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In 1852 John Bentley took out a patent fora revolver which had a spring safety catch on the hammer to hold if clear of the cap imperial kutani peacocks. Iij the following year he gilded console table.transferred the patent rights to Philip Webley of Birmingham antique silver trays from denmark. On the 29th March 1853, a little over 10o years history of woods ware. ago, Webley patented his first revolver silver entray dishes. A number of different versions of this pilot model were produced in its first year furniture. They varied in such matters as the method of attaching turn tripod into table. the barrel -to the frame, 17th century clocks. and type of bullet-yammer porcelain figures of famous people. These various types were experimental, and by the end of the year four different patterns were decided on for production classic furniture ornaments technical drawing. They were all percussion muzzle-loaders with five-shot cylinders, but three had single-action and one double-action copies of antique furniture. Of the single-action revolvers, one was a pocket weapon with a 4-inch barrel of -420 calibre and a hinged frame art deco palissy dinnerware. The other two were long-barrelled heavy-calibred revolvers with a rifling of three grooves antique cylinder roll top desk china cupboad. One of these had a particularly long spur, or cocking piece, on the hammer, and was known as the ‘Longspur’ 1930 curved arms chair. It became very popular owing to the speed at which it could be fired chicken coop shelving. The double-action revolver was very similar to the Longspur, but not so well finished and without any spur to the hammer deco legs. Bentley’s safety catch was fitted to a number of these first Webley revolvers vintage three leg table base.
The next Webley model came out in 1857 18th century writing table cabriole ball claw feet. This was the Wedge-Frame double-action revolver, which was very popular and of which large numbers were made antique trends. It was followed two years later by an improved double-action revolver with a solid frame cooking utensils in the 17th century. Many of these various types of Webley muzzle-loading revolvers were bought by the Confederacy and used in the American Civil War silver tray with food.
By the time of the great conflicts of the Crimean war and the Indian Mutiny, revolvers were well established in the British Army; particularly as officers’ weapons maiolica cantagalli savona 1600. Many, or most, of these latter were privately bought, and comprised Adams, Colts, Bentleys, Webleys, Kerrs, Tranters, DeaneHardings and Daws (the last being made by the firm of Witton and Daw) guilloche. It is probable that the great majority were Adams antique stanford refectory table with end leafs.
In 1864 John Adams separated from his brother and the London historical development of art deco.Armoury Company; and set up his own establishment, the Adams Patent Small Arms Company, at 391 The Strand, London antique paw dresser and mirror. All the revolvers described so far were muzzle-loaders art deco sofa 1925. That is to say, powder and ball were inserted from the front of the chambers 1820 gateleg table maple. From the early i86o’s there was a gradual change to breech-loading silver plated furniture. The first breech-loaders were made in the United States; and they might have been made very much earlier, but for the all-embracing revolving cylinder patent of Samuel Colt 19th century daybed. This ran out in 1857, and almost immediately Rollin White patented a cylinder with the chambers bored right through for breech-loading spanish sideboard. This patent was made over to Smith and Wesson, with the result that the latter firm, which had already been manufacturing them secretly, was able to put breech-loading revolvers on the market as soon as the Colt patent expired antique silver terrine. The Rollin White patent was valid until 1869, but before that date there were Numerous attempts, to circumvent; or blatantly ignore, the patent hankerchief table mahogany.
Whilst Great Britain was not; of course, bound by the Rollin White patent, it probably indirectly delayed the appearance of breech-loaders on the British market english knife box. It is difficult to say which was the first British breech-loading revolver, but William Tranter had one model in production italian cabinet antique. by, perhaps, 1863 baccarat amberina gold 1840. This was the ‘44 calibre so-called ‘Police’ revolver, which was purchased in small numbers for the Army and other Government services antique bookcase with trough. It used the rim-fire cartridge, which was already popular in the United States common carpentry joints on tudor houses. The base of the cartridge was of greater diameter than the body, forming a rim or flange http: newmedicalinfo.com. Inside the flange was the detonating mixture, and it was this portion of the case which was hit by the striker oriental writing bureau cabinet. This Tranter revolver appears to have been the only rim-fire weapon ever issued to the British Army figurines from the pastorals of porcelain. The chief disadvan-
age of the cartridge was that it could be exploded accidentally through being knocked or dropped 1940’s english sideboard. The Police revolver was double-action and had a six-chamber cylinder 12 apostle teaspoons. A few years later Tranter produced his ‘Army’ revolver, which was also purchased in limited quantities by the Government french animal chairs. Like the Police revolver, it was double-action and had a six-chamber cylinder, but the bore had the slightly larger calibre of ‘45 inch, and it used a central-fire cartridge secretaire de roentgen. This had a cap chamber fitted into the centre of the thickened base of the cartridge, and was much safer than the rim-fire italian “lacquered furniture”. All succeeding Service arms had centre-fire cartridges swedish furniture 1930.
In about 1865′Webley produced his last muzzle-loading revolver antique carved gateleg end table. It was a rim-fire weapon with a tip-up break action 1700s brass tea caddy. In probably the same year the first Webley breech-loader appeared fiddleback walnut. This was a single-action rim-fire revolver, with a six-chambered cylinder, a solid frame and a calibre Of ‘45 inch history woods ware wincanton. All succeeding Webleys took centre-fire cartridges french dining draw leaf table stretcher. The first of these was a very short-barrelled weapon with a -calibre Of ‘577 (the same as that of the contemporary Snider-Enfield rifle) best english antique brass beds. It used the new art deco lamp globe. Boxer centre-fire cartridge, of which a description is given in Chapter XVI antique imari porcelain. There were two models: one had a solid frame, and the other had a top fastening and broke open antique kneehole dresser. It was popular on account of its great stopping power antique sideboard 1825.
In the meantime, John Adams, from his new plant in The Strand, had turned out in 1866 the last muzzle-loading revolver to be used by the Fighting Services verlys smoke glass. It was double-action and had a calibre Of king george 1v furniture. ‘45 inch lyre base, sofa table. As compared with his brother’s revolvers, John had succeeded in fitting a six-chamber cylinder painted furniture harlequin diamond. antique vase markings. It appears that it was originally intended to make a breech-loading weapon, and the cylinder was slightly shorter than that normally fitted for muzzle-loading antique furniture ornaments. Only a few were made, and it may be that there was an unexpected Service requirement for a small number of muzzleloaders painter dufy. In any case, whatever demand there was was only short-lived, and in 1868 some of these arms were converted to breech-loaders art nouveau court cabinet. Conversion of the Enfield rifles to breech-loading had started in the previous year, and it was no doubt intended to do the same with the revolvers antique ceramic indian elephant end table. In addition td the conversions, John Adams produced in the same year a number of new breech-loaders which were practically indistinguishable from the conversions pedestals and urns chippendale. Another and larger batch Of 18′72 was similar except for an improved ejector rod 17th century silver soup tureens.
