USRE3953E - Improvement in breech-loading fire-arms - Google Patents

Description

REISSUED MAY 3, 1870.

B. s. ROBERTS. BRBBOH LOADING FIREARM.

hwentpr and downward in closing it.

- UNITED STATES I PATENT OFFICE.-

BENJAMINS; nonnn'rs, on H UNITED STATES ARMY.

VIMPR'OVEMYENT IN BREEOHV-LOADING F-|m-:-ARM's.'

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 36,531, dated September 23,1862; Reissue No. 2, 068,dated September f), 1865; Reissue No. 3,953, datedMayifi, 1870;

To all whomit m ay concern:

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN S. Ronnit'rs, of the United States Army,' have invented a new and useful Improvement in Breech-Loading Fire-Arms; and I do hereby declare that 1 v the following is afulland exact description. thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, inwhich- Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional view'ofa. breech-loading fire-arm embodying my invention as it appears when the gun is open,

preparatory to loading, and having a cartridge entered in the barrel. Fig.2 is a similar View of the same arm loaded and having the breech closed. 'Fig. 3 is a cross section of the movable breech-block.

My invention relates to that class of breechloading fire-arms in which the breech is closed by a movable breech-pieeethat is pivoted -toe the rear end of the barrel; and swings backward and downward in closing-the. gun and upward and forward in opening it.

It consists in soconstructing and arranging a swinging breech-piece that by permitting it to have combined with its rotary motion a slight radial motion, or a motion on lines parallel to the radial, it will close down at the rear of the breech of the barrel into and fill the space provided for it between the breech of the barrel and the recoil-shoulder in its a groove, h, on the under side fitted into arib, D, on the lever, and fastened to the rib by a pin, d, that passes through a hole in the rib and a slotted hole in the plug 0. The groove is not cut longitudinally entirely through the plug, leaving the front end solid,

to cover the breech of the barrel. A recoilshoulder, e, is made in the frame or housing of the gun, or in the portion of the barrel e5:- tending in the rear of "the plug. shoulder is perpendicular to the axis of the bore; and the plug is made to fit into and fill the space between the breech of the barrel" and. the recoil-shoulder, the rearend .of'theplug-beingalso, of course, perpendicular tov 7 the axis of. the bore when the gun is closed.

Now," .it is evident that this breech 'plug could. if not swing into its place inlelosing the breech 1 if it were fixed rigidly to the .lever-B,J aud:. were permitted. to move onlyon'aeiirveaboutifi the-'pivotO; as in moving into the'space be- .tw'eenthc open breech of the barrel and the .recoil should'er eit must move in a direction. perpendicular tothe axis of the bore of the "barrel; but by permitting itto have a slight radial motion, or a motion parallel to aradial, it is enabled to depart from theeurvilinear to. a right line perpendicularto the dais of the bore in" the "act'of closing into the said space. By the combined curvilinear and right- 4 li-ne motion of the-breech-plug' the conven-fience of a rotary movement of itin'openi'ng. and closing thebreech is secured at; the same 1 time that there are secured the strength and safety of a recoil-shoulder, that is perpendi'cular to the axis of the barrel'again'st which the and completely closes the breech.

I do not intend to modes of constructing and arranging-the breech-plug and connecting it with the bar .rel will readily suggest themselves to a per sonlskilled in. the art of gun-making. @Th'e essential conditions are that the breech plug shall be-so arranged as to' permit itto have curvilinear motion about an axis and a right-- line motion tangential to such curve, substantially as described.

\VhatI claim as my invention, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is. w

The combination and arrangement of the 'within-d'escribed parts or their equivalents,

by means of which the swinging breech-plug, consisting of the lever Band sliding breechplug 0, in openingand closing the breech shall have the combined rotary and right-line motion, as above described, permitting it while swinging on its axis to close down on a recoil-shoulder that isperpendicular, or nearly so, to the axis of the bore of the barrel and fill the space between such shoulder and the barrel of the-gun, substantially as specified. This recoil- B. S. ROBERTS.

Witnesses:

L. SPERRY,

- S. S. PIERPoNr.

confinemyself to the precise mechanism above described. Other

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