Harmonica Gun
.jpg)
.jpg)
Harmonica or Slide guns are breech-loading -Handfeuerwaffen 19th century. The name comes from the harmonica-shaped locking component that fulfills several functions: locking , chamber and magazine .
technology
The harmonica weapons are multi-loaders - percussion weapons, pin firearms ( Lefaucheux system) , or those for center fire cartridges . They have a steel cartridge frame that contains several chambers with primers or cartridges. Similar to the drum of a revolver , this represents cartridge supply and chamber in one. After a shot has been fired, the hammer of the percussion weapons must be cocked and the cartridge frame must be moved manually to bring the next chamber in front of the barrel. Then the weapon is ready to fire again. The cartridge weapons have a double-action system (cocking trigger), i. H. the further transport of the chambers, the cocking of the hammer and the firing of the shot are all carried out by pulling the trigger. There were harmonica weapons with horizontally and vertically arranged cartridge frames. For obvious reasons, the system has not caught on. On the one hand, weapons with a horizontally arranged cartridge frame have an unfavorable center of gravity, which changes with each shot, and on the other hand they are very bulky with the cartridge frame inserted and cannot be carried in a holster. In the case of weapons with a vertical cartridge frame, precise aiming is impossible because the slide covers the line of sight. Nonetheless, the principle has been taken up again and again for almost a century and further developed constructively.
species
In addition to the pistols, there were also rifles, some as an underhammer version.
Manufacturer
Harmonica weapons were made in the United States of America as well as Europe. The best-known manufacturer in the USA was Jonathan Browning, the father of John Moses Browning . From 1834 he produced harmonica guns in Quincy , Illinois, in addition to the more conventional revolver guns . In Europe, u. a. by HJ Colleye, who worked in Liege / Belgium from 1845 to 1858, built percussion harmonica weapons. The best-known manufacturer of harmonica weapons in Europe is probably J. Jarre in Paris, who manufactured harmonica pistols and rifles for pen fire cartridges in the 1860s and 70s. They were available with chambers for three to ten cartridges, mostly in the 7mm Lefaucheux caliber. In 1906 August Schuler in Suhl / Germany patented the so-called reform pistol and offered it for sale from 1913. A four-shot harmonica pocket pistol with a vertical slide in caliber 6.35 mm Browning (= .25 ACP). The special feature of this weapon is the automatic ejection of the first three cases by the gas pressure of the subsequently fired cartridges.
Web links
- Ingrham's Underhammer Harmonica Rifle. The Underhammer Society, accessed April 5, 2014 .