US 24726
UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.
WILLARD C. ELLIS AND JOHN N. WHITE, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACEUSETTS.
IMPROVEMENT IN REVOLVING FIRE-ARMS.
Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 24,726, dated July 12, 1859.
To all whom it may concern:
Be it known that we, Willard C, Ellis and John N. White, of Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Construction of Fire-Arms; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full and exact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings and to the letters of reference marked thereon.
The nature of our invention consists in so constructing the cylinder that the cartridge may be placed in the front end instead of the rear, end as is now the invariable method, and so constructing the cartridge as to admit of this operation. The cartridge-shell is made, as seen in Figure 1, of the length of the chambers of the cylinder. At the forward end is a flange, A, at right angles with the barrel. At the rear end is a flange, B, parallel with the barrel and projecting backward.
The first, A, is simply to give a hold for removing the exploded shell. The other, B, contains the fulminate, and is designed to rest on the projection from the bottom of the cylinder chambers seen in C, Fig. 2.
Figure 3, section of the cartridge; Fig. 4, a sectional view of the cylinder.
The object at which we aim is to obviate the necessity of disengaging the cylinder for reloading, after one round of discharges. By this arrangement the shells are removed from the front end of the cylinder and replaced in less time than the exchange of cylinders could be made, to say nothing of the inconvenience of carrying a store of cylinders.
It may seem at first that the two points of the claim cannot be both contained in one specification, but let it be remembered that each makes the other necessary, and each would be worthless without the other, while in combination the improvement and value are at once apparent.
What we claim as our invention, and desire to secure by Letter’s Patent, is—
1. The projection C, at the bottom of the chambers of the cylinders on which the fulminate of the cartridge rests and is struck by the hammer. in the discharge.
2. The flange B of the cartridge, parallel with the barrel, the two in combination, for the purpose herein specified.
WILLARD C. ELLIS.
JOHN N. WHITE.
Witnesses:
B. Hosford,
N. A. Leonard.