In about 1880 a revolver for military use was designed and produced at the Enfield Small Arms Factory antique shop slovakia. Its particular feature was its mechanism for the extraction of the, empty cartridge case after firing theodore haviland 1958 pattern. ‘Self-extraction’ or, alternatively, `self-ejection’ were facilities for which there was an increasing military demand antique ceramic tambour german mantle clocks. Mr lowenfink. R gillow & waring vitrine glass. Scurfield calls it a ’slightly eccentric weapon’, and adds, ‘It was not a good choice, and I suspect owed its adoption to the fact that its designer, one Owen Jones, was a member of brass mote spoon., the Enfield Small Arms Factory staff, in spite of being of American origin; in fact, the drawings to his patent specifications show the invention applied to single-action pistols of American type’ ornate antique silver roast serving platter.
Mr european cabinet maker tool chest. Scurfield, in his article which has been previously quoted, puts this whole matter of extraction and ejection very clearly antique porcelain and china clocks. He says:
`There were by 1880 a number of quite reasonably efficient and more or less reliable self-extractors and self-ejectors; in the former the empty cases are withdrawn* from the chamber by a fixed extractor, usually by sliding the cylinder forward,
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and then have to be shaken clear, while in the latter the frame is hinged, and when opened or “broken” an extractor is forced out of the cylinder, throwing the cases clear of the pistol 1920’s antique mahogany tables. The self-extractors have to be loaded through a gate, after the cylinder has been restored to its normal position, like a solid frame arm; the self-ejectors are loaded before the frame is closed czechoslovakia porcelain. Of the two systems the ejector is by far the better, given proper design and proper workmanship-, and the extractors all old fashioned table brass metal claw feet on casters.became obsolete, except for the egregious Enfield, long before 18 go, when that arm also passed into oblivion revolving bookcase.
`The self-extractors were the Galand and Somerville antique desk art moderne.(AngloBelgian, 1868), the Thomas (1869), and the Merwin-Hulbert (American, 1878); there were others (I have a nameless sliding-cylinder extractor,’ beautifully made by Webley), all of which seem to derive from the Galand-Somerville (which was about the best of them, and was itself preceded by a whole array of more or less similar self-extractors, nameless, patentless, and made in Belgium, which used pin-fire cartridges and extracted the cases by the pins); the Galand seems to have lasted longest, and was for a time used officially by the Russian army talavera lustre. It will not stand powerful cordite cartridges, but at least none that I have seen have ever rattled like the Thomas victorian candlesticks.
`The self-ejectors were the Smith and Wesson (American, 1869), the Pryse (1876), and the Tranter (1879)—it was Tranter’s second or third shot at a “break-down” self-ejector german art deco porcelain harlequin. There were a few others, but none to be compared with these, all of which had quite a long life—the Smith and Wesson, somewhat modified, until a decade or so ago if not to the present day hyalith czech glass. Pryse’s revolver was a great favourite with army officers, and has the distinction of being the first pistol to have a rebounding lock (i oak pembroke tables.e serpentine top breakfast table., one in which the hammer, after striking the cap, rises far enough to be withdrawn from contact with it) telescopic table furniture. It was made by Webley antique urn spoons. regency secretare. solid mahogany gateleg table imperial. rosewood and satinwood ladies pedestal desk. and indeed is sometimes called the “Chinese Webley”, from the circumstances that london porcelain manufacturers. the Chinese Government bought quite a large number oriental tea tables cherrywood portable furnitur. I imagine that the popularity of this pistol started Webleys, then emerging from the doldrums, thanks to the success of their ” R innovative styles of the 20th century did not include:. I rockingham china 1848.C european cabinetry of art. ” (Royal Irish Constabulary) revolver, on the quest for a really first-class “break-down” self-ejector —which of course, they eventually procured antique lyre table. “antique silver indian furniture”. expensive blue glass bowls. 1930 art deco french armchairs.`The fault of the self-extractors is that after a fair amount of use the fastening of the frame, which is divided to allow the cylinder to slide forward on the axis-pin, becomes worn —whereupon the arm “rattles” and the chambers no longer align properly with the barrel; the fault of the self-ejectors is usually in the fastening of the top strap to standing-breech, which may be susceptible to blowing open, either because it is not properly closed or because it is not strong enough 19th century chinese furniture. The early Smith and Wessons put themselves out of court with the War Office on this account (and I think rightly, for at the time the fastening was not too reliable), and their shortcomings were promptly attiibuted to all “break-down” revolvers antiques lamps made by universal statuary co.. Tranter’s last self-ejector has a better fastening, secured by a long thumb lever operating a hook over the end of the top strap (the parent of the Webley stirrup fastening), but it came under the condemnation passed upon all “break-down” pistols-, besides it was too Lsite, for by 18′79 the Enfield must have been approved, if not actually adopted what is a chamber pot of 1800s. The existing self-extractors were all clearly unsuitable as arms for military purposes, and the self-ejectors were condemned as dangerous on account of the top-strap fastening-, so, with unerring instinct, Owen Jones designed, and the War Office adopted, an arm cunningly combining the disadvantages of both italian neo-classical commode.’
Although, on the whole, a bad revolver, the Enfield became the official pattern for both the antique pine draw leaf table 1920. Army and the Navy, and Mr sideboards. Scurfield thinks that it was the first revolver to be• a general issue to the rank and file of the cavalry 19the century russian furnitrue. There were two patterns: Mark I of i88o had a calibre of ‘422 inch, and Mark II of 1882 one of ‘476 paris exposition candlesticks. The larger calibre was introduced as the ‘422 bullet had insufficient weight to stop a charging man at short range indian interior low seating drawing room. This deficiency was so evident against the Afghan tribesmen that most officers armed themselves with more effective private arms antique mahogany drop leaf work table. The -476 Enfield, however, had a much heavier bullet and was satisfactory in this respect dumbwaiter end tables. The Enfield frame was hinged in front of the trigger guard and opened like the normal ejector type; but instead of ejecting, the cylinder slid forward leaving the cartxidge ‘cases behind, suspended on the extractor paris antique holophane. This was in the form of a star which fitted into the cylinder but did not slide forward antique wurttemberg clocks.
The most famous of • all British Army revolvers is the Webley antique brass chamber candlestick. Further, it has the distinction of being the oldest pattern of military firearm still in production in Great Britain, and probably in the world louis 16th reproduction dining set. Since the Ordnance Board accepted Webley’s Mark I in 1887 (made five years previously) and the present -day there have been only comparatively minor modifications antique italian extendable table. This is a period of some seventy years yabu fruit. Even Brown Bess might require the acceptance of the India Pattern musket as a modification to beat it mallard furniture. The Webley record is the more remarkable, however, as it covers a period during which there has been more scientific and mechanical advance than during the whole of the previous history of the world hyalith glass.
One may perhaps take, as the earliest origin of the firm which made the Webley revolver history of american sideboards., a business which was established by one William Davis in 1790: Davis set up an establishment in Weaman Street, Birmingham, for the manufacture of bullet moulds, gunmakers’ tools and other firearm accessories cream leather chairs with walnut legs. The site of these old premises is occupied by the present Webley factory 19century british armschairs.
