USRE783E - Improvement in trigger-operating revolving-breech fire-arms - Google Patents

Description

Fig. 1

S. W] MARSTON;

Revolver.

Reissued Jul 26, 1859 g- Fig. 3.

lnventur' NJ'ETERS, PNOTO-LITHDGRAPHER, WASHINGTON, D. 04

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

, JAMEs M. COOPER, OF NEW YO K, N. Y., ASSlGNEE or STANHOPE w.

- MARSTON.

IMPR OVEMENT IN TRIGGER-OPERATING REVOLVING-BREECH FIRE-ARMS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 7,887. dated January 7, 1851'; Reissue N0. 783 dated r I July 26, 1859.-

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that STANHOPE W. MARs'roN, of the city of New York, in the State of New York, has invented certain new and useful 1mprovem'ents in Revolving-Breech Fire-Arms and I do hereby declare that the following is I a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the annexed drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view of the hammerby which the pistol is tired. Fig. 2 is a representation of the fly-tumbler or vibrating tooth detached from the hammer. Fig. 3 is a representation ofthe trigger, showing the shape of the sear or end of the trigger by which the fly-tumbler is operated. Fig.4 represents the spring-rest by which the springwhich rotates the breech is sustained and kept in place. Fig. 5is a side view ofa revolver-or pistol with revolving breech, with one side of the lock-frame removed to exhibit the construction and arrangement of the parts of the lock.

STANHOPE W. Mltnsronsiiwention consists in certain improvements in that class otfir earmsusually called revolvers, which are furnished with a revolving many-chambered barrel 'or cylinder, which is made to rotate on its axis snfliciently to bring one of the nipples within the range of the stroke of the hammereach time that the trigger is drawn back, and so constructed and arranged as to fire off the charge in each of the chambers or barrels successively by merely pulling the trigger.

Theseimprovements are, so constructing and arranging the parts of the lock in revolvin breech tire-arms as that not only shall the revolving breech be rotated and the hammer raised by drawing back the trigger, but the hammer shall either stand at the point of fullcock until the trigger receives a further pressure or be fired by a single pull of the trigger, at the pleasure of the operator,.eft'ecting the raisingof the hammer and allowing it to stand at the point'of full-cock by means of a fly-tumbler or vibrating tooth interposed between the hammer and tumbler, and operated by the trigger without the use of any pawl, dog, or other contrivance to sustain the hammer in its raised position; a'ndthe use ot'a fly-tumbler or vibratpistol. Bis thelock-fraine, to which the several parts of the lock are attached.

0 is the revolvingjbreech or magazine, having any convenient number of bores r r, 850., to contain the charge. 'In the neck of this breech are the nipples or cones s s, &c., to receive the percussion'caps, and on the circumt'erenceot' the neck of the breech, at the Pi at end, which enters the cavity of the lock-plate A, are as many ratchet-teeth 0 0, &c., as there are chambers in the revolving breech. The chambered breechU is connected with the'lock plate by a spindle or other suitable device in any of the ordinary modes of constructing such fire-arms.

The hammer a is attached to the loclct'rame A by the hammer-pin j, the lower part of the hammer-that is, all below the hammer-pinbeing placed inside of the cavity of the lockframe. The center pin,j, is so situate that the head of the hammer will fall over and strike Whichever of the nipples 8 may happen to be at the top of the pistol.

D is the mainspring, attached to the stock of the pistol in the usual manner, and its free end resting upon and pressing upward against the heel of the hammer, back of its center pin, j. The toe of the hammer extends forward below t-hecenter pin,j, and near the extremity of the toe is a pin-hole, 9, (see Fig. 1,) for the pin, by which the vibrating tooth or fiy-tuinbler f is pivoted to the hammer. the hammer is slotted (see a, Fig. 1) from the point of the toe toward the center pin, j, to receive the fly-tumbler f. This fly-tumbler or vibrating tooth is of the shapeshown in Fig. 2, having a hole, g, near the front end, corresponding with the hole'g in the toe of the hammer, to receive the tumbler-pin 9 Fig. 5. The

The toe ofsigned to rest against the front edge of the hammer above the slot at, to prevent the flytnmbler being pressed too far forward in the hammer. A title spring, h, on the upper face of the fiy-tumbler presses againstthe'hammer, inside of the slot a under the hammer-pin j, andcauses the fly-tumblcr to react at'terbring pressed back by the sear of the hammer, as hereinafter described. The fiy-t-ninbler is set in the slot n in the toe of the hammer and secured by a pin, '9 and has a 'slight play up and down, the hooked projection o preventing it passing farther forward than is shown in Fig. 5, and the shape ot'the slot at in the hammer allowing it to pass backward and upward sufficiently far to allow the trigger to regain its position after firing.

The trigger e, of the shape shown in Fig. 3, is attached to the lower partof thelock-t'rame by a trigger-pin, 00. At the upper end of the trigger isthe sear b, by which the fly-tumbler is operated. The scar bis solong or projects so far up in the lock as to strike against the blunt end of the fly-tumbler when the triggeris drawn back, the fiy-tumbler being pressed downward by its springh. Whenever the sear of the trigger is back of'the fly-tumbler, (which is its.

proper position before the pistol is fired,) if the trigger is drawn backward its sear will press forward against the blunt end of the fly-tumbler, and in its endeavor to pass it it will passdewn the end of the fly-tumbler, at the same time raising the hammer until the point ofthe sear of the trigger enters the notch t with a click perceptible to the finger of the operator, at which point the parts assume the relative position shown in Fig. 5, and the hammer will stand cocked in that position without any tendency to. fall until the trigger is further drawn back, when'the sear, slightly raising the hammer, slips out of the notch t, and the hammer, now having no support, falls down on the nipple of the rotating breech and fires the pistol.

