USRE279E - Improvement in fire-arms - Google Patents

Description

BEST AVAlLABLE CQPY UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE;

HoaAcE SMITH AND DANIEL B. WESSON, or NORWICH, CONNECTICUT.

IMPROVEMENT m FIRE-ARMS.

Specification forming part of vLetters Patent No. 10,535, dated February 14, 1854; Reissue No. 279, dated October 10, 1854.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, HORACE SMITH and D ANIEL B. -WESSON, of Norwich, in the county of New London and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Guns, Pistols, orFire-Arms; and we do hereby declare that the same is fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanying drawings, letters, figures, and references thereof.

Of the said drawings, Figure 1 denotes a top view, Fig. 2 a side View, and Fig. 3 a vertical and central section,of one of our improved fire-arms or pistols. Fig. 4 is a side view of the kind of cartridge to be used there-in, it bein g the same as is used in that species of pistols usually termed the saloon-pistol, it being, as we believe, a French invention.

This cartridge has its case of thin copper, and with a projecting bottom that contains the percussion-powder, the ball being inserted in the other end or top of the case.

The form of the cartridge and the manner and material of which it is constructed may be somewhat changed and still leave the cartridge applicable to our improved firearm, it being understood that the cartridge is to be so made as to contain the load and percussionpowder, the latter being placed in it so as to be fired by concussion produced by percussion, as hereinafter described.

In the drawings above referred to, A denotes the barrel of the piece, and B the stock or look case. v

Underneath the barrel is a long tube, C, that serves as a magazine for carrying the cartridges. This magazine and the barrel have at their rear ends a carrier or slide block, D, whose oliice is to receive a cartridge from the magazine and transfer it or raise it up into line with the barrel. For this purpose the said carrier is caused to slide up and down within a chamber, E, and to be moved by a lever, F, that plays or turns on a fulcrum, a, with the trigger-guard G, which is also a lever, and 'made to turn on the same pin a. A piston-slide, H, is also employed to force the cartridge out of the carrier, when the latter is raised to its highest position, and into the barrel.

The cartridges are placed one after the other in the magazine, and are pressed toward the carrier by means of ahelical spring, I, thatbears against a cylindrical slider, K, from which a screw-pin, 1), projects, and extends into aml through a long slot, 0, that is made lengthwise in the magazine, and opens into another and short slot, d, that is cut through a spring chamber or tube, L, which is so applied to the barrel, by means of a clasping-tube, M, as to be capableof being turned laterally entirelyout of line with the magazine, so as to permit the latter to be supplied with cartridges whenever necessary.

The slot (1 of the spring-chamber is turned at its upper end a short distance at right angles to its main part; thence it is turned down a short distance parallel to such main part, the whole being as represented in Fig. 5, and for the purpose of confining the spring within the chamber in a contracted state.

By applying the finger to the head of the screw 1), and pushing the slider K toward the spring I, we can crowd the spring entirely into the chamber L, and so as to carry the screw b to the upper part of the slot (1. When this is the case, if we press the screw laterally into the bent part of the groove, the spring may be preserved in place in the chamber while such chamber is turned out of line with the magazine-tube.

The piston slide H is operated or moved back and forth by toggle-joints N O, that are worked by the trigger-guard G, the position of the several parts of the fire-arm, when the lower arm of the tri gge'rguard is moved entirely forward or away from the stock, being represented in Fig. 6, which represents a longitudinal section of the pistol under such circumstances.

The toggles are jointed to the slide H and the lock or stock frame. They are moved up and down by an arm, 1:, projecting upward from the trigger-guard, and provided with one or more studs to enter and slide into a slot, i, formed through or aflixed to the back toggle.

BEST AVAILABLE co Y I When thete cs a b ug t. i t a s gh line with each-other the piston slideHis'ha-rd' up against the rear end of the cartridge, and serves as a breech to the barrel. Fig. 9 denotes a top view of the piston-slide Hf. Fig. 10 is a horizontal and central section 0 it.

trhisiii'stiirisiide H ism'ade with a head or' end of suitable shape to-pass through the carrier and close the rear end of the bore of the barrel when forced against it. In rear of this A head'thepis ton-sli'de is "reduced 'in width, as

formed with-dovetail projections or a recess,

a, which flares or-ismade'wider as it descends, as seen atr rg This dovetail or recess is for the'purp'oseof withdrawing from the barrel, after a discharge, the metal or remainder of the cartridge. 1 j

the'blow of *the hammer against it forces the metal or remains. of the cartridge into the recessor do'vetailof the piston-slide, and so as to cause-it (the slide) to grasp or hold it (the cartridge) with sufiicient powerto enable it to be drawn out-of the barrel when the piston-- slide is next retracted.

