Historical Document · 1854
The 14 February 1854 patent stamped on every Volcanic barrel: the toggle-link lever action and carrier, drawn for a copper-cased Flobert-type cartridge with a case extractor rather than the Volcanic ball the guns actually fired.
H. SMITH & D. B. WESSON. 2 Sheets-Sheet 1. MAGAZINE FIREARM, No. 10,535. Patented Feb. l4, 1854, H. SMITH & D. B. WESSON No. 10,535, 2. Sheets Sheet 2. MAGAZINE FIREARM, Patented Feb. 4, 1854. 2/5% He noirs PETERS co, PHoTo-Litho, wash;NGTON, d. c. UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. H. SMITH AND DANIEL B. WESSON, OF NORWICH, CONNECTICUT. IMPROVEMENT IN FIRE-ARMS. Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 10,535, dated February 14, 1854. tle latter to be supplied with cartridges when To all whom it may concern: Be it known that we, HORACE SMITH and ever necessary. The slot d of the spling-cham DANIEL B. WEssoN, of Norwich, in the county bel is turned at its upper end a short listance of New London and State of Connecticut, have at right, augles to its main part. Thence it is invented certain new and useful Improvements turned down a short distance parallel to such in Guns, IPistols, or Fire-Arms; and we do main part, the whole being as represent din Fig. hereby declare that the same is fully described 5, and for the purpose of confining the spring and represented in the following specification within the chamber in a contracted state. By and the accompanying drawings, letters, fig applying the finger to the head of the screw tures, and references thereof. b and pushing the slider K toward the spring Of the said drawings, Figure 1 denotes a I, We can crowd the spring entirely into the top view, Fig. 2 a side view, and Fig. 3 a ver. chamber L, and so as to carry the screw b to tical and central section, of one of our improved the upper part of the slot (d. When this is the fire-arms or pistols. Fig. 4 is a side view of case, if we press the screw laterally into the the kind of cartridge to be used therein, it bent part of the groove, the spring may be being the same as is used in that species of preserved in place in the chamber while such pistols usually termed the “Saloon pistol,’ it chamber is turned out of line with the maga being, as we believe, a French invention. This Zilne-tube. cartridge has its case of thin copper, and with The piston-slide H is operated or moved a projecting bottom that contains the percus back and forth by toggle-joints NO, that are - siom-powder, the ball being inserted in the worked by the trigger-guard G, the position other end or top of the case. of the several parts of the fire-arm, whein the In the drawings above referred to, A denotes lower arm of the trigger-guard is moved en tle barrel of the piece, and B the stock or iock tirely forward or away from the stock, being case. Underneath the barrel is a long tube, represented in Fig. 6, which exhibits a longi C, that serves as a magazine for carrying the tudinal Section of the pistol under such cir cartridges. This magazine and the barrel cumstances. The toggles are jointed to the have at their rear ends a carrier or slide-block, slide Hand the lock or stock frame. They are D, whose office is to receive a cartridge from moved up and down by an arm, k, projecting the magazine and transfer it or raise it up into upward from the trigger-guard, and provided line with the barrel. For this purpose the with one or more studs to enter and slide in a said carrier is caused to slide up and down slot, i, formed through or affixed to the back within a chamber, E, and to be moved by a toggle. lever, F, that plays or turns on a fulcrum, a, When the toggles are brought into a straight with the trigger-guard G, which is also a lever, line with each other, the piston-slide His moved and made to turn on the same pin a. A pis hard up against the rear end of the cartridge, ton-slide, H, is also employed to force the car and serves as a breech to the barrel. tridge out of the carrier (when the latter is Fig. 9 denotes a top view of the piston raised to its highest position) and into the slide H. Fig. 10 is a horizontal and central barrel. The cartridges are placed one after section of it. The front end of the said slide the other in the magazine, and are pressed is formed with dovetail projections or a re toward the carrier by means of a helical spring, cess, ot', which flares or is made wider as it I, that bears against a cylindric slider, K, from descends, as seen at ' '. This dovetail or re. which a screw-pin, b, projects and extends into cess is for the purpose of withdrawing from and through a long slot, c, that is made length the barrel, after a discharge, the metal of the wise in the magazine, and opens into another cartridge. The forward pressure of the pis and short slot, d, that is cut through a spring ton-slide and the blow of the hammer against chamber or tube, L, which is so applied to the it force the metal of the cartridge into the barrel by means of a clasping-tube, M, as to recess or dovetail of the piston-slide, and so be capable of being turned laterally entirely as to cause it (the slide) to grasp it (the car out of line with the magazine, so as to permit tridge) with sufficient power to enable it to be 2 . 10,535 drawn out of the barrel when the piston-slide ployment of a piston-slide, H, as a breech to tridge from the barrel and over the carrier, of percussion, nor do we claim the improve projections act” (see Figs. 1, 3, and 6) on the ment of making or applying the pecussion so as to strike on the rear end of such carrier are forced in contact with it (the car lhammer tridge) by and during the next upward move piston-slide, (instead of directly against the ment of the carrier, and expel it from the piece cartridge or its priming,) and so that the or fire-ai'in. priming at the front end of the slide shall be The cock or percussion-hammer is arranged eXploded by concussion produced by the per in rear of the piston and breech-slide H, and cussion or blow of the hammer on the other turns on a pink', and is made to strike directly end of it, as hereinbefore specified; but against the rear end of the slide H, and to in We do claim flame the priming by the concussion produced 1. The arrangement and application of the by its percussion or blow on such end. The percussion-hammer, with respect to the breech trigger is sliown at P and the mainspring slide H and the trigger-guard lever, so that at Q. This cock or percussion-hammer is also the hammer may be moved and set to full-cock so arranged that it shall be elevated or set by the pressure or back action of the slide in to full-cock by the back-pressure on it of duced by the action of the trigger-guard lever, the slide H, induced by the toggles and the as specified. trigger-guard, when the latter is moved away. 2. We also claim the improvement of making from the stock. Thus the trigger-guard, when the front end of the piston-slide with a dove so moved, is made to simultaneously cause the tailed recess, a, or its equivalent, for the pur hammer to be cocked, the piston-slide to be pose of enabling the slide to seize the metal forced back, and the carrier to be elevated. of the cartridge, as above explained, and so The carrier-lever is elevated by the lower that the refuse metal or cartridge may be with arm of the trigger-guard lever, and depressed drawn from the barrel by the piston-slide when by the upper arm thereof, the said carrier-lever next retracted, and discharged by the upward being so shaped, as seen in Figs. 7 and 8, movement of the carrier, all substantially as (which are side and top views of it,) and ap specified. plied to the trigger-guard lever as to enable In testimony whereof we have hereto set our. signatures this 24th day of May, A. D. 1853. the latter to actuate it. We do not claim the employment of a car EORACE SMITH. lier or slide for transferring the cartridge from DANIEL B. WESSON the magazine to the barrel, nor the employ . ment in combination there with of a piston or Witnesses: slide to force the cartridge out of the carrier H. H. STARK WEATHER, E. S. CRUTTENDEN. and into the barrel; nor do we claim the em is next retracted. Having withdrawn the car the barrel, nor the firing by concussion instead -- r