Patent: Newton for W A Shepard

Britain 3012
A.D. 1862, 7th NOVEMBER. N° 3012.

Repeating Fire-arms.

PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alfred Vincent Newton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 7th November 1862.— A communication from abroad by William Albert Shepard, of New York City, United States of America.

I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for “IMPROVEMENTS IN REPEATING FIRE-ARMS,” to be as follows:—

These improvements in repeating fire-arms relate to a modification of certain of the working parts. The hammer and the trigger I operate by a combination of the main spring and the sere spring which are united at the ends that are fastened to the stock. The main spring works on the hammer by means of a swivel and causes the blow of the hammer. The hammer is thrown back by the sere spring acting on the trigger and thence through an arm of a forked lever. The rotating cylinder containing the cartridges is made to revolve by means of a flexible arm of the forked lever. This flexible arm works into ratchet teeth cut on the rear end of the cylinder. In its return motion it is free to slide over the teeth, and when in action it pushes round the cylinder so as to bring the next cartridge before the hammer. A small arm attached is to and projects forward from the hammer, and at every blow of the hammer is forced into one of a series of holes in the rear end of the cylinder for the purpose of holding the cylinder firm during the discharge. Fixed ammunition is used in the fire-arm, and the blow of the point of the hammer or of a pin held by a spring discharges in succession the metallic cartridge, whether of pistol, rifle, or carbine.