US50711A - Improvement in incendiary shells - Google Patents

Description

W. W. HUBBELL.

' Shell.

Patented Oct. 31, 1865.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLI AM VHEELER HUBBELL, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT lN lNCENDlARY SHELLS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 50,711, dated October 31, 1865.

"-sels or works of an enemy for the purpose of "setting them on fireand forcing their evacuation; and 1 do hereby declare that the followingis a full, clear, and exact description thereof, and that the drawings hereto annexed are sections through the center of the same, showing the internalstructure of the shell and its filling, in which the improvement consists.

Figure 1 represents the shell without the filling, and Fig. 2 represents the shell with the filling.

Like letters indicate like parts in both figures.

I have heretofore, as early as1840, invented a double-chambered sh ell ol'cast-iron, the specification of which will be found in the file of my patent of January 22, 1856, No. 14,133, in the Patent Office, and-also in the Public Documents of the35th Qongress,MiscellaneousDocument of the House of Representatives, N0.

121'; and Lam aware that others since that time have proposed,'and in some cases patented, double-chambered shells.

My improvement at present consists in casting the shell with an internal wrought-iron tube orc'hamber extending in the direction of the axis of the shell or gun',and joined at both ends with the cast-iron or outer shell by cast-- ing the metal for about three or four tenths of an inch both inside and outside of both ends of the tube, or on either side of the tube, so as to form two chambers, one inside ofand surrounded by the other, the inner one cylindrical to contain the fire and suffocatin g comany purpose, either asphyxiatin g or otherwise, in explosive shells, though, such compounds having failed thus far in the navy in shells differently constructed, I have, in order to perfectand make my shell-castin g useful, invented a compound or filling adapted to accomplish the result, and keep on sea-service.

The results attained by my invention are threefold: first, an explosive destructive effect;

second, setting the enemies works on fire;.

third, throwing out sufi'ocating fumes to drive the enemy outof their bomb-proof sand forts or other works.

The letters A A designate the wrought-metal tube or cylinder. Wrought-iron about a tenth of an inch thick may be used, though any other metal that will withstand the heat of casting the iron onto it may be used; but wroughtiron I recommend as the best metal for the central or inside tube or chamber.

B is the front part of the shell, and G is its re-enforce, securing the front end of the tube.

D is the rear part of the shell, and E is its re-eul'orce, securing the back part of the tube.

F is the opening out of which the sand is removed which is in the hollow of the tube when the shell is being cast onto it and fills its hollow'G.

H is the hollow of the shell outside of the tube, and I is the hole out of-which its core of sand is removed.

The segments orre-enforces O and E, to support the tube without inserting it in the regular thickness of and weakening the shell, may be flat-based, as shown in black lines in Figs. 1 and 2, or they may be curved,as shown by the red lines Kof thedrawiugs, Fig. 1. The cores of sand both inside and outside of the tube are molded with the tube in place between them, and its ends L L project out as far as intended to cast the metal of the shell around them. The tube, as shown in the black lines in Fig.1, is a cylinder, and, as shown by the red lines in Fig. 1 and the black lines in Fig. 2, is enlarged toward the middle M M, for. the double purpose of holding the cores of saudmore firmly in casting and to allow' the tube to yield in the cooling of the casting. Rifle or elongated shells can also be cast with this wrought-iron chamber or tube, secured in the same manner and for the same purposes.

This inner tube, being of wrought-iron,is an important advantage, for, although secured in the shell by casting the iron onto it, and with a sand core both inside and outside of it, the

sand does not adhere in a scale to it, as is the case with cast-iron; and the filling, both inside and outside, although undergoing violent abrasion, owing to its inertia against the cylinder when the shell starts in the gun and flight, yet does not get overheated and create fire and premature explosion, as is the case with cast-iron, or the scale of sand which remains thereomandhas heretofore madeincenalso ignite the inner composition. The reason of this arrangement of the filling of the shell is so that the explosive power may act direct on the walls of the outer shell without its fire or gas being impaired by the inner composition and without consuming the inner composition too soon; that the explosive power and efi'ect shall drive an enemy from their guns, and the ends or segments B and D will become separated from the tube A by the fracture of the shell-casting, and release the inner composition of the tube, ignited by the fire of the exploding powder, which composition, by its igniting and sufiocating effects will drive the enemy from their boom-proof shelters;

.and thus the shell is adaptedto capture the modern boom-proof sand forts which resist shells merely explosive in efl'ect. The fuse to explode the shell must, of course, be inserted in the hole I of the gunpowder-chamber, and the hole Fof the'composition-chamber may be either plugged up with a tight screw or fitted with a longer-timed fuse than that of the hole I, to insure a double chance of ignition and explosion. The firing and suflbcating composition of the tube A is made and adjusted in the inner chamber in the following manner, referring to Fig.2 Take fat pine wood, or pitch-pine wood veryfull of pine-fat. Thisis split up into pieces about the length of the chamber and about a quarter of an inch square, roughly split and cut, so as to leave small splints for the fire to take hold of, N N. Wind around each of them a strand'of quick-match, made in the usual manner of cotton yarn and meal-powder, leavingsmall spaces between the strands. Dip each one in melted sulphur, so that the sulphur shall adhere to both the quick-match and wood P 1?. Put as many of these splints N N thus prepared into the inner chamber powder, Q, in the middle. Then prepare and pour into and among the prepared splints a. mixture of sixteenparts of sulphur, six parts of charcoal, and seventy parts of niter- O O, Y

well mixed, and afterward moisten them with alcohol, and press a punch or round-pointed stick into the aperture F down to form the chamber Q, and press thecomposition solid. Set the shell in a warm place to dry, and when thoroughly dry fill the central chamber, Q, with gunpowder, and close the opening F with a plug or fuse, as described. The explosion of the shell will fracture the connection between the inner and outer chambers and ignite the gunpowder .-in the chamber Q, which ignites the meal-powder of sulphur, niter, and charcoal, and ignites the quick-match, which fires and consumes the sulphur, with the fat I pine wood, producing a powerful fire andsuffocating fumes of sulphur. By inserting these splintsin strips and sealing orcementi'ng them, as specified, any violent abrasion is avoided when the shell starts in the gun, as each piece bears on its own end against the rear part of v the inner chamber.

The fat pine may be dispensed with and quick-match dipped in melted sulphur be used to fill the chamber when'the fumes of the sulphunmore than the fire are desired, as has become necessary in bombarding bomb-proof sand forts. White pine saturated with petroleum may, if necessary, be substituted for fat pine.

What I claim is- I 1-. Casting the cast-iron of the shell onto a wrought-iron tube to form an-inner and outer chamber separable when the explosion occurs, as and for the purpose described.

2. The composition or filling of wood, quickmatch,sulphur,- and meal or gunpowder inthe innerchamberofwrought iron,constructedand applied as described.

3. The firing-chamber of gunpowder 9, sur-. rounded by the burning composition for ignition as described. v

4. The quick-match and sulphur prepared and used in the inner chamber, or in any equivalent manner, in the explosive shell, within a wrought-iron chain'ber as described.

5. The combination of the exploding or gunpowder chamber H H with or around the firing-chamber of wrought-iron, constructed and secured as described, so as to combine the explosive destructive efl'ect with the firing or suf-' focating effect in a' practical manner, as set forth.

WM. WHEELER HUBBE-LL.

Witnesses:

GILBERT B. TowLEs, A. THo. SMITH.

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