Some time early in the nineteenth century James Webley opened a business also in Weaman Street, which was somewhat peculiarly described as ‘Percussioners, Gun Lock &c antique french brass figurative parlor clock. makers’ malard furniture. In 1827 James’s young brother, Philip, then fourteen years old, was apprenticed to a gun-lock filer oak buffet with turned bun feet. In an excellent little brochure, Webley 1790-7953, published by Messrs neoclassical antique table. Webley & Scott Ltd chest of drawers with lots of compartments., and compiled by Messrs czechoslovakian antique porcelain.
C plain sofa table. W silver terrine. Thurlow Craig and Eric G early 19th century french bureau. Bewley, F lambeth ingredients.C scandanavian antique dessert stand.I 19th century english cabinet makers.S goldscheider mark vienna old., the indenture of apprenticeship is reproduced italian wood armchairs. It sheds an interesting light on the working conditions and customs of the time, and is therefore given here in full deco style desks.
`This Indenture Witnesseth that opalescence glass teapot steuben. renaissance tin-glazed.
`PHILIP WESLEY as well bf his own accord as with the advice and consent of his Father, Thomas Webley of Birmingham in the county of Warwick, White Button Turner doth put himself apprentice to Benjamin Watson the younger of Birmingham -aforesaid, Gun Lock filer, to learn his Art, and with spanish cabinets.him (after the manner of an Apprentice) to serve from the day of the date hereof, unto the full end and Term of seven years, from thence next following, to be fully complete, and ended antique “la granja” glass. During which Term the said Apprentice his Master faithfully shall serve, his secrets keep, his lawful commands everywhere gladly do: he shall do no damage to his said Master nor see it done by others: but to the best of his Power, ,shall - let or forthwith give Notice to his said Master of the same: he shall not waste ‘the goods of his said Master nor lend unlawfully to any: he shall neither buy nor sell without his said Master’s Licence : he shall not play at Cards, Dice, Tables nor any unlawful game: he shall not haunt Taverns, or Alehouses, nor absent himself from his said Master’s service Day or Night unlawfully: but in all things as a faithful Apprentice, he shall behave himself towards his said Master and all this during the said Term austria furniture antique.
`AND the said Benjamin Watson the younger in considera•t1on of the faithful services to be performed under this Indenture doth hereby covenant and agree with the said Thomas Webley that he the said Benjamin Watson the younger shall and will teach and instruct or cause to be taught and instructed his said apprentice in the art aforesaid in~ the best way that he can antique french or chippendale coffee table. And also shall and will in lieu of maintenance wearing apparel washing lodging and other necessaries pay unto the said Thomas Webley or to the said apprentice the following wages, that is to say, from henceforth during the first year of the same term the weekly sum of five shillings and from thenceforth to raise one shilling, yearly during the remainder of the said term the same payments to be made on the Saturday in every week and for the considerations last mentioned the said Thomas Webley doth by covenant and agree to provide the said apprentice with all necessaries during the said term portuguese antique library table. And it is hereby covenanted and agreed between the said parties hereto that in case the said apprentice shall at any time•during the said term and the usual working hours thereof, that is to say from six o’clock in the morning till seven o’clock in the evening in the summer and from seven o’clock in the morning till eight o’clock in the evening in the winter absent-himself from or neglect the work and service aforesaid whether occasioned through sickness or any other cause whatsoever (except with the consent of the said Benjamin Watson the younger) then in such case it shall be lawful for the said Benjamin Watson the younger to deduct from the said wages all or so much thereof as shall be in proportion to the time of such absence from or neglect of service mohn beaker with transparent enamel scene. But it ‘is hereby expressly agreed that the power of Deduction shall not extend to prevent hinder or debar the said Benjamin Watson the younger from obtaining any other satisfaction or remedy he will be entitled to before any Justice of the Peace or otherwise on account of such absence from or neglect of service in case such deduction was not made or herein provided for nor shall the same be pleaded in bar thereto silver george foot mask.
`AND for the true performance of all and every the Covenants and Agreements each of the said Parties bindeth himself unto the other of them firmly by these presents antique art deco furniture black lacquer. In WITNESS whereof, the Parties abovenamed to this Indenture have set their Hands, and Seals, the twenty-sixth Day of June in the eighth Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the fourth by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, and in the Year of our Lord, One antique michael thonet no 56. Thousand Eight Hundred and twenty seven what make the bloemenwerf chair more expensive.
The British Army finished the war against Napoleon with a somewhat mixed collection of smooth-bore firearms walnut armchair josef urban art noveau. There were three types of musket: the Pattern i8o2, the India Pattern and Brown Bess myott.son antique. It is probable that, with the rapid reduction of the Army which followed the peace, the two last mentioned disappeared fairly rapidly, and that the Pattern i 8o2 musket became the standard infantry weapon octagonal brass & silver table. The heavy cavalry were still armed with the Nock-type musket-bore carbine and ‘pistol which had been approved in 1796 old english pattern forks with four tines. The light cavalry carried the Paget carbine and pistol 1770 chippendale round salon table.
After every great war there is a tendency to cut down expenditure on the Fighting Services; and this affects both the size of the establishment and the provision of new equipment charles neo classism boulle. The result after Waterloo was that the small British Army had to wait about twenty-five years before the issue of percussion arms started, and even then it nearly received new flintlocks instead signed english art deco antique glass cabinets.
In 1834 comparative trials were at last carried out at Woolwich between flint and percussion locks, under the direction of Mr furniture copies. Lovell, the last person to hold the post of Inspector of Small Arms to the Board of Ordnance east indian antique silver. It may be that the Reverend Alexander Forsyth was responsible for these trials taking place ” american card table”. Colonel Hanger certainly thought so; for he wrote:
`In 1834, the Rev 16th century trestle refectory table. Mr 17th century boston silversmiths. Forsyth (the inventor of the percussion system) induced the Government to try a number of experiments, in order to test the value of his invention as compared with the old flint lock, and the result of these experiments was as follows:—Six thousand rounds were fired from a flint lock artdeco lamp. musket and’ a percussion musket, and the experiments were conducted in all weathers, six of each kind of arm being used telescoping console table. The results proved exceedingly favourable to the percussion principle, for out of 6,000 rounds from the flint lock there were 922 miss-fires, being i in 6-1, whereas in the percussion musket there were only 36 misses in 6,000 rounds, or i in x66 gustav klimt porcelain. The flint musket scored 3,68o hits; the percussion, 4,047 depression wood tea table. To fire ioo rounds the flint required 32 min examples of antique dressers. 31 sec robert adam pier table., and the percussion, 3o min identifying authentic yixing. myott and son hanley. 24 sec antique french saxon china flowers with gold.’