Having withdrawn the remainder of the cartridge from the barrel and over the carrier, projections 0. 413 (sec Figs; 1, 3,-and 6) on the carrier are forcedinto contact with such remainder by and during the next upward movement of the carrierand expel it from the piece or fire-arm. These projections constitute the boundaries of the opening q, and they perform an i mportantfunction-via', the expulsion from the'chamber-E of'the remainder'of the cartridge, or that part of it which is withdrawn from the barrel by the piston or breech slide after' a discharge, and previousto the introduction 'of the" next cartridge'into the barrel. The construction of l the carrier so that it may not only passdown byzthe piston'slide and to the-'f magazine while thc-slidetis up againstthe barrel; but so that it will expel the remainder of: the cartridge extracted from the barrel by the slide, constitutes an important feature i The cock 'o'r' percussion-hammer is arrang in rear of the piston-and breech slide H,,and turns on-a pin,'k, and is made to strike directly against i the 1 rear.- -end of the slide I H, and .to

of our improved fire-arm.

inflame Ethe priming-1 by; the, concussion pro-e duced-by:its: percnssion':orj-blow on such end.

away fromthe stock. Thus the trigger-gnard, when so moved,=is -madeto ''s'im'n'ltaneou'sly cause the hammer to be cocked, the pistonslide to beforced ,baek, and .the carrier to be elevatedf The carrier-lever is elevated by the lower arm of the trigger-guard lever and depressed by the upper arm t-hereof, the carrierle er being so shaped,as seen in Figs; 7 and 8, (which are side and top views of it,) and applied to the trigger-guard lever, as to enable the latter to actuate it.

e do not claim the {employment of a carrieror slide for transferring the cartridge from the magazine tofthe barrel, nor the employment and combination therewith of a piston orslide to force the cartridge out of the carrierand into the barrel; nor do we claim the employment of "-a'piston-slide, H, as a breech to the barrel, nor the firing by concussion instead of by percussion; nor do we claim the improvement of making or applying the percussion-hammer so as to strike on the rear end of a small pin, (instead of directly against its cartridge or priming,) and so" that the prim- The forward pressure of the piston-slide and ing at the front or lower end of the pin shall be exploded byconcussion' produced by the percussion blow of the hammer on the-other end of it; but 'g What we do claim as our invention is 1. The combining the percussion-hammer,

the piston-slide, and the barrel, so=that the ward against the barrel-or cartridge therein, but is caused to expel from the chamber E, in

which it moves, the remainder ofthe cartridge after such remainder has been, retracted by the piston-slide, and while the carrier is being elevated with another cartridge, the said improvement consisting .inmaking the carrier with an opening or passage leading out of the cartrid ge-chamber thereof, and of a width suflicient for the movement of the piston-slide out o of the carrier during the descent of the latter,

and providing said carrier with .one-or more projections, a, or the equivalentthereof, which, i 5 when the carrier is elevatedyshallfbe. moved against the remainder of t-he cartridge and elevate and expel it from the .fire-arm, as I stated, the breecheslide or piston-slide being,

formed substantially as specified;

cation of the percussion-hammer with respect to the breech-slide H and the trigger-guard lever so that the hammer may be moved and set to full-cock by the pressure or back action of the slide induced by the action of the trigger-guard lever, as specified.

3. We also claim thearrangement and 4. We also claim the i'mprovementof mak- Intestimony whereof we have hereunto set ing the front end of piston-slide with a dqveour signatures this 13th day of September, tail recess, a, (or its equivalent,) for the pur- A. D. 1854. pose of enabling the slide to seize the metal or remainder of the cartridge and withdraw it HORACE SMITH. from the barrel when it (the piston-slide) is D. B. -WESSON. next retracted, the said remainder being dis-. charged from the slide by the upward move-- Witnessee: ment of the carrier, all 'substantiallyas epeci- H. H. STARKWEATHER, fied. EDWARD PARKER.

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