The reason for the hammer standing in the position shown in Fig. 5-at full-cock-is that the pressure applied to the trigger by the hand of the operator has the effect to bring the point of contact of the sear Z) and the fly-tumbler in front of a line drawn from the point 9? (the center of the tumbler-pin) and the point x, (the center of the trigger-pin,) whereas beforethe hammer is raised the point of contact is behind that line. Now, as soon as that point of contact falls exactly in the line between 00 and g (as it must do before passing from behind contact is thrown on either side of the line between g and at, (indicated by a red line in Fig. 5.) The force of the mainspring now no longer tends to cause the descent of the hammer, but to keep thehammer and trigger at rest; but; the moment the trigger is pressed a little farther back the sear slips forward out of I v the notch in the fiy-tumb1er,and the hammer,

having no support, is forced down by the mainspring.-

If, instead of firing the pistol after thehammer has been raised by the trigger to stand at ing, and the piece may be as readily and rapid-' ly fired as though it were not so made as .to i

stand at full-cock. By this arrangement and the use of the fly-tumbler the hammer of trigger-operating firearms may be raised and retained at full-cock, while the trigger remains set in a drawn position ready to be fired at the touch by simply drawing the trigger and without the use of any dog, pawl, catch, or other ,mechanical device to sustain the parts in their rclativeposition of fullrcock, which has, I believe, never before been accomplished by the operation of the trigger alone. The great advantage of this arrangement is that it obviates the difficulty experiencedin trigger-operating fire-arms of the unsteadiness of aim caused by the force necessarily applied to the trigger. to raise the hammer, for in trigger-operating firearms as constructed before this invention the by the sudden relaxation of the muscles of the hand consequent on the release of the pressure of the mainspring, causes'a shaking, which destroys the accuracy of aim. ment, however, by which the hammer of a revolving fire-arm is made to stand at' cock by operating the trigger, the resistance of the maiuspring to the finger of the operator diminishes as the hammer rises and ceases altogether before the hammer begins to fall, which enables the operator to hold his hand steady while firing the pistol.

The rotation of the breech by drawing the trigger is accomplished as follows: A bent spring, m, Fig. 5, is set in the cavity of the lock-frame, having its lower leg fixed in a cavity at d, in the lower part of the lock-frame,

near the neck of the breech. The lower leg of By this arrange' motion. The rear end of the spring at the junction of its two legs is attached to a springrest, 'I, of the shape shown in Fig. 4, the end of the spring at entering-a hole,q,inthespringrest. This spring-rest sustainsthe spring at, and prevents it getting out of place, keeping it pressed forward toward the rotating breech.

The upper leg of the spring passes under the pin g of the fly-tumbler, which (the pin 9 projects beyond the fly-tumbler far enough to rest on the spring m, and the front extremity of the upper leg of the spring at rests on and presses up against the one of the ratchet-teeth 0 on the neck of the chambered breech. This effects the rotation of the breech in the following manner: When thehammer is raised by the trigger, as before described, the point of the toe of the hammer rises, turning onj as its center. and the projecting pinat g rising also, allows the expansion of the spring m,

which, as the lower leg of the spring m is fixed at d, causes the extremity of the upper leg, which is resting against one of the ratchets, 0, in the neck of the breech, to rise and thus rotate the breech far enough to bring one of the nipples under the hammer. As the hammer falls-to fire the pistol the pin 9 on the toe of the hammer is lowered and depresses the leg of the spring at on which it rests sufiiciently to cause it to slide down the inclined face of the ratchet-tooth 0 and pass under and engage the tooth 0 the spring-rest allowing the retrocession of the spring at sufficiently for its end to pass over the point of the ratchet-tooth, and

' then pressing it up under the face of the tooth.

The spring m is now ready to cause another partial revolution of the rotating breech on the raising of the hammer, as before explained. Thus by the drawing of the trigger the breech is rotated, and the trigger itselt' is set and retained in a drawn p osition, and the hammer is raised to and sustained at-full-cock, or may be fired at once, at pleasure.

Havingthus described STANHOPE W. Mans- TONS improve'mentin trigger-oper'atin grevolving-breech fire-arms, I do not claim, broadly, rotating the breech and firing the pistol by simply operating the trigger; but

What I do claim as his invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. Soconstruct-ingthe lock of revolvingbreech fire-arms, in the mode substantially as hereinbefore described, or its equivalent, as that the trigger used to fire the pistol, when drawn back, raises the hammer to full-cock, and there retains it, the revolving breech or barrels being at the same time rotated so far as to bring the nipple of one of the chambers or barrels in the proper position to-be struck and greater ease in tiring and steadiness of aim are secured, substantially as hereinbefore described.

' JAMES M. OOOPER' In presence of- J onN S. BLAINE, JAMES CRAWFORD.

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