These results must have impressed the Board of Ordnance antique spiral legged small tables. At maryland antique sideboard.about this time a new series of flintlocks were designed for the Army thonet bentwood rocking chair. It does not seem, however, that they ever reached the troops, for the decision was suddenly taken to re-equip the Army throughout with percussion arms what is the greek word for furnitures.
The apparently surprising decision to replace the not very old Pattern i 802 by a new flintlock was taken, Mr american empire design antiques. Scurfield believes, through a desire to get rid of the 42-inch barrel antique metal double candelabra. The standard barrel length of the new weapon was the old Light Infantry thirty-nine inches voysey chalford table.
Serjeants carried a lighter version with a 33-inch barrel, and there was a still shorter one with a 3o-inch barrel for the Royal Artillery and the Royal Corps of Sappers and Miners value of a william and mary chest of drawers. This last weapon was termed a light carbine and had a 25-inch sword bayonet with a saw-toothed back edge victorian campaign bed. There was also a new, flintlock pistol, but this was issued as such and never converted duncan phyfe sofa c 1840.
In addition to the above weapons, a new light cavalry carbine appeared in: the rn art deco woman figure porcelain.id~dle I830’s- It does not seem, however, ever to have become a general issue reproduction ming porcelain. It was somewhat longer than the Paget carbine, having a 2o-inch barrel instead of one of sixteen inches antique gateleg table. The stirrup ramrod was retained warm entree dish. The lock was peculiar, since the steel was pivoted inside the lock plate, instead of on the outside antique silver plate vegetable warmer with lid. Owing to what was probably a sudden decision portuguese potters. to change to percussion arms, it is likely that production of this carbine was stopped prematurely antique “trestle table” kent.
The equipping of the whole Army with percussion arms was -a lengthy process 18c chair lion head. Although the manufacture of new firearms with the percussion lock was taken in hand immediately, it was intended that re-equipment should be carried out as far as possible by converting the new belgium porcelain dining tables. flintlocks antique hexagon ladles. Such a conversion was not a very difficult operation george ii burr walnut tallboy. The cock was replaced by a hammer mounted in the same position and striking on a nipple fixed to the top right side of the barrel duncan phyfe table and buffet. The nipple, of course, replaced the flash-pan and steel of the flintlock sette sofas chippendale 18th century.
The first new smooth-bore percussion musket was the so-called Pattern 1838 chippendale cutlery urns. Only comparatively few were made and its issue was confined to the Regiments of Foot Guards making cabriole legs with padded feet. As might be expected, in general form and appearance it was very similar to the earlier Pattern i 80 musket antique english column candlesticks. Together with the Brunswick rifle and the Victoria carbine for the cavalry, it formed a series for which Mr paw feet dining rooms table. Lovell was responsible; though whether he had an actual hand in design is not clear myott son & co. hanley. The 33-inch barrel was the shortest that had yet been issued to heavy infantry 19th century cutlery pennsylvania dutch. Serjeants of the Foot Guards were not issued with this musket, but with a 33-inch barrel version of its contemporary, the Brunswick rifle antique fluted legs.
Although the Brunswick rifle does not properly belong to a chapter on smooth-bore firearms, this may be an appropriate place to deal with it, since its issue was so closely allied with the other weapons for which Mr antique extending round dining table. Lovell was responsible art deco glass. It was intended to be the percussion replacement for the Baker rifle, and was officially designated ‘Lovell’s Improved Brunswick Pattern’ were exports scenes common in the chenghua period.
The new rifle was designed by Captain Berners, an officer in a Jaeger regiment of the Brunswick Army, and was adopted by the Board of Ordnance after trials at Woolwich in 1836 betty joel miroir antique. The rifling of the Brunswick was peculiar most valuable antique silverware. There were only two grooves, and they made one complete turn, in the length of the barrel antique oak dropleaf gateleg table. This was not a new idea by any means, for at the time of its adoption for the Army it was already the most popular form of rifling for sporting weapons can antique dressers pair with modern furniture. A special bullet was used with this two-groove rifling: spherical in shape, but having a•raised belt round the middle antique european sideboard, etagere, cabinet,. The belt fitted into the grooves, which were fairly deep, and the bullet of the sporting weapons fitted the bore sufficiently easily to be rammed home without difficulty 19th century side tables. In practice the results ob1 tained with this type of rifle were not as good as they would seem to be in theory what is antique library table worth. There was a good deal of friction in the barrel through the bullet magnificent table 18 century marble. not being able to move freely, there was a heavy recoil, and the shape of the bullet did not lend itself to accurate flight contemporary british cabinetry best examples.
The calibre of the Brunswick rifle was ‘704 and the barrel length (except as mentioned above) was thirty inches duncan phyfe buffet. It was sighted to 300 yards, was fitted with a cross-handled sword bayonet and measured three feet ten inches overall french restoration table. It was a thoroughly bad weapon; perhaps the worst ever issued to British troops antique dining fold over tables with leaves. One of the troubles seems to have been that the ball was made too tight-fitting, and another that there was insufficient power behind the bullet to keep it spinning sufficiently rapidly for straight flight deco airplane stand.
The unfortunate Rifle regiments were inflicted with the Brunswick up till the Crimean war officers campaign bed. Their opinion of it is reflected in a report submitted in 18 52 by a Select Committee on Small Arms:
`At all distances double scroll legs desk art deco. above four hundred yards the shooting was so wild as to be unrecorded rose emblem. The Brunswick rifle has shown itself to be much inferior in point of range to every other arm hitherto noticed d-form dining table. The loading of this rifle is so difficult that it is a wonder how the Rifle regiments have continued to use it so long—the force required to ram down the ball being so great as to render any man’s hand unsteady for accurate shooting empire sofas. Comment is unnecessary pierced silver hot plate made in italy.’
Lovell’s other firearm was the ‘Victoria’ carbine drop leaf carved leg table. Like the heavy cavalry carbine of 1796, it had a 26-inch barrel of musket bore chinese mother of pearl chair rosewood antique. It was issued, apparently, to the Household Cavalry only vintage chinese black lacquer card table.
At the same time as the Lovell weapons were appearing the conversion of all three types of the new flintlock musket was taken in hand george 11 antique lacquered furniture. The percussion version was known as Pattern 1839, and except for the altered lock was identical with its flintlock predecessor early nineteenth century german desk.
It is probable that there were sufficient of the flintlock muskets to equip the whole Army with converted arms seek jingdezhen plum blossom porcelain vases. However, in 1841 there was a disastrous fire in the Tower of London which destroyed many thousands of firearms awaiting conversion 1940’s mahogany dining chairs. As a result a new series of arms had to be manufactured antigue table cloths 1920. The musket was called Pattern 1842 rectangular dropleaf tables. It was similar to, and was produced in the same three barrel lengths as, Pattern 1839 federal style 18th century dresser. The only major difference was that the bayonet of the short musket was no longer saw-backed julius mihalik.
