1804 airgun advertisement

[DT Fletcher]

Been reading the old newspapers again and came across this bit, in the back of the paper where the ads are, of course. It's in Kaiserlich privilegirter Reichs-Anzeiger, Monday, April 30, 1804, page 8 https://api.digitale-sammlungen.de/i...canvas/p8/view

Don't really have the time at the moment to translate it, getting these fraktur texts transcribed is just too time consuming but if somebody else transcribes it I will, but... in any case, it's an advert by August Stormer -büchsenmacher- Herzburg, Germany (Mentioned in Hoff, can't find anything else at the moment) and he's advertising both air rifles and pistols. He gives the effective range, 100 feet, and other performance info, and prices! Pretty clearly he is advertising a Girandoni type, which is what Hoff also mentions.

This is the earliest advertisement for selling any sort of Windbüchsen that I can recall.

[Unframed Dave]

Link comes up with a blank page for me.

Dave

[DT Fletcher]

Link comes up with a blank page for me.

Dave

fixed https://api.digitale-sammlungen.de/i...canvas/p8/view

[ccdjg]

That is a great find, and makes me wonder what the earliest known airgun advert was before your discovery?

I had a quick go at translating the first part of the text and came up with this:

Air pistol, air rifles and walking stick guns

Concerning the unanswered question in R.A. No.55 1803 about air pistols I can give the following information.
I manufacture not only air pistols but also air rifles and walking stick guns . The air pistols are 20 inches long and shoot with a minimum of 50 and maximum of 100 pump strokes. With a full flask one can fire eight shots in one minute because the loading takes only a second. The bullets weigh half a loth (16 grams) . Each pair of pistols comes with two flasks, a pump and a bullet mould. There is also a proper instruction for use of same. The price is 10 to 16 Lber.

What particularly intrigues me is the reference to “walking stick guns” rather than “walking stick air guns”, so does he mean black powder walking stick firearms or air canes ? On further reading I was pretty sure though that his products are air canes as in the last section he seems to say (as far as I can make out) “The piston (pump?) for the flask (air chamber?) is carried in the case”.

As you have noted on the AVG forum (https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/amer...ade-t8562.html) English air canes were surprisingly around as early as 1803, and so it seems also was the case in Germany. The fact that Stormer does not make a great play about the novelty of his air canes suggests that such things were quite well known at the time, so I wonder when they were first introduced? Intriguing stuff!

[draitzer]

Dean, thank you for a remarkable discovery.

John, I think Störmer says that the pistols are used at a range of 50 paces [schritte = steps] with the "lower sight", and with the upper sight at 100. For the rifles, I read it as 4 shots at 300 paces then the remaining shots [of 20 - 24 from a full flask] at 200 down to 100 paces, all capable of penetrating a 1 inch thick board. He also notes a convenient barrel insert for darts is furnished with each rifle.

The air-canes are four feet total length, with the flask to be carried in a case/pouch and the barrel portion looking like a normal cane carried in the hand, with covers on bottom and top. Makes ya think of the Wastl "cane gun" [Smith, p.46] which is a typical Austrian action with removable barrel having a knob to appear as a cane.

Very interesting is the money-back warranty if the guns don't perform as claimed!

Don R.

[ccdjg]

Dean, thank you for a remarkable discovery.

John, I think Störmer says that the pistols are used at a range of 50 paces [schritte = steps] with the "lower sight", and with the upper sight at 100. For the rifles, I read it as 4 shots at 300 paces then the remaining shots [of 20 - 24 from a full flask] at 200 down to 100 paces, all capable of penetrating a 1 inch thick board. He also notes a convenient barrel insert for darts is furnished with each rifle.

The air-canes are four feet total length, with the flask to be carried in a case/pouch and the barrel portion looking like a normal cane carried in the hand, with covers on bottom and top. Makes ya think of the Wastl "cane gun" [Smith, p.46] which is a typical Austrian action with removable barrel having a knob to appear as a cane.

Very interesting is the money-back warranty if the guns don't perform as claimed!

Don R.

Many thanks for putting me straight on that Don - it makes much more sense now, translating Schritte as "steps" or "paces" rather than "strokes". I couldn't make any sense of the bit about the "four bullets" and the performance of the rifles using my interpretation of Schritte but now all is clear. Funny how one word can completley throw you.
Incidentally, do you know what "Bagel" means when he he states what the canes shoot?

Your expertise in old German puts my high school German to shame!¬