J, Ml, BROWNING. SIACHINE FOR FILLING FEED BELTS FOR MACHINE GUNS. APPLICATION F1LEO SEPT, 8, 1932. 1,327,698. Patented Jan. 13, 1920, Fig.11.10 20 25 30 35 40 50 55 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. JOHN x, BROWNING, OF OGDEN, UTAH. MACHINE FOR FILLING FEED-BELTS FOR MACHINE-GUNS. 1,827,698. Speciention of Letters Patent. Patented Jan. 13, 1920. Application filed September 9, 1919. Serial No, 322,656, To alt whom it may concern: “Be it known that I, Jons M. Browsise, 2 citizen of the United States, residing in Ogden, in the county of Weber and State of ‘Diab, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Pilling Feed-Belts for Machine-Guns, of whieh the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming # part hereof, the invention relates to machines for fil- ing cartridge feed-belts, by means of whieh the eartiidges are subsequently fed to me- chine-gunss and. it particularly relates to 5 novel improvements in feed-belt filling ma- chines of the olass for which a prior Patent, No. 660.244, was granted to me on October ot the ng drawings, Figure 1 in the accompanying drawings, Figure isa plan view of such a machine embodying Jay suprowenents Fig. 2 its frontend ele, ration of the same; Fig. 8 represents, on an enlarged seale, a portion of a fted-belt with threo cartridges insevied in adjoining pock- els, Fig. 4 is a front end view of said belt and cartridges; Fig. 5 is a front ven, on an enlarged scale, of my improved tension jateh, detached, and Fig. 6 is a side view of same: Figs. 7, 8 and 9 are respectively a rear elevation, a front elevation and a bot- tom view of the pocket opener, detached, on an enlarged seale; Fig. 10 shows, on an‘en- inrged seale, one of the multi-pointed needle- hare, detached, in 2 top view and in a front viow; Fig. 11 represents the regulator-stop, on an enlarged seale, in a top view and in & side view. ‘In general construction and operation the machine represented in Figs, 1 and 2 con- sists of a bed plate A upon which js mounted f cartridge receiver « for receiving the enr- {ridges s0 that the lowest cartridge will rest upon the bed plate helow the base of said receiver. ‘A laterally vibrating Jever F serves for moving the lowest eartridge toward the left fide and for placing sane in, front of longitudinally ‘moving slide E, which, on being reciprocated by means of a crank B nnd erank shat B* carrying a cam disk & ‘with a crank pin thereon, and a connecting Tod e, forces the enréridge forward so that the point of its bullet engages the beveled rear faces at the left ends of two vertically Vibrating opener jaws dd, which are pivot- ily motnted upen a laterally movable car- rier D, each of the jaws being provided with ‘on opening needle. In front of the carrier Dia guide platform A+ on the bed plate A is provided for receiving the empty ear. dge belt, the general construction of ‘ch is plainly shown, on an enlarged seale, in Figs. 8 and 4, and a pivoted cover plats @° serves to hold’ the belt movably upon the guide platform. ‘At the front of the bed plate a fluted wheel C is mounted upon 2 longitudinal pivot to receive a stepwise rotary movement ‘when the shaft B* is turned by means of an eecentric on said shaft and a lever 5's 0 second fluted wheel C* is mounted to freely Totato upon a Tongitndinal pivot earried. by 4 lever arm.C? pivoted on a longitudinal pivot near the left end of the front face of the bed plate A. “As shown in dotted Hines in Fig. 2 the lever arm C* may be turned upward so as to"earry the upper wheel awty from ite place above the lower fluted wheel C3 in this Position a feed belt with a cartridge in one of its pockets may be laid upon the guide platform A? in such a manner that the ear- Tridge and the pocket of the belt will ll the uppermost futing of the wheel C3 then AS SeeSanes Co isSreturned. tots lower position in which the lower fluting of the Upper wheel will ft down upon the belt, and artridge, so that a step of rotation of the Jower fluéed whee! will be communicated to tho upper wheel and serve to feed the belt and cartridge in the direction from the right side of the machine toward the left side. ‘At the forward movement of a cartridge actuated by the slide E, the bullet of said cartridge forees the opener jaws d, d, apart ‘and the point of the needle secured to each Of the said jaws cnves fo open the pocket of the feed belt, thereby insuring the insertion of the cartridge into the pocket of the belt by the slide E. Then the rotation of the tivo fluted wheels feeds the belt and the exr- ridges in the same toward the left side of tho snachine where belt and cartridges are guided downward from tho machine, ‘From the top of the lever arm C* a flat spuing extends to te rah side of the mas chine and a hooked tension latch G, pivoted at the front of the bed plato below the plat- form. A serves to hold down the free end of said spring by the tension of which the 110 ‘upper lated whl is prs upon the belt and cartridge between the wheel 60 65 0 1 50 85 80 95 100 105,All these parts and their operation. aze fully described and shown in my prior Pat- ent No, 660,244 referred to, and therefore do not requite further deseription