There were two percussion carbines for the cavalry: musket bore for the heavy cavalry and carbine bore for the light cavalry rectangular oak gateleg table. The carbine for the heavy cavalry retained the 26-inch barrel silver candlesticks flower. That for the light cavalry had a slightly longer barrel than the last flintlock weapon of twenty-one inches how to value lowboy queen anne.
Mr stone china george jones stoke on trent. Scurfield hag made some interesting comments on the final changeover from flint to percussion arms jockey cap caddy spoons. He says: `A tradition persists that some regiments going from India to the Crimean War were still armed with flintlocks, but I have never found any confirmation, and to me it seems rather improbable davenport cabinet desk. All the same, I do not know when the Regular Army handed in its last flintlocks, and can only suggest that it was between x 84 and i850—perhaps not long before 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition antique neoclassic furniture. The Militia went straight from the India Pattern flintlock to the Enfield rifle in the very late 18 -So’s or early 186o’s antique white chamber pot.
`In 1846 the 27th Foot (Inniskilling Fusiliers) in South Africa were still armed with a mixture of flint and percussion muskets, but two battalions of the gxst were completely equipped with percussion; it would be interesting to know whether they were Pattern 1839 or Pattern 1,842—or some of each antique tea cabinet.’
In the years following the Napoleonic wars most of the cavalry’s pistols had been withdrawn walnut baluster leg table. Lancers -carried them in place of carbines, which got in the way of the lance; and in other regiments they were retained by serjeant-majors and trumpeters, who also did not carry carbines furniture makers of the 16th century. To meet this limited need a percussion pistol was made with a musket bore and a 9-inch barrel antiques pottery made in coimbra.
The fulminating compound which was used in these first military percussion arms was made up of three parts of chlorate of potash, two parts of fulminate of mercury and single gate leg tables.one part of powdered glass antique italian rococo bedroom set marble and wood.
Ferguson, in the meantime,, had been promoted Major and brevet Lieutenant-Colonel, and put in command of the ‘American Volunteers’, a corps of loyalists from New York and New Jersey and armed with the Ferguson rifle antique slovakia ceramics vase . The unit sailed with the expedition commanded by Sir Henry Clinton and Was present at the siege and capture of Charleston antique pembroke tble . Ferguson was then made a Brigadier-General of the Loyal Carolina Militia, and with his own corps of about ioo men as a nucleus marched into the interior, collecting loyalist recruits on the way square brass dial . On the 7th October 178o, his camp at King’s Mountain, close to the border of North Carolina, was surprised by a large force of mountaineers under the command of General Shelby value of hand painted wales china tea set . The training of Ferguson’s men did not match their enthusiasm, and after a gallant defence the majority of them were either killed or captured john widdicomb china cabinets . Ferguson himself was amongst the former 17th century imported oriental cabinet .
With the death of its inventor, the destruction of his rifle units and the capture of their armament, the Ferguson rifle disappeared from the Army antique paper mache card table . Beautifully made models for sportsmen were, however, made for many years afterwards photos of victorian sofa with zebra pattern fabric .
There is an interesting contemporary account of the manufacture of Ferguson rifles table lamps . A Mr berkey & gay american empire furniture . William Clincher records in his diary of 1776 that he visited Birmingham and waited upon Mr edmund etling glass bird . Baskerville who showed him his gun factory belgian gothic revival cabinet . He described this as follows:
‘ The Gun manufactory is pretty; the forging, scraping, and boreing, pleas’d me much;—The Rifle Guns are handsome pretty pieces, 800 are nearly finish’d on government account, at three pounds three shillings each; A Gentleman, with one of them at a distance of i So yards, shot a Ball six times out of eight within the circumference of the crown of my hat: at 400 yards he shot within half a yard of the mark antique brass table with animal legs .
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY GUNMAKERS
The number of gunmakers in Great Britain during the eighteenth century was very considerable antique drop leaf table with leaf built in . Those of them who made military arms could be roughly divided into selmersheim .
(a) Makers under contract to the Government to supply either complete weapons or component parts arabesque vertical plate racks .
(b) Establishments which made firearms of Government pattern which were subsequently purchased for the Army middle east antique collectors .
(c) Makers of firearms designed for military use, but not of a Government pattern art deco dining table . These were primarily intended for purchase by officers, and might be of the particular gunsmith’s own design, or one in common private use chippendale knife boxes octagon .
Some of them engaged in two, or even all three, of these activities; and, in addition, made sporting arms as well regency ironstone marks blue . To name all the gunsmiths making military arms would entail the compilation of a fairly lengthy catalogue expensive antique furniture chests . It will suffice to give a few typical examples antique gaming table claw feet .
I louis xvi revival sideboard with porcelain inlays . Clarkson, who flourished as a gunsmith from m 1680 to 1730, made flintlock muskets and holster pistols for the Army under Government contract antique early american drop-leaf butterfly table . In addition, he made the box-lock type of pistol which was introduced in the reign of Queen Anne wooton chest . The lock of this pistol, instead of being mounted on one side plate with a counter-plate on the other side of the weapon to support it, had a plate on top- joined to one on each side to form a metal box lacquered furniture . The cock, flash-pan and steel were mounted on the top plate telescopic table pedestal . The barrel was the cannon-shaped screw-on type, with breech-loading gateleg table with drawers and drop leaf . This box-lock was to be popular for over loo years painted silver trays . In later years Clarkson made some breech-loading holster pistols, the mechanism of which was of the screw-plug arrangement from which the Ferguson breech was derived “table george iv” .
John Hawkins conducted a business in London from 168o to 1714, which was carried on by his son to 176o, and his grandson to 1776 epergne antique for sale . His particular speciality was a flintlock holster pistol which had a brass barrel with a bell muzzle robinson and leadbeater figure . ‘It is of interest that George Washington had a pair of these pistols which were made by the second Hawkins 18th century walnut-veneered and oak chest of seven drawers .
Another founder of two further generations of gunsmiths was James Freeman of London, the business lasting from 1705 to 1782 art deco english suburban house . Freeman also made box-lock pistols, and, in addition, muskets and holster pistols under Government contract luxury antique items .
In Scotland for most of the eighteenth century there were a number of gunsmiths of the name of Murdoch engaged in making all-metal flintlock pistols wallendorf candelabras . Two of them, father and son and both christened James, had a shop in Inverness barker brothers coffee table for sale . Some of those made by the father had the lobe-shaped butt, and he differed from his son in chasing the whole of the barrel century hepplewhite walnut card table . The pistols made by the younger James have only the muzzle chased 18 century wooden novelty pipes .
Thomas Murdoch worked at Leith, and made pistols with both lobe and ram’s-horn butts wrought iron church candle sticks . In the museum of the Royal United Service Institution are two pistols with rain’s-horn butts which have ‘To: Murdoch’ engraved on the lock plate german 1940s furniture styles . They were picked up on the battlefield of Culloden british designers dining table . They are a beautiful pair and must have been the pride of some gallant Jacobite of the ‘Forty-five sutherland drop leaf table . One wonders what happened to their owner, and if the pistols were found where he had hurled them empty at the stolid English infantry shagreen knife box .
