Ford Motor Company Limited

Hugh B Thompson

William J Washburn

Clifford E LaFever

Clifford E La Fever

A two-barreled machine gun has two fixed firing chambers, a conveyor, and a feed system mounted within a housing. The feed system transfers ammunition from the conveyor to the firing chamber. The feed system includes a sprocket barrel pivotably mounted about its central longitudinal axis. The sprocket barrel has two receptacle slots and two discharge slots circumferentially spaced thereabout. The sprocket barrel is rotatable between a first and second position. The receptacle slots each have a first position aligned with the conveyor to receive a round of ammunition and a second position aligned with a respective firing chamber. One receptacle slot is in its first position when the other is in its second position. The discharge slots also have a first position aligned with the firing chambers and a second position aligned with an outlet in the housing. One discharge slot is in its first position when the other is in its second position. An ejector cam is also rotatably mounted along an axis aligned with the axis of rotation of the sprocket. The ejector cam is fitted within a central hollow of the sprocket barrel. A drive gear connected to the sprocket barrel oscillates the sprocket barrel between its first and second positions and a second drive gear oscillates the ejector cam so that it laterally passes through the first and second discharge slots when in their respective second positions. The ejector cam ejects any cartridges from the discharge slot as it passes therethrough.

Reciprocating feed system

A termination accumulator for a machine gun has a handling conveyor passing through a supply channel, a bypass channel, and a return channel. The supply channel leads to a feed system of a machine gun. The bypass channel has its other end connected to a return conveyor leading from the feed system. A gate is mounted at the junction of the bypass channel and supply channel operably between two positions, one position directs ammunition on the handling conveyor onto a supply conveyor leading to the feed system and a second position directs ammunition on the handling conveyor through the bypass channel. Upon release of a trigger mechanism operably connected to the gun, the gate moves from its first position to a second position such that the feed system continues its forward operation to clear itself of any live ammunition therein. The handling conveyor maintains a forward mode directing ammunition in to the bypass channel. A reversing mechanism reverses the handling conveyor to retrieve live ammunition from the bypass channel after the feed system is cleared of all live ammunition such that the live ammunition accumulated in the termination accumulator can be then fed to the feed system during the next operation of the machine gun.

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Santa Ana, CA, United States of America

Hugh B Thompson