US 57864
UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.
ALBERT CHRIST, OF CALIFORNIA, OHIO.
IMPROVEMENT IN REVOLVING FIRE-ARMS.
Specification forming part of Letters Patent, No. 57,864, dated September 11, 1866.
To all whom it may concern:
Be it known that I, ALBERT CHRIST, of California, Hamilton county, Ohio have invented a new and useful Improvement in Revolvers; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification.
This is an improvement in the class of repeating fire-arms which carry a revolving cylinder or breech-piece for the reception of a series of metallic cartridges; and my invention consists, chiefly, in a mode of operating two distinct circles of cartridges by means of a single trigger.
Figure 1 represents a pistol embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a reverse view of the butt. Fig. 3 is a rear-end view of the breech-piece.
The butt or handle of this fire-arm, when in pistol form, may consist, mainly, of a metallic frame, A, to which is hinged the breech case B. Projecting longitudinally from the case B is a stud,C, which occupies an axial aperture in the revolving breech or cylinder D. A Socket, E, in the butt, when the pistol is closed, receives and centers the rear end of the stud C. F is a slotted tongue, which, in the closed condition of the arm, enters between two slotted cheeks, G. H is a key, which, being pushed into the slots of both tongue and cheeks, serves to hold the pistol in its closed condition. The breech D is transversed longitudinally by two circular series of holes, I for the reception of metallic cartridges J. Notches K in the periphery of the breech, receiving a spring-catch, L, at the termination of each propulsion of the breech, serve to bring and hold said breech precisely in line for the discharge of each successive cartridge. A pin, m, projecting from the hammer M acts at the proper moment to liberate the catch L, and permits the breech to be revolved.
Hinged to the hammer M are two fingers, N N’, which traverse slots a in the butt A,and act successively, the outer finger, N; upon the heads of two consecutive cartridges in the outer circle, then the inner finger, N’, upon the head of a cartridge in the inner circle, and then the outer finger upon two consecutive cartridges in the outer circle, and so on in succession until each cartridge has been ita turn advanced and fired.
O is an aperture in the butt for the passage of the nose of the hammer in the act of firing, and, being intermediate in radial distance between the inner and outer circles of cartridges, operates equally on both alternately in the order above referred to.
Operation: The spent cartridges, having been removed from the breech, are replaced by a new batch of eighteen ball-cartridges, and the butt and breech are keyed fast. The hammer is then cocked, and the piece fired by pulling the trigger in the ordinary manner. Each cocking of the pistol acts to advance the breech, so as to bring each time the next succeeding unexploded cartridge opposite the passage O.
I claim herein as new and of my invention–
1. The combination of the two circles of cartridge-chambers I, two feed-fingers, N N’, and single hammer M, constructed, arranged, and operating as and for the purposes set forth.
2. Propelling a revolving breech by means of one or more fingers, N, adapted to operate on the heads of the metallic cartridges, in the manner explained.
In testimony of which invention I hereunto set my hand.
ALBERT CHRIST.
Witnesses:
GEO. H. KNIGHT,
JAMES H. LAYMAN.