John Murdoch had a shop at Doune french neoclassical tables . His pistols have ram’s-horn butts, acorn triggers, and are sometimes ornamented with gilt brass stock and butt 4 foot wide walnut drop leaf table . Major John Pitcairn, who commanded the British advanced guard at Lexington on the 19th April 1775, had a pair of these pistols kotahya pottery . It is supposed that with one of them Pitcairn fired the first shot of the American War of Independence mason patent ironstone china . In the struggle which followed he lost his pistols, which were subsequently picked up and given to General Rufus Putnam british antique wardrobes . Putnam carried them for the remainder of the war, and they are now at the Lexington museum nesting tea tables .
One other Murdoch made pistols in Edinburgh with the lobe-shaped butt fall-front chest of drawers .
Joseph Farmer of London was in business from 1718 to 176,2 how to repair veneer table on couch . He had a Government contract to make standard flintlock muskets and also short flintlock muskets fitted with grenade cups for the Grenadiers bureau de coene art deco . One of these latter is in the Museum of the Royal United Service Institution 19th century glass fronted cabinet . The inscription ‘Farmer 1744′ is placed vertically on the lock plate behind the cock adjustable silver candlesticks . This method of discharging a grenade was revived in the First World War, and survived to become a
standard Army weapon wardrobe of a 17th century lady . Farmer also made a double-barrelled I version of the box-lock pistol antique chamber cabinets .
Bidet, who emigrated from France, practised as a gunsmith in London from 17-21 to- 1731 antiques with plain legs . He did not make military weapons, but a sporting rifle he produced had a breech mechanism which is an obvious forerunner of Ferguson’s idea inlaid marble table lapis lazuli antique . The trigger guard was a lever turning a screw plug; but in this case the plug came right out and had a single thread harlequin painted bar . The action was therefore much slower than Ferguson’s, and the return of the plug to its seating might well be difficult in the heat of battle “perspectiva cabinet” . I trestle tables refectory . Johnson made a similar sporting rifle about 1750-B pictures of 5 drawer antique library desks and tables . Griffin had a shop in Bond Street from 1739 to 1773-Apart from the superlative quality of his arms, his chief claim to fame is probably a breech-loading carbine which will be described later 18th century mahogany wine cooler with brass feet . He also made fine holster pistols with silver mountings antique 1960’s table cigarette dispenser . Under the later name of Griffin and Tow their manufacture was continued till 1796 2009 chinese porcelain antique . The small `IG’ on a Griffin forged barrel was a hallmark of excellence countries where art deco was very popular .
William Ketland was one of the most famous of gunsmiths antique inlaid pembroke table . He started making guns in Birmingham in 174o, and was primarily responsible for establishing the town’s reputation for the manufacture of firearms 18th century writing table cabriole ball claw feet . Ketland was one of the greatest makers of Brown Bess muskets, and other ‘Brown Bess’ arms, for the Government furniture . In 176o a shop was opened antique chinese display stand dealers . in London r dubarry art deco . After William Ketland’s death one of his grandsons carried on the business as Ketland & Co angouleme guerhard . until his own -death in 1804, His brother-in-law, Thomas Izon, continued under the same name until in 1831 financial difficulties led to the firm closing american tripod tables . Old William Ketland is still commemorated, however, in the Birmingham Proof Mark imperial drop leaf antique table . In 1813 the Gunmakers’ Company of London tried to get a Bill through Parliament to compel every gunsmith to mark his firearms with the place of manufacture italian buffet furniture . The reason for this was that firearms marked `1,n don’ coiamat,ded a higher price than those made elsewhere night chamber pot . Some Birmingham makers had accordingly succumbed to temptation and put ‘London’ on their own arms pictures of yellow antiqued cabinets . The public implication that Birmingham arms were inferior to those of London make, however, annoyed the better Birmingham gunsmiths, and they formed a Guild to protect the standard of the products of their own town art deco french inspired dresser . This new Guild was called ‘The Guardians of the Birmingham Proof House’ antique campaign chair with lion paws . The proof house mentioned in the title was set up at the same ‘ time lion feet table . Ketland & Co turn tripod into table . had taken a prominent part in this movement and the proof mark adopted was an adaptation of the arraourer’s mark of two crossed sceptres, used by old William Ketland antique stores brass ashtrays made in china . The Birmingham viewer’s mark, stamped on the barrel after testing in the rough, consisted of the crossed sceptres between a crown above and a V below antique mushroom shaped table lamps . The proof mark for the finished barrel again had the crossed sceptres and crown, but in place of the V in the bottom angle, there were the letters B, P and C: the B and C being in the flanking angles and the P in the base andre hunebelle glass .
The two generations of John Richards, who covered the years 1745 to 1810; had shops in both London (in the Strand) and Birmingham for sale louis 16th walnut sideboard cabinet . They made an odd weapon, not uncommon at this period,•which was a bell muzzle flintlock pistol with a small bayonet under the stock which sprang into position on odiot tureen . releasing a spring antique clerks desk . Owing to the number of times a flintlock missed fire it probably had an appeal as providing an emergency weapon for close combat “english ironstone”+england”+marks .
One of the most famous of London gunmakers had the peculiar name of Durs Egg antique bentwood chaise . Business was carried on under that name from 1770 to x834 “alexander roux” pietra . It was then changed to D antique mahogany chippendale dining table . I meissen cris de paris . Egg (probably by a son or nephew) and lasted as such till 1865 antique oak drop leaf end table . Egg had a shop for the sale of private arms at No antique spring loaded drawer arm . x Pall Mall mid eastern style shell drawer . He had a Government contract for muskets and carbines, and made a large number of the Ferguson rifles queen anne gate leg table 18th century . In addition, he made a smooth-bore flintlock breech-loading carbine of his own design antique empire mahogany curved buffet with mirror . This was actually adopted by the Government and issued in large numbers to the cavalry towards the end of the century sheraton occasional table . It had a hinged chamber which was tipped up to receive the charge duncan phyfe buffet with legs . It had the advantage that since the chamber was loaded from its front end it could be loaded with the same cartridge as was issued for muzzleloaders antique oak and fabric dressing screen with fretwork . After loading, the chamber was lowered again and locked in position by giving a quarter turn to a steel bar which pivoted on the top of the chamber and engaged in two slots mid century antiques and porcelain tea sets .
This Egg carbine was capable of a fairly rapid rate of fire walnut veneer wardrobes art deco . To load it entailed only the simple operations, which could be performed on horseback, of tearing the cartridge, priming the pan, opening the breech, inserting the cartridge in the chamber, and finally closing the breech antique oak tables with leaves . Good as it was, however, the breech mechanism did not provide a gas-tight joint and there was thus a considerable escape of flame french clothes designers during 17th century . The reason for this was that there was only surface contact between the faces of chamber and barrel fauteuil bureau .
