1870 03 16 Hammond (De Dartein and De Dartein) Britain 778
A.D 1870, 16th March. № 778.
Revolving Fire-arms.
LETTERS PATENT to Henry Woodcroft Hammond, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer, for the Invention of “Improvement in Revolving Fire-arms. “— A. communication from abroad by Charles Felix de Dartein and Jules Edward Dartein, of Strasbourg, Empire of France.
Scaled the 10th September 1870, and dated the 16th March 1870.
(Void by reason of the Patentee having neglected to file a Specification in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Woodcroft Hammond at the 06lce of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th March 1870.
I, Henry Woodcroft Hammond, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for “Improvement in Revolving Fire-arms,” (a communication to me from abroad by Charles Felix de Dartein and Jules Edward Dartein, of Strasbourg, Empire of France), to be as follows:—
This Invention, which may be applied to any kind of fire-arm belongs to the repeater class, and amongst those to the revolver species in particular.
It consists chiefly of a novel mode of actuating and stopping the revolving barrel or cylinder.
The revolving barrel or cylinder is set in motion or stopped by means of portions of helices, which I call winglets or lugs, in number as many as there are bores in the revolving barrel or cylinder. These lugs are arranged symmetrically on the exterior periphery of the revolving barrel or cylinder, and a bolt slides betwixt them which never can escape or miss them, and has an inclined groove across it, the incline being parallel with the helical lugs. The bolt also has a spring click or pawl; this click folds down so as to pass under the lugs whilst the bolt is moving from back to front, and then immediately stands up again, being acted upon by its spring so as to take hold of and carry along the following lug as the bolt moves from front to back. By cocking the revolver the bolt is drawn from front to back; the click shares this motion, and, as has been stated, the latter catches the lug No. 1, for instance, and causes it to pass to the opposite side of the bolt, thus imparting to the revolving cylinder a rotary motion whose magnitude is so calculated that the axis of the bore or chamber No. 1 shall coincide with that of the main bore. The bolt, which forms a portion of an implement acting as a hammer, is then held back by a tumbler or lever which tumbles into a notch provided thereon. The pressure of the finger upon a special trigger placed slightly back of the bolt releases the latter, which being forced forward by a spring regains the let-down position, firing also the cartridge in chamber No. 1. Whilst sliding from back to front the click has had to pass under the lug No. 2, which forced it to incline, but after passing the lug the click will rise again under the action of the spring pressing against its tail. It is then ready to catch the lug No. 2 the same as it did No. 1 as soon as the person draws the bolt back again in order to prepare for firing the second cartridge, and so on for every following cartridge. The chambers are loaded from back to front or from front to back, according to the system of cartridge used.