Britain 2248
A.D. 1863, 12th SEPTEMBER. N° 2248.
Revolving Fire-arms.
(This Invention received Provisional Protection only.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Edwin Wallis at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th September 1863.
I, CHARLES EDWIN WALLIS, of Millman Street, Bedford Row, Holborn, in 5 the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for “Improvements In Revolving Fire-Arms,” to be as follows:—
This Invention consists in forming the chamber piece of revolving fire-arms containing the charges in the following manner:— Heretofore it has been the practice to discharge the contents of each chamber by the hammer striking a percussion cap placed outside of and in a line with each chamber, and further in making each chamber to contain only one charge. Now, by this Invention I propose to place two charges of powder and ball in each chamber and discharge each separately by the following means, that is to say:— Around the outside of the revolving chamber piece and in a sloping direction I drill two holes, one extending to the closed end of its respective chamber and entering the top thereof, and the other hole I drill in an opposite sloping direction, the hole entering the chamber at top and about midway of the length of said chamber, In connection with these holes are two nipples, or it may be a compound nipple, the holes in which should come opposite to the sloping holes in the chamber piece. The hammer of the lock of the fire-arm should be so formed as to come over the two nipples of each chamber as the chamber piece is moved round, as commonly practised. I propose to use percussion caps of different thicknesses of metal, that is to say, on each of the nipples farthest from the hammer I place a cap of thicker metal, and by preference different size to the cap which I place on the other nipple, the intention being to cause the hammer to strike the outermost nipple first by reason of the metal of which the cap is made being thicker than the cap on the other nipple, so that supposing each chamber to contain two charges, the outermost charge will be discharged by the outer-most cap, and when all of said caps and their respective charges have been, discharged, and the exploded caps have fallen therefrom, the hammer will then strike the other row of thinner caps in succession and discharge the second charge from each chamber, and by these means, for example, an eight chamber revolver of the ordinary kind may be made to discharge sixteen charges without increasing the diameter of the chamber piece.