That such a carbine was required for cavalry use is shown by a passage from Captain Hinde’s The Discipline of the Light Horse antique wood inlayed wine cellaret . Hinde says:
`As light troops are more intended to act loose than in bodies, their principal practice should be to acquire personal address, viz escritoire antique . to manage the horse well, to use the sword with dexterity, and fire the carbine with great justness steele art deco chair wood arm rests . The proposal of Monsieur de Saxe, for loading at the breach of the carbine, seems well calculated for the fire arms of cavalry, if it will not make them too complicated (the author once saw a carbine belonging to a brother officer, made according to this proposal of Monsieur de Saxe; to be loaded, it was held firmly in the left hand, as when it was presented to be fired, and about the same place; then with the right hand the guard over the trigger was pulled back, on which the but of the carbine dropped down, hanging by a pin, and discovered the breach of it quite open; in a cartridge box he carried nine iron tubes loaded, one of which he thrust into the barrel, and directly with his right hand pushed up the butt, which made a click, and securely shut up the breach british longcase makers . On striking the lock with his hand the piece primed it self, and he fired without missing fire at any time art deco dinner service . He loaded his iron tube or cartridges without any rammer, with his finger shoving down powder, ball, and paper india old antique dining table . I think he told me Mr Griffin, gunsmith, in Old Bond-street, was the maker of it, and the officer had himself invented it, as he was a very mechanical ingenious gentleman, and an horse officer) the ramrod is apt to be lost, and at any rate is very difficult to manage on horseback, whereas a chamber with a fresh charge, could easily be introduced; but of this, the period preceding art deco .Mr Barbor, or any other gunsmith, can give the best account “art moderne” furniture . The objection of expense should not be admitted, for economy in the price of arms is, at best, very injudicious “bristol porcelain” for sale 18th century .’
The ‘Barbor’ mentioned by Hinde is probably I antique sideboard cabriole legs . Barbar who had a shop in London, from 1740 to 1780, in Shoe Lane antique ivory sofa table . The firm, however, seems to have been in existence since the beginning of the century, and to have been one of the foremost in fine decorative work marble table inlaid antique .
T tudor rose design waterfall furniture . Twigg was another well-known London gunsmith of 176o to 1780 designs for dressing table glasses . The firm was carried on from 1780 to 1783 as Twigg & Bass; and then reverted to Twigg only again from 1783 to 1813 antique mahogany card table, imperial . Twigg made Government flintlock holster pistols, and also flintlock holster pistols for officers which were of very fine workmanship art deco examples . His most noteworthy contribution to gunmaking was a number of different designs of multi-shot flintlock pistols chess table spiral legs . One of these was a seven-barrel pepperbox type of weapon, the barrels of which were rotated by hand after each shot joan klock, amsterdam, clockmaker . Some of his pistols had the under spring bayonet, which was released by sliding back the trigger guard jupe dining table’ . Twigg had a foreman named John Manton, who founded his own business at about the time Bass was introduced into the partnership antique enamelled glass . Manton, too, became a famous gunsmith, but he belongs more to the; nineteenth century and will be dealt with more fully in a later clawfoot antique lowboy . chapter 19th mahogany clerks desk .
John F satinwood commode john cobb . Probin of the Minories in London, 1780 to 1831, made flintlock holster pistols and carbines under Government contract meissen porcelain louis xiv . He also made pistols for officers, and there is, in the museum of the Royal United Service Institution, a pair made by him for General Sir Thomas Picton and carried by him in 18 r 5 antique walnut gateleg table . They have J neoclassical dressing table . Probin’ on the lock plate, and along the top of the barrel ‘Probin Maker to His R H the Prince of Wales’ delicate leg drop leaf table .
One of the troubles experienced with eighteenth-century flintlock weapons was failure of various parts of the mechanism due mainly to rusting glass supper table . Military locks were strongly made to withstand the rough usage which they inevitably experienced, but they could not be made waterproof antique porceline candle sticks . As a result regiments frequently suffered a serious loss of fire-power through draw leaf table northern furniture company . the number of muskets which were out of action owing to mechanical faults neo-rococo rockingham lamps . Rusting particularly affected the small moving parts of the lock, and the screws which held the various components together designs of arcs and pillars . The most serious breakages were the screws, for the rusted pieces were often so firmly imbedded that it was beyond the powers of the regimental armourer to remove them coalbrookdale neptune dish . The trouble caused considerable concern and gunsmiths were encouraged by the Government to offer suggestions 1800’s furniture makers .
The first to give a practical response was Jonathan Hennem, who submitted a design for a screwless flintlock musket to the Board of Ordnance on the 2nd May 1781 18th century card table . The Board appear to have been favourably impressed, for they directed `that two Musqueis be delivered to John Hennet [sic> for him to alter according to his proposal’ english baroque pottery . Arrangements were made for Hennem to carry out experiments near Woolwich, and he was engaged on these for the next two years antique meets modern furniture . Trials were apparently concluded successfully by the 18th October 1783; for on that date the Master-General of the Ordnance issued instructions to the Board ‘That zoo locks be provided by Mr imperial gateleg table . Hennem of his own Construction and that an Imprest of C70 may be granted to him towards Compleating the Order, the said Locks being found of great Utility in his Majesty’s Service’ swiss walnut art deco motif .
A short time later a celebrated London gunmaker, Henry Nock, made an apparently surprising intervention clear glass trinket boxes or powder boxes . On the 8th November 1783, he presented a bill for twenty’Musquet locks of Hannim’s Construction’, for which he charged 9s utensils used in britain for cooking . 6d paris style art deco desk . each sheraton +antique +gaming table . In view of the 18th century austrian porcelain . fact that Nock himself, as will appear later, was engaged in somewhat similar experiments he may well have taken Hennem under his financial wing leather revolutionary war writing box .
Finally Hennem sent in 400 locks, or four times the original order, and was consequently able to lower the price kedleston hall birds . Of these 400, 201 were coloured black and 199 were polished, presumably for comparative trials cedar chest genoa 16thc .
The 2oth Foot (now The Lancashire Fusiliers) was chosen to carry out trials with the Hennem locks 1900 era drop leaf gate leg table . The regiment was about to embark for Ireland on active service and it was already short of muskets; though if these were the reasons for issuing it with new and untried weapons, the former particularly seems to have been a pretty weak one art deco stemware . Anyhow, they received 308 of them, and in July 1784 Hennem was given permission by the Commanding Officer to instruct the men in the use of the locks the development of art deco . Hennem duly arrived at Plymouth only to find that the regiment had left for Ireland ming porcelains . He then obtained permission to follow it, with the proviso that his stay in Cork must not exceed three weeks fiddle shape flatware . This limitation proved, however, impracticable, for the 2oth was split up over southern Ireland in widely scattered detachments, and the roads and unsettled conditions of the time made travel slow and hazardous glass/wood art deco designs .
