British Pneumatics 1750-1850 by Dean Fletcher

[DT Fletcher]

I still owe Garvin a proper introduction to this which will happen after finishing up my latest project.

The point of doing this was to get an idea of the chronlogical development of British pneumatic airguns. A topic that has received almost no research work. Which is a shame, since it is in England that the 19th century pneumatic airgun design evolved. Airgun development on the continent never seems to have evolved past the Girandoni design.

Every effort was made to include all available information on internal construction (excluding the Girandoni type since it is well covered in Baker/Currie). As can be seen, there are a number of types where no pictures of the internal works can be found. So, details on some types is pretty slim. Still, once the knowledge of Wolff's Air Gun Batteries is applied, it's easy to determine the battery type without actually seeing it. Also, if anyone has internal pictures of a type to add, please feel free to contribute.

The work is based on Wolff's "Air Gun Batteries" which demonstrates that airgun battery design is a key method of identifying the various types of airgun models. Categorizing by battery type also helps establish a chronological progression of the airguns types. This makes it pretty clear that the surround type was the earliest form of airguns in England. Then it was the multi-beam with ball reservoir. The multi-beam which has two distinct lock types and which we have no internal pictures of by the way, is the predominant type before the introduction of the Girandoni that dropped in sometime in the mid to late 1790s. Staudenmeyer then took the Girandoni design concept to a higher plane and set the direction of English airguns. The famous London air-cane design that took over all other designs by mid century is only a highly evolved version of the battery found in the Girandoni.

The history of the British Pneumatic Airgun has been all but completely neglected. Which is a shame. As can be seen, it's an important era with some of the most interesting and best airguns ever made.

Important note: no modern (post 1900) airgun design utilizes any of these old airgun batteries. The operation of the old battery types is very different from a modern airgun.

[j_potter]

please please can't someone produce a large format, full colour, comprehensive history of the airgun
up to the outbreak of the second world war? there must be a world market big enough to make it
worthwhile when you look at a lot of the niche books that are published. i want to curl up in an armchair
and turn the pages drooling over all of this!