Joseph Lockett, of Manchester, engineer, for certain improvements in manufacturing, preparing, and engraving cylinders, rollers, or other surfaces, for printing or embossing calicoes or other fabrics.-Sealed 27th August—6 months for inrolment.

Charles Smith, of Exeter, builder, for improvements in the manufacture of lime and cements, or composition.Sealed 27th August-6 months for inrolment.

William Church, of Birmingham, civil engineer, for improvements in fastenings applicable to wearing apparel, and in apparatus for making the same and like articles; and also in the method or methods of preparing the said articles for sale.-Sealed 27th August-6 months for inrolment.

Hugh Unsworth, of Blackwood, Lancaster, bleacher, for certain improvements in machinery or apparatus for mangling, drying, damping, and finishing woven goods or fabrics. -Sealed 27th August-6 months for inrolment.

Thomas Robinson Williams, of Cheapside, gentleman' for certain improvements in measuring the velocities with which ships or other vessels, or bodies, move in fluids; and also for ascertaining the velocities of fluids in motion.Sealed 27th August-6 months for inrolment.

Benjamin Hick, junior, of Bolton-le-Moors, Lancaster, engineer, for certain improvements in regulators or governors for regulating or adjusting the speed or rotary motion of steam-engines, water wheels, and other machinery.Sealed 27th August-6 months for inrolment.

Henry Waterton, of Fulmer-place, Gerard's Cross, Buckingham, Esq., for improvements in the manufacture of sal ammoniac.-Sealed 27th August-6 months for inrolment.

THE

London

JOURNAL AND REPERTORY

OF

Arts, Sciences, and Manufactures.

CONJOINED SERIES.

No. CV.

Recent Patents.

TO WILLIAM WESTLEY RICHARDS, of Birmingham, in the county of Warwick, gun maker, for his invention of an improved primer for fire-arms.-[Sealed 2nd March, 1838.]

My invention of an improved primer for fire-arms, consists of a novel construction and arrangement of apparatus, or magazine and primer, to be attached to muskets, carbines, pistols, fowling pieces, and other fire-arms, for the purpose of depositing the priming (as copper percussion caps, &c.) on to the nipple or touch-hole of the piece; such apparatus being constructed to hold a proper quantity of copper percussion caps, or other priming, for a given number of charges, and is capable of being easily and readily brought forward over the nipple of the piece, and depressed thereon, so as to cause a cap or priming to be deposited and left

VOL. XVII.

F

upon the nipple or touch-hole,-the magazine or primer returning to its original situation, of its own accord, inmediately it is released from the hand of the person using the fire-arms. All of which will be better understood by reference to the accompanying drawings, which are representations of a portion of a carbine or musket, and pistols, with my improved magazine-primer adapted thereto; the several figures shewing the improved primer when in a state of rest, and in the various positions it is brought into when the priming of the piece is effected.

Fig. 1, Plate V., is a partial side view of a carbine or musket, with my improved primer applied thereto in one modification of construction and adaptation; fig. 2, is a longitudinal section, taken horizontally, to shew the interior of the magazine-primer; fig. 3, is a similar section, taken vertically; fig. 4, is a cross section, taken through the primer, barrel, and stock; fig. 5, is a partial representation of the barrel detached from the piece, shewing the parts by which the primer is secured in its proper place to the barrel, and protected thereby; fig. 6, is a side representation of the primer, detached from the barrel; and fig. 7, is a front end view of the same.

Figs. 8, 9, and 10, are sections of the carbine, shewing the interior of the same, with the primer, in the different positions it is brought into by the thumb of the right-hand, in the act of priming; similar letters of reference being marked upon corresponding parts in all the figures.

a, is the stock; b, the barrel; c, the breeching; d, the false breech; e, the lock-plate; f, the hammer; g, the nipple; all of which are constructed in the ordinary manner, excepting the lock-plate, which, in this instance, is adapted to receive and act in conjunction with my improved magazine-primer h, h. The primer is secured to the barrel by the shield i, i;-these parts, in this mode of

affixing it, being welded or soldered to the barrel. But the shield may be formed, independent thereof, and secured to the lock-plate or stock in any convenient manner, though I prefer attaching the shield to the barrel, as it is a stronger method of securing it, and better adapted to protect the primer from injury, by blows from a sword, &c.

The magazine of the primer is a hollow tube h, h, the sides of which project down to cover the other parts or mechanism; it is shewn in the drawings as made of brass, but it may be constructed of other metal. Into this tube the copper caps k, k, are placed, either singly by hand, through the aperture 7, which is closed, when the primer is at rest, by the shield i; or they may be introduced at the end of the primer by emptying them from a tube or larger magazine; or it may be filled in any other convenient manner. m, is the thumb-piece, by which the primer is drawn towards the nipple, and depressed upon it when in the act of priming. The exit aperture for the copper caps, &c. is at n, it being closed by the sliding shutter o, at all times, excepting when it is brought immediately over the nipple or touch-hole. The sliding shutter o, is attached to the piece p, having the tail-piece q, projecting therefrom; this piece p, slides between the sides of the primer. r, is an anti-friction roller, turning on an axle placed in the primer; s, is another roller, having its axle in the end-piece t, of the rod u.-These rollers are used to render the movements and action more easy, but they may be dispensed with, as they are not positively necessary. v, is a compressed helical spring, placed on the rod u, having its abutments against the pieces t, and w, and by its expansive force, returns the primer into its position of rest after the priming has been effected, the primer being kept up in its place by the spring, in conjunction with the inclined plane x, acting upon the roller s, as shewn in figs. 3, 8,