USRE3952E - Improvement in breech-loading fire-arms - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES` PATENT v OFFICE..

BENJAMIN S. ROBERTS, OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY.

IMPROVEMENT IN BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS.

Specilication forming part of Letters Patent No. 36,531, dated September 23, 1862; Reissue No. 2,067, dated September 5, 1865; Reissue No. 3,952, dated May 3, 1&570-l .D TvrsroN 2.

fa a/ZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN S. ROBERTS, of the United States Army, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Breech-Loading Fire-Arms; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a central longitudinal section of a breech-loading firearm embodying my invention, with its cartridge as it appears when the cartridge is driven home and the gun is closed, ready for firing. Fig. 2 is a similar view of the same arm as it appears when the 'gun has been opened after firing and the cartridgeshell is started from its seat in the barrel and partially withdrawn.

My invention relates to that class of breechloading fire-arms in which it is intendedto use cartridges having a case designed to bel eX- tracted and removed from the barrel after firing, and which are providedwith a movable breech-piece for'closing the breech of the gun. It consists in such a location and arrange- Iment of the breech-piece, its lever, and breech of the barrel with reference to each other that a spur or tooth, or its equivalent, on the hinge end of the lever breech-piece shall, when the latter is swung np and forward in the act 0f opening the breech of the gun, engage with the cartridge-case and remove or start it from its.

seat in the barrel.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe one form of a gun embodying it,

A represents the lever breech-piece, which is provided with aslidingplug, B. This lever breechpiece is attached to the breech of the barrel by means of the hinge 0. B is its vsliding plug. This plug slides between the jaws B, which project from the under side of the lever breech-piece A, and is rheld thereto by means of the pins b, which slide in the slots c of said jaws, thereby securing to the plug a direct forward and backward movement. D

is a metalliccartridgecase constructed with a ilange or projection, h.

The operation of my invention is as follows: n

The breech of the gun being open, the cartridge D is introduced into the breech of the barrel and the lever breechpiece A swung back and down into position. In doing this, the sliding plug B, in passing into its seat, is pressed forward between the jaws B by the shoulder` E, thereby pressing the cartridge l) home into its seat in the breech of the barrel, and its ange or projection h up against the spur c, which is formed in the end of the le` ver breech-piece A by cutting away part of its hinge. After the gun has been discharged the breech is again opened by swinging the lever breech-piece A up and forward over the barrel of the gun and on a line with it, in doing which the spur c on the end of the lever vbreech-piece engages with the flange or pro-- jection h of the shell D, and thereby draws the shell back out of the breech of the barrel, the

sliding'plug B being slid back in its jaws B ment of the several parts above described and y represented should be employed in order to embody the spirit of my invention.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is`

The breech and lever breech-piece A, with its sliding plug B, when arranged and located in relation to each other in a breech-loading nre-arm, as herein' described, or in any equivalentvmanner, so that a hook or tooth, or its equivalent, formed on one end ofthe lever breech-piece, shall, while the latter is moving in the act of opening the breech, engage with the cartridge-case and remove or start it from its seat in the barrel, substantially as described.

B. S. ROBERTS.

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