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"The guide-grooves X' in the slot X are extended at their rear, as at x', figs. 1 and 4, to run out of said slot, whereby the extractor may be removed in the absence of the hinged carrier and its bolt W. When the latter are in position, however, the extractor-lugs are confined thereby to the straight or guiding part of said grooves, and the extractor cannot leave its place in the slot.

"The cheeks Z embracing the arm E of the extractor, also serve as stops to the carrier in its open position. They may obviously be formed of metal solid with the gun, as may also the hinge-lugs Z', and the hinge-plate Z may be dispensed with, especially in large guns, they being differently proportioned. The object is to here show the mechanism as it might be applied to a small gun already built."

Seventeen claims are made by the applicant with reference to this extractor, the first one of which is the most general in its terms and is in the following language:

"The combination of a breech-loading gun having a suitably-shaped slot cut through its wall with a cartridgecase extractor mounted in said slot and adapted to make continuous rolling contact with the front of said slot, whereby a continuously-shifting pivot is secured and means for pressing forward against the outer portion of said extractor, substantially as described."

In 12 of the claims the combination described includes by specific language a curved front face of the slot in which the extractor is mounted, and in 3 of the claims. one of the combinations is a removable part of the breechclosing mechanism adapted to normally block the openings into the guide-grooves as described.

The extractor embraced in patent No. 625,326 may be understood from figs. 11, 12, 15, 17, 18, and 19 of the drawings filed with the application, and are as follows:

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Figures 11 and 12 represent a section of the breech of the gun, the breechblock being in the open position in figure 11, while in figure 12 the block is removed from the gun. In these two figures A represents the body of the gun, while A represents its rear termination, it being rounded outward and downward so as to admit the free passage of the projectile into the bore from the rear when the breechblock is in the open position, as shown in figure 11. K is the breechblock, which is shown in detail in figure 15. This block is made to move upward and downward in a chamber immediately to the rear of the shell when in place by means of a lever M, the end of which M2 engages the upper wall of the chamber K' in the breechblock. The shell is inserted when the breechblock is in the position shown in figure 11, and the block is then raised, or rises automatically, until the firing-pin hole k' is even with the center of the shell. The description and operation of the extractor is thus described in the specification:

"The extractors R consist of the vertical plates R', bent at right angles at R2 and terminating in the engaging rib R3, which are curved, as at r, to engage in front of the rim z of the cartridge-case Z, while the backs of these ribs R3 are rounded somewhat, as at r', to form a pivot for the extractor during the operation of starting the cartridgecase to the rear after the gun has been fired. The lower portion of the extractor is provided with two oppositelydisposed lugs R and R5, which project into the curved recess A in the wall of the breechblock chamber and the groove K in the side of the breechblock, respectively. The lug R is flattened, as at R', on the side opposite to the rib R3 to lock the breechblock in the open position, as will be hereinafter described. The lug R5 travels in the cam-groove K5 in the side of the breechblock, which camgroove has the operating portion ko, adapted to move the heel of the extractor forward as the breech is opened and rearward as the breech is closed, and also the large portion k, open to the front, which permits the breechblock to be withdrawn from its seat without being impeded by the

lugs of the extractors. Near the upper end of this cam portion of the groove K the lower wall of this groove terminates in the flat shoulder k, adapted to engage beneath the flat surface 3 of the lug R when the extractor is in the rearward position and the breechblock is in the open position. Thus as the breechblock is moved down by the rotation of the rock-shaft M the lug R5 of the extractor is cammed forward in the groove K' of the breechblock, while the lug R' moves forward in the groove A' in the wall of the breechblock chamber. When the breechblock reaches the lower or open position, as indicated in Fig. 11, the lug R will have passed out of the groove k into the recess k, and the plane face 3 will be above and will engage the shoulder k, thus preventing the breechblock from moving upward until the extractor has been moved forward far enough to release the engagement of the plane surface 3 and the shoulder k3.

"The loading of the gun will automatically trip the extractor out of engagement with the shoulder ks, because as the cartridge-case is shoved home the rim of the cartridge-case will engage the rib R3 and will push the extractor forward from the position shown in full lines in Fig. 12 toward that shown in dotted lines in said figure, and the breechblock will then be free to be moved upward in the closed position either by hand or by the automatic attachment that will herein be described."

The older patent will be designated the Tasker patent and the later one the Driggs and Tasker patent. It is insisted by the owners of the Tasker patent that the extractor embraced in the Driggs and Tasker patent is an infringement upon the first claim of their patent. The elements of that claim are: (1) A breech-loading gun having a suitablyshaped slot cut through its wall and an extractor mounted in said slot; (2) the adaptation of that extractor to the face of said slot so as to make a continuous rolling contact with the front of said slot, whereby a continuously shifting pivot is secured; and (3) means for pressing forward against the outer portion of said extractor.

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