20 for coaction with a bevel-21 at the rear end of a volley-fire lever 22 which rocks upon the hammer-pivot v2?. The forward end of the 105 said lever 22 is formed with a cam-like projection 24 enterin a long groove 25 having its rear end curve to form a cam 26 coacting with the pro'ection24aforesaid. The groove 25. aforesai is formed in part in the balanced breech block 27 and in part in the right h and forwardl extending arm 28 thereof. yThe said vo ley-fire lever 22 and' groove 25` are constructed and arranged so that the cam 26 coacts with the rear bevel of the projection 24 just as the breechblock 2.7 moves mto its closed or recoil-taklng posltion.

The trigger 5 has a socket 29 formed in*y it for the reception of a yielding trigger-stop 30 in the form of a plunger'resting upon a. spiral volley-fire spring 31 located in lthe bottom of the socket 29 and exerting a constant eHort to pushthe stop out of the socket in which it is held by a retaining pin 32 entering a notch 33 in the top of the stop. The upper face of the rear end of the stop 30 engages at the point 34 with the lower end of rear wall of a vertical recess or cut 35 formed in the tang 17 for the reception of the trigger 5. This engagement of the stop 30 with the rear wall ofthe recess 35 limits the swinging movement of the trigger in the use of the gun as a single-fire gun, the spring 31 being made stiff enough to prevent the stop from yielding and moving forward except when `the user of the arm consciously exerts uni usual force in pulling the trigger to the rearward when the spring 31 will be compressed, allowing the sto 30 to move forward and the trigger be li ted into its volley-lire posi.- tion. f A helical scar-spring 36 located in .a bore 37 in the trigger 5 enters a shallow recess 38 in the Sear and exerts a constant effort not only to move the sear bodily forward within the limits of its elongated pivot-hole 3, but also to lift the cocking nose 6 of the scar as high 'as it will go into the cocking-notch 7. The said sear-spring 36 is lighter than the hammer-spring 39 which, as will appear later on, overcomes the tension of the searspring 36 in moving the Sear bodily rearward. Having now detailed the construction of the particular form of my invention chosen for illustration, I will proceed to set forth its operation. After the pulling of the trigger 5 has withdrawn the cooking-nose 6 from the cooking-notch 7, the Sear-spring 36 will immediately move the Sear 2 bodily forward with the effect of carrying the finger 9 and at its rear end forward beyond the range of the horizontal lifting-seat 12 forming the lower part of the single-fire notch 10, and therefore beyond the operative range of the trigger. Now as the action of the un in recockmg is automatic, the pulling o the trigger and the explosion of the cartridge istalmost instantly followed by the re-c'ocking of the hammer which is effected by the entrance of the cooking nose 6 of lthe Sear into the cocking-notch 4"I by the agency of the searspring 36 which exerts a constant effort to lift the nose of the sear as well as to slide the sear bodily forward. If. now, the rearward draft upon the trigger'is not removed by the relaxation of the linger which pulled it, the sear will be moved bodily rearward by' the hammer-spring 39 acting through the forward wall of the cooking-notch '7, and the l forward edge of the cooking-nose 6 and overcoming the tension of the scar-spring 36 which is weaker than the hammer-spring In this way the Sear will be moved rearward until its fin er 9 is abutted against the vertical wall of the single-re notch 10. During the rearward movement of the sear as described the hammer .will swing forward slightly, but that is immaterial. The gun cannot be fired with the parts in the positions just above described inasmuch as the trigger 5 is not in operative relation to the Sear 2. To bring the two parts into operative relations, rearward draft upon the trigger must be removed so as to permit the trigger-spring 15to act and swing the trigger downward so as to move its face 13 below the finger 9 of the Sear which will 'then be moved bodily rearward by the agency of the hammerspring 39. As the sear moves bodily rearward the hammer will swin forward again through a short arc, but this is immaterial;

The gun ma now be fired as a single-fire gun by pulling the trigger the face 13 of which is now in position to operate upon and lift the finger 9 of the Sear, whereby the cooking-nose 6 thereof is withdrawn from the cooking-notch 7 of the hammer, so as to let the same fall. It will thus be seen that the conscious release or letting up of rearward draft upon the trigger must be interposed between each firing of the gun when the same is used as' a single-fire gun.

' To convert the gun from a single-fire to a volley-fire gun, the trigger is pulled upon with sufficient force to overcome the tension of the spring 31 permitting the yielding trigger-stop 30 to move forward and the trigger to be lifted high enough to bring its volley-fire notch 11 into coperation with .the finger 9 at the rear lend of the sear.

When this is done, (and it makes no difference whether it is done before the first car! tridge has been fired or after it or any other cartridge has been fired), the vertical wall of the volley-hre notch 11 prevents the sear from bein \moved bodily rearward as before described, by the overcoming of the tension of the Sear-spring 36 by the superior tension of the hammer-spring 39. On this account the sear is held so far forward that just as the breech-block 27 .is moving into its recoil-taking position, thefcam 26 of the groove 25 coacts with the beveled projection 24 of the volley-fire lever 22 the bevel 21 at the rear end of which coacts with the bevel 20 of the volley-fire finger 19 of the sear essaim to accomplish the saine result b Ameans of the trigger and the f1 r 9 Lat t e rear end of the sear.. Solon t erefore, as the trigger is held in its vol ey-re osition, the vertical rear wall of its volleyre notch 11 will holdv the sear 'forward into position for the coaction of its volley-re finger 19 with the volley-fire lever 22 which is operated by the closing movement of the breech-block. At

any time, however, that the extra tension required for volle -fring is removed from the trigger, the vo ey-fre spring 31 will assert itself to bring the trigger back into its single-re position whereby the volley-lire notch 11 will be carried downward below coperative rangelwith the finger 9v of the sear which will then be permitted to be slid bodily rearward as before by. the hammery spring 39. In this way the gun will be conve'rted from a volley-fire to a single-tire gun. It will be seen that all that it is necessary to do to convert the gun from a single-fire to a volley-lire gun, and vice versa, is to vary the amount of rearward draft upon the trigger. Furthermore the means required for these conversions are extremely simple and reliable.

I claim 1. In a gun convertible from single to volley ring, and vice versa, the combination with a trigger normally taking a single fire position, moving under'extra pressure from its s' le fir' to its volle firing position, of a ongitliilginally mova le sear Acoacting withsingle-fire and volley-fire notches in the trigger, a volley-fire lever co acting with Vthe sear for operating the same4 automatically when the trlgger is in its volley-fire position and the said lever being constructed to be automatically operated by one of the moving parts of the gun.

v2. In an automatic shoulder arm nvertiblefrom a single to a volley-lire arm and vice versa, the combination with a' trigger, of a yielding stop' therefor, a longitudinally movable scar coac with t e trigger which revents the b y rearward movment o thesear when the trigger is in its volley-firing position, a: volley-fire lever coact-ing with the forward end of the scar, and a breech-block coact'ing with the volleyfire lever to operate the same just as the breech-block moves into its recoil-taking position.

. 3. In a gun convertible 'from single. to

volley-firing and vice versa, the combination with a trigger, of a yielding stop normally holding the triggerl in position for single ring but yielding to permit it to be `moved into position for volleyliring, the said stop being mounted directly in the said trigger and projecting rearwardly thererom.

In testimony whereof, I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

FRANMJN- F. SKNoUs.

Witnesses: V

FRANK A. PAUL, DANIEL H. VEADER.

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