Transactions section preprint of corresponding pages from the current Annual AIEE transactions volume: All-electric gun charging

GUN-CHARGING DEVICES are used to actuate the mechanism of automatic machine guns and cannon. This is required initially in order to prepare the weapon for automatic operation, or when misfire, misfeed, or any such malfunction renders the gun inoperative. It should be noted that automatic guns depend upon the force of recoil, gas pressure generated by the exploding cartridge, or both, to perform the task of extracting and ejecting the spent cartridge and delivering a live round into the chamber. The operation of charging consists of retracting the breech block for a stroke of from seven to ten inches, depending upon the caliber of gun, and then releasing it to return unimpeded to battery^∗ under the force of the block-driving spring. Extraction, ejection, feeding, and cocking occur by means of cams, pawls, and levers actuated by movement of the breech block as in normal firing.