US 361101
UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.
DANIEL B. WESSON, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.
BARREL-CATCH AND CYLINDER-RETAINING DEVICE FOR REVOLVERS.
SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 361,101, dated April 12, 1887.
Application filed January 17, 1887. Serial No. 221,524. (No model.)
To all whom it may concern:
Be it known that I, DANIEL B. WESSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Barrel-Catch and Cylinder Retaining Devices for Revolvers, of which the following is a specification.
This invention relates to revolving fire-arms, and pertains to improvements in the barrel-catch devices thereof, and in means for retaining the cylinder on the pin or sleeve on which it rotates; and the invention consists in the peculiar construction and arrangement of the parts of the above-referred-to devices, all as hereinafter fully described, and pointed out in the claims.
In the drawings forming part of this specification, Figure 1 is a plan view, somewhat enlarged, of the top of a revolving fire-arm, showing portions of the barrel and frame thereof, having applied thereto barrel-catch and cylinder-retaining mechanism embodying my improvements, the cover of the chamber in which the barrel-catch devices are located being removed to more clearly show those parts, the catch-post in said figure being shown in cross section. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of a part of the frame of the arm at and in the rear of the recoil-plate, and showing also a longitudinal section of the barrel-strap, portions of the mechanism contained in the chamber thereof in side elevation, and indicating the cylinder of the arm in dotted lines. Figs. 3 and 4 are transverse sections of the barrel-strap on a line with the face of the recoil-plate of the arm, each showing catch and cylinder-retaining devices in different operative positions. Fig. 5 is a plan view of the cover of the said chamber in the barrel-strap.
In the drawings, 4 indicates that part of the frame of the fire-arm to which the barrel 5 is hinged, in the usual manner, whereby the arm is opened and closed to insert and remove the cylinder thereof, said barrel having the usual rearwardly-projecting strap, 6,on its rear end, which extends over the cylinder of the arm, the rear end of which strap is provided with a perforation through it to receive the upwardly-projecting catch-post 7 on the top of the frame 4, directly over the upper edge of the recoil-plate 13 of the arm, said post being adapted to project somewhat above the upper side of the strap 6, as shown in Fig. 2, and in the extreme end of said post is formed the usual rear-sight notch. One edge of said catch-post has therein a notch, 14, to receive a part of a catch-bolt, as hereinafter described. The said strap-extension 6 on the end of the barrel 5 has its outer side chambered and its edges opposite said chamber slotted, to provide for the reception in said strap of the catch-bolt 8. The form, in plan view, of said bolt 8 is shown in Fig. 1, and its rear edge, or that adjoining the recoil-plate 13, is shown in Figs. 3 and 4, said edge view disclosing the end of a groove, x, in the under side of the said catch-bolt and the end of the cylinder-catch 16 under said bolt. The main portion of said catceh-bolt is of such form as adapts it to be placed in the position shown in Fig. 1 in the strap 6, in which it is capable of an endwise movement— that is to say, through said slots in the edges thereof and across one end of said chamber, the ends of the bolt projecting beyond the edges of the strap. The rear edge of said bolt has a projection, a, thereon in a plane with the sides thereof, and near one end, whose inner edge is formed at an incline, as shown. The edge of the bolt 8 adjoining said catch-post is on a line with one side of the perforation in the strap 6, through which said post passes.
The catch-bolt 8 has a slot, c, in one edge,in which the end of a spring, 10, engages, the latter extending from a head, 12, which is secured in the end of said chamber in strap 6, whereby the spring is fixed to the latter.
From the above description it is seen that the arm or projection a on the catch-bolt 8 extends opposite the edge of the catch-post 7,in which is the notch 14. The said inclined edge of said arm a conforms substantially to the shape of said notch, and when the end of the strap 6 is brought into engagement with the post 7 the inclined edge of said arm a engages with said notch and is so held by the spring 10.
The aforesaid cylinder-catch 16 consists of a flat spring having a slight longitudinal curve, as shown in Fig. 2, whereby its outer end inclines to spring upward or away from the bottom of said chamber in the strap 6. The said cylinder-catch has a hook on its outer end, as shown, of sufficient length to reach through the bottom of the chamber in said strap, as shown in Fig. 3,and to project slightly over the rear end of the cylinder of the arm when the latter is closed and the catch-bolt is in the position shown in Fie. 8. The cylinder-catch 16 is held between the head 12 of the spring 10 and the bottom of the chamber in the strap 6. Fig. 2 shows the relative arrangement of said two parts in the chamber, and e in said figure indicates one of the said slots in the edges of the strap 6 through which the bolt 8 passes, the latter not being shown in Fig. 2. The dotted outline of the cylinder of the arm in said Fig. 2 indicates the position of its rear end relative to the said hook on the end of the cylinder-retainer 16. The aforesaid groove win the under side of the catch-bolt 8 extends in a line substantially with the said cylinder-catch, but to one side of the latter, when the said bolt occupies its normal position, as in Fig. 3, where it is shown that the hooked end of the cylinder-catch is compressed and its hook made to project through the underside of the strap 6; but when the catch-bolt is pushed endwise against the action of the spring 10 to the position shown in Fig. 4 the said groove a is brought over the catch 16, and the hooked end of the latter is – thereby permitted to spring upward, as shown in Fig. 4, thereby removing its hook from opposite the end of the cylinder. The cover 15 of the said chamber in the strap 6 is placed therein when the strap is disengaged from the post 7,and moved endwise to engage the edge projections thereon in grooves (see Fig. 2) in the border of said chamber. Said cover serves to hold the said working parts in the chamber and to protect them from dust and dirt.
In operating my improved barrel-catch mechanism to open the arm to load it, or for any other purpose, one presses against the narrow end of the catch-bolt, thereby moving it transversely in strap 6 and carrying its arm a away from or out of engagement with the said notch 14 in the post 7, and by holding the bolt in said position the arm may be opened, thereby swinging the end of strap 6 away from post and exposing the rear end of the cylinder of the arm, and when the latter is closed the catch-bolt slides automatically by the contact of the edge of arm a with the side of post 7, and in the opposite direction by the spring 10, to re-engage with the notch in said post. The cylinder catch or retainer 16 serves to retain the cylinder on the cylinder-post of the arm when the latter is opened to extract the shells or to load the cylinder, the hook of said retainer being always in engagement with the rear end of the cylinder, except when the catch-bolt 8 is moved to the position shown in Fig. 4. The said cylinder-retainer is useful whether the cylinder be provided with the well-known screw connection between it and the cylinder pin or post or not. If said screw-connection exists, the said retainer prevents the cylinder from being inadvertently unscrewed, and if there is no screw-connection the retainer serves to keep the cylinder on its pin.
What I claim as my invention is—
1. Barrel-catch mechanism for fire-arms, consisting of the combination, with a catch-post on the frame of the arm, of a strap extending rearwardly from the end of the barrel, having a perforation through it near its end to receive said post, and a chamber therein, substantially as described, a catch-bolt capable of a transverse movement in said strap, having an arm thereon to engage with a notch in said post, and a spring engaging with said bolt, substantially as set forth.
2. Means for retaining the cylinder of a revolving fire-arm on its pin, consisting of a longitudinally-curved spring fixed by one end in the barrel-strap 6, having a hook on its free end capable of engagement with the rear end of the cylinder of the arm, combined with a spring-actuated bolt having a transverse movement in said strap over said curved spring and an engagement with the free end thereof, whereby its hook is brought to a position of engagement with the cylinder of the arm, substantially as set forth.
DANIEL B. WESSON.
Witnesses:
W. F. RICE,
H. A. CHAPIN.