Improvements in Apparatus for Automatically Working and Firing Guns.

摘要

13,194. Theofanidis, J., and Pallis, A. June 6. Machine guns; loading-appliances.-Relates to guns of the type in which the energy of recoil is stored up in a fly-wheel and utilized to operate the breech mechanism, extractor, loading-apparatus, and firing-means. In the present arrangement, the breech mechanism and ejector are operated in a known manner ; the barrel 1, Figs. 1 and 4, carries a rack 3 gearing with a pinion 6, which is loose on a shaft 4 and is connected by springs 7 to ratchet-gearing 11, 13 arranged in such a manner that the shafs 4 is only rotated during the return of the gun to battery. The shaft 4 may, however, be set in motion during the recoil stroke of the barrel. The fly-wheel 5 is carried by the shaft 4. By means of spur-wheels 15, 16, the rotation of the fly-wheel shaft is transmitted to a second shaft 14, during one revolution of which all the operations are performed. The teeth are omitted from one part of the wheel 16, as shown in Fig. 3, and a spring tooth 23 is provided to prevent shock when the two wheels 15, 16 are brought into gear, to commence a revolution of the shaft 14, by means of a pivoted lever 21, Fig. 8, one arm of which engages a projection 22 on the shaft, the other arm engaging a cam 19 on the barrel. The ammunition is fed from a hopper 24, Fig. 10, by means of a star-wheel 25, to a transversely-sliding carrier 28, the star-wheel receiving a step-by-step motion from the shaft 14 by means of a helical-cam thereon engaging projections on the star-wheel shaft. The carrier 28 receives motion to bring it into line with the bore of the gun, leave it there during the ramming home of the ammunition, return it to position to receive a fresh charge, and leave it in that position until the breech is again opened. This motion is obtained by means of the engagement of a crank 31, Fig. 6, on the shaft 14 with a cam 32 on an arm 34 pivoted at 33, the arm engaging the carrier by means of a pin 35, and the carrier being guided transversely by means of pins and transverse grooves. The rammer 44 is operated by means of a second crank 36. Fig. 5, on the shaft 14 engaging a cam 37 connected by a rod 38 to the short arm 39 of a pivoted lever ; the other arm 40 of this lever is connected by a link 49 to a pin 48, which moves in a slot 50 in the gun-carriage and forms part of a sleeve 47 through which the rod 43 passes freely. The rod 43 is pivoted to the rammer at 45, and also passes freely through a second sleeve 41 pivoted at 42 to the gun-carriage. The rammer can only move parallel to the bore of the gun. The firing is performed electrically by means of a friction ring on the shaft 14, or it may be performed mechanically. The Provisional Specification states also that the fly-wheel arms may carry movable weights to regulate the speed of firing.