exept in the relation to the improved novel devices. Tn the practical use of thes» machines in the field daring war time, a very great mum- ber of food belts have t6 be filled in these machines, and among these belts, some of which may be entirely new while others may have been used many times, some varintions of the belts in thickness, stiffness and width are unavoidable. For this reason, itis neces- sary that the tension latch G should be ad- justable in order to hold the belt and car- idges in proper position, and for this pur- pose I have provided the improved tension Jatch G shown in Figs. 2, 5 and 6, which has two hooked-shaped projections ‘on its left side for engaging the spring ¢ and for at vill increasing or decreasing the tension thereof according to the condition of the belt. Another danger in the practical working of these machines is that the single openin noel caried by etch of the opener Jaws dy d, will not always bo eertain to take hold of the web of the helt if said belt happens to be a nnvow one,” By my improvement the opener jaws are cach fitted with a wide needle bar having three separate and dis- tinet points, sea Figs. 7, § and 9 so that one ‘or more of the three points will be sure to engage the rear edge of the feed belt and properly open the pockets in same. Such a multi-pointed needle bar is eleatly shown in Fig. 10, detached. ‘The use of these machines in the field in war time has developed one further danger hich consists im the face that when a bolt with its empty portion is properly laid on the guide platform A’ and movably held there by the cover plate at above it, the por tion of the belt containing the single car- tridge, which has been previously inserted in one, of its pockets, may be placed cor- rectly in the top fluting of the wheel C, but may be pushed too far rearward in the ma- chine, Amisplncement Trke this will cause the cartridges to be more or less far pushed into the, pockets of the feed belt, so that the rear ends of the cartridges in the belt will not all lie in one transverse vertical plane. Such irregularity may prevent the filled belt som properly feoding nin the machine gun, and thereby cause a stoppage or irregularity in the firing of the gun at a time when such ‘ccourrence inight be fatal. ‘To overcome this difficulty T have devised the regulator-stop H which is fastened upon the upper surface of the base of the car- tridge receiver a. Fig. 11 plainly shows the construction of this regulator-stop which, consists of a flat spring the forward end 63 of which is bent downward. As shown 10 20 30 40 45 50 35 60 3,827,688, in Pia, 1, the roar end of this regulator-stop His firmly attached upon the base of the eartridge receiver a bya screw, while the forward portion. is eld in position by a dowel-pin fixed in the base and projecting upward through a slightly elongated hole in the regulator-stop, but allows its forward portion ty veld “upward under a hifting foxes applied to it. ‘The regulator-stop TT being located above the slide © and parallel to samo, its forward inclined end depends into the path of the slide, but when the side Eis moved forward 2 neidily rusts up the yielding en of the regulator-stop, which springs down again when the aide is withdrawn‘rearwardiy: ‘When a cartridge is moved laterally trom under the cartridge receiver a by the lever F, as hereinbefore described, the regulator stop Ht does not oppose this lateral move- ment but by wielding upwind to the Hiking foros exerted by the eylindtieal body of the gartridge allows the Same tobe placed in front of tho slide IE,” However, if a eats ‘twidge in a pocket of the belt is with the belt poste reatard while rests In the upper luting of the wheel C the depending front end of the regulator-stop 31 positively pre- vents the cartridge and belt from “being pushed too far rearward and thereby inswres the belt and gnrtridges therein to be placed 2 thelr proper relation” and the seas ens of all cartridges inserted into the pockets of the belt to lie in the same vertical plane. ‘What T'claim as my invention is! 1, Ina machine for filling the pockets of cartridge feed-belts, the combination of uted belt holding and feeding wheals, means to rotate said wheels stop by step, a recipio= cating lide to insert he davendaes in the pockets, and a spring stop attached above said slide to yield npward ont of the path of said slide, and to regulate the position of the belt and the cartridges therein be- tween said fluted wheels 2, In a machine for filling the pockets of feed-belts with cartridges, the combination of an opener provided with smulti-pointed bars to engage and separate the poeket-walls, means to operate stid opener, fluted belt holding and feeding wheels, aneans to stop- wise rotate said wheels, a reelprocating slide to insert the cartridges in the pooleets, and a spring stop attached above ‘said. slide. to yield upward out of the path of said slide, and to regulate the position of the belt and the cartridges therein between said fluted wheels. This specification signed and witnessed this 2nd day of Sept., A. D. 1919. JOHN M. BROWNING. In the presence of — ‘Vat. A. Brownie, RM, Mansi. 10 18 80 03 100 no us au