Britain 16078
A.D. 1884, 6th December. № 16,078.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Mechanism for Automatically Withdrawing Empty Cartridge Cases from Revolvers and Pistols.
We Hugh Adams Silver of Sun Court, Cornhill, London, Merchant and Manufacturer, and Water Fletcher of the same place, Gunsmith do hereby declare the nature of our said invention for “Mechanism for automatically withdrawing empty cartridge cases from revolvers and pistols” to be as follows:—
The object of our invention is to withdraw empty cartridge cases from revolvers or pistols automatically by the fall of the hammer tilting an ejector.
In order to carry out our invention we cut away a portion of the face of the chamber or cylinder of the revolver or pistol around the outer edge to enable us to introduce a catch or ejector under the rim of a cartridge case as the cylinder revolves moving the empty case round to the said catch. The catch or ejecting piece consists of a bar of steel which extends from the outer rim of the cylinder across the path of the hammer and is so pivotted that the fall of the hammer depresses that end or portion which is in its path, raises the other end which takes under the rim of the cartridge case thus ejecting the case.
The pin or wire which forms the pivot of the ejecting piece passes into or through a slot instead of a round hole which enables the ejecting piece to be pushed or moved from side to side so that the end which takes under the cartridge case rim can be moved beyond the cartridge hole of the cylinder to allow the entrance of a fresh cartridge and afterwards be returned to its original position for extracting empty cases at option.
The ejector is kept against the face of the cylinder at the right hand side by a spring acting under the rear end of the said ejector which end extends beyond the path of the hammer on the left hand side thereof and furnished with a button or roughened stud or lever to facilitate the moving of the ejector.
Dated this 6th day of December 1884.
H, GARDNER.
166, Fleet Street, London,
Agent for the Applicants.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Mechanism for Automatically Withdrawing Empty Cartridge Cases from Revolvers and Pistols.
We Hugh Adams Silver of Sun Court, Cornhill, London, Merchant and Manufacturer, and Water Fletcher of the same place, Gunsmith, do hereby declare the nature of our said invention for “Mechanism for automatically withdrawing empty cartridge cases from revolvers and pistols” and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and escertained in and by the following statement:—
The object of our invention is to withdraw and eject empty cartridge cases automatically from revolver pistols by the direct contact of the hammer upon a metal plate or bar pivotted or hinged to the body of the pistol in such a manner that as the fired cartridge is moved round to bring another or loaded cartridge into position the empty case is suddenly ejected by contact of the hammer on the metal plate or bar simultaneously as the loaded cartridge then in position is being struck by the hammer.
For the purpose of our invention wo slot the back face or solid portion of the body and pass a pin through from the top of same, This pin forms a pivot on which a bar or plate which fits the recess can move in one direction when struck by the hammer in the act of firing a loaded cartridge and be returned to its normal position by a spring.
The bar has a blade projecting downwards and is so shaped that as the empty cartridge cases are brought round in succession by the ordinary rotatory movement of the charge chamber the edge of the blade engages within the rim of the empty cartridge case and when the hammer strikes the bar as the next charge is being fired, the empty cartridge case is suddenly ejected from its chamber and so on in succession after each successive firing.
The hammer may be of the usual construction with the striker as part thereof but the striker may be separate and enclosed within the hammer and be provided with a thumb piece capable of being set in a backward position or at “safety” by the thumb piece being set in a slot in the hammer.
Our invention will be understood by the annexed drawings in which at Figure 1 we show an ordinary five chambered revolver, the chamber block of which is shown at Figure 2, The back face of the body A is recessed and a bar B fits and is pivotted therein by the screw pin C upon which it has a movement when struck by the nose D of the hammer E when the striker F is in the act of firing a loaded cartridge which has been brought opposite it by the usual trigger claw.
G is the blade of the bar B whose edge is arranged to take into a cutaway portion I of the face of the chamber J and consequently under the rim H of the cartridge case to extract or eject it. The bar is held in position by a spring K which is fastened to the side of the body A and has a limb L which bears against the bar to bold the blade G in contact with the face of the chamber block except when the nose D of the hammer strikes the bar as before explained.
M is the usual gate which can be set open as at Figure 1 for charging the chambers in the usual manner and when the automatic ejection of the empty cases is not required the gate can be closed against the back face of the cartridge cases to retain them in position in the usual manner where it acts as a stop against the ejection.
We have referred to the bar B as fitting a recess but other means may be adopted for pivotting said bar B to the body A and the spring K may be arranged differently to that above described.
In the example Figure 3 we show the bar B pivotted to the body A and with a spring K fastened to the shield N with its free end behind the bar to press that end forward, the action corresponding to that described with reference to Figure 1.
If the extraction of the empty cartridge cases is not necessary the bar can be slid sideways on its pivot pin C as at Figure 4 so that the blade is free of the rim of the cartridge case.
Figures 5, 6, 7 and 8 represent other modified arrangements of the spring.
In Figure 5 the spring K is of helical form working against a shoulder of a stud P projecting from the bar. At Figure 6 the limb L of the spring is dispensed with. At Figure 7 another form of spring is shown and at Figure 8 the spring is fastened to the neck Q of the revolver frame, the object of the spring in all cases being to return the bar to its normal position so that the blade G may be made to engage with the rim of the next succeeding cartridge case in succession.
Figure 9 represents a hammer with the striker F fitted within the same and capable of being set at the position of safety by the thumb piece R being moved in the slot S Figure 10 to hold it back as at Figure 11, the thumb piece taking into a recess formed at the end of the slot.
By this invention empty cartridge cases can be extracted automatically at each successive firing of a full cartridge by opening the gate M or the empty cartridge cases may be retained within the chamber by closing the gate at the will of the person using the arm, this is with reference to the pistol shown in Figure 1 or if the gate be closed all the cartridges can be fired in succession and then the gate can be opened and all the empty cases extracted in succession.
The same remark applies to the pistol shown in Figure 9, but should by any error a loaded cartridge be left in, the placing of the striker F in the safety position prevents all possibility of accident happening at the time of extracting should a full charge be left in the chamber J.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed We declare that what We claim is
1. Fitting an extractor bar B in or to the body A of a revolver pistol within the travel of the hammer for the automatic extraction of the empty cartridge case H simultaneously with the strike of loaded one by said hammer as set forth 4 and substantially as shown in the annexed drawings Figure 1.
2. Fitting the striker F within a hammer of a revolver so that said striker may be set at a position of safety as and for the purpose described with reference to Figure 9.
The 6th day of September 1885.
H. GARDNER,
166, Fleet Street, London,
Agent for the said H, A. Silver & W. Fletcher.