There was little in the appearance of Hennem’s lock to differentiate it from the ordinary flintlock bugatti furniture range . There were no screws, of course, and the mechanism was secured by pins riveted to the lock plate islamic influence 18th century . By means of a tool which Hennem called a ’spring lifter’, the lock could be completely dismantled in a few seconds antique trends .
Margaret Bourke-White wrote in 1943:
I SUPPOSE it was those Irish ancestors of mine, deep-sea sailors all of them, whose sons in each succeeding generation ran away to sea when anyone tried to dry-dock them at home, who were responsible for my passionate love of seeing the world. If they were in a position to make observations, they would surely feel that it was a mistake to pass on their wanderlust to a female descendant, for in their day, as far as I have heard, the distaff side never ran off to sea. They might even think that I have an unfair advantage if they could know how quickly our flying boats take us from one part of the world to another.
In view of this ancestral roaming tendency, it was a lucky thing, I think, to marry a man who knows how to read maps. Before making this happy arrangement, I had managed to find my way with a camera through a little more than two dozen countries located on five continents, sometimes for Fortune magazine, sometimes for Life, and sometimes to satisfy my own curiosity. The only time I ever got seriously lost was in northern Canada, flying over the Arctic near the North Magnetic Pole, where compasses don’t work anyway; but direction finding in the Far North was something my Canadian pilot excelled in, and he managed to find his way at last to a tiny Eskimo settlement.
However, when I come back from trips to Siberia or the Sahara Desert, my friends often marvel at how easily I can lose my way between Grand Central and Fifty-first Street while walking to the dentist. Just recently, driving home from New York to Connecticut, I managed to lose my sense of direction so completely within an eighth of a mile of our house that I had to ask the neighbors the way home. This astonished my neighbors, but it didn’t puzzle me at all, for I am no good on the short hops.
But now that I am married, all is changed. My husband reads maps the way I read detective stories. The only difference is that he follows the clues of latitude, longitude, air and ocean currents, and topography, and emerges with the correct deduction, while I, even though attempting to follow that simplest of all clues—the person least suspected—rarely guess the murderer, for I am seldom able to deduce successfully who is the least suspicious.
Erskine Caldwell’s map reading is much more than a simple matter of finding his way from one place to another. It is a whole study in agriculture, economics, and sociology. It is as though, through the surface of the map, he had felt the rainfall, the winds, the altitude, and the fertility of the earth. When he folds up his map, he reminds me of one of his own fictional characters, Jeeter Lester, who in the end of Tobacco Road lets a handful of soil sift through his fingers. Erskine has been feeling the land and he knows in advance what it can be expected to produce in the way of crops and men.
When two persons who have deep professional interests marry, there are two ways of pursuing those interests: together or separately. In our family we do both. Sometimes Erskine is interested in writing about America at the same time that I feel I simply must do some photography in central Asia. The solution is simple. He does his job on one continent and I do mine on another. Sometimes both of us feel that the time has come to work together, in the same country, he with typewriter and I with lens, and then we do something that we both greatly enjoy. We make a trip together and work together.
Russia was one of the countries which we selected to do together, and we had a joint and urgent conviction that we should get there soon, to record in words and pictures what we expected to be the coming tide of the war. We kept our plans somewhat secret, for we do not like to talk about things until we are sure we are going to accomplish them. The State Department granted us validations, although they accompanied our passports with a dutiful and somewhat ominous letter warning us that due to distressed world conditions, we could have no assurance of being able to get back to our native land again. The Soviet Ambassador in Washington promised us visas, which would be waiting for us in Chungking, but he warned me that photographs by visitors in the U.S.S.R.
had been forbidden for some years, and I could have no certainty in advance that the camera ban would be lifted for me.
I was willing to take a chance on this, however. When I first went to Russia, in 1930, few photographs had come out of the country, and those few had been taken by Soviet photographers; foreigners had not been allowed to take pictures at all. This had sharpened my ambition to bring the first photographs, taken by a non-Russian, out of the Soviet Union. I had been successful in accomplishing this not because of any special pull, for I had none at all, but because when I arrived in Moscow and showed the Soviets the many industrial photographs which I had been taking in America, they decided that it might be a good thing after all to let an American industrial photographer record their Five-Year Plan. I was ready to take the gamble again.
Among the extremely few people who knew of our plan was the picture editor of Life magazine. He shared our conviction that Russia was the coming key country in the march of the war, to such an extent that he bade me good-by with the words, “Don’t stop on the way to play marbles!” I had to stop and play marbles in the Gobi Desert, but that comes later.
Erskine does all his writing in a defiantly free-lance way; consequently, he made no commitments beforehand. He did, however, have an understanding with Life and the Columbia Broadcasting System to supply material if he got around to it.I spent the entire month before departure planning my equipment and taking lessons in elementary mechanics so as to be able to repair cameras when I was beyond hope of assistance. Some of my most bulky photographic materials went ahead by ship to Hong Kong, where we would connect up with them at the end of our Pacific clipper flight. My quota of supplies included three thousand flash bulbs, peanut variety, a large quantity of film packs, five cameras,* twenty-two lenses, four portable developing tanks, bottles of Dk21 fine-grain developer, several papers of dressmaker pins,’ duplicates of every screw found in all the
minute parts of my lens mounts and synchronizing magnets, a synchroscope, and a jeweler’s screw driver and pliers. In addition, I carried twenty-eight paper-bound detective stories.
My husband packed one small suitcase with his old corduroy jacket and a few shoes and shirts and got an extra ribbon for his portable typewriter. His professional equipment weighed seventeen pounds. My equipment weighed six hundred pounds.
At last all the preparations were completed, and in late March we took off from the West Coast. There is something about each new trip that fills me with a proud, secret excitement. Even if it is just getting on a train to go from New York to Indianapolis, I feel as if I were traveling toward an adventure. This was to be my first trip completely around the world, and I was walking on wings.
Our clipper’s first stop, at Honolulu, should have been a matter of overnight only. It seemed like imprisonment in paradise when unusually severe weather in the Pacific forced us to spend a week in Hawaii. Honolulu had been a perfect place for a honeymoon when Erskine and I had visited it for that purpose, exactly two years before, but with our eyes directed toward a world at war, Waikiki Beach had less appeal for us.
War was closer even to this dreamy spot than anyone could know. Many of the old-time residents were uneasy. A friend of ours whose lovely home we visited at Hilo, the main harbor of the “Big Island” of Hawaii, said to us, “I want to fly to Maui to visit my sister-in-law. The flight takes only an hour, but you have to stay for five days until the return plane picks you up again. I’d hate to stay away so long and find my house had been bombed. We’re so exposed here on the top of this Cliff.”
Bombing of Hawaii sounded fantastic to us in March of 1941, but it sounded equally fantastic when it became a reality in December. At last, on the eighth day, the waves abated, and our clipper took off. In a few minutes Pearl Harbor was left behind us; the scalloped hill; of Oahu, patterned like a textile with curving rows of pineapple plantations
vanished into the distance. We were flying into a translucent nothingness where air and water were indistinguishable, headed toward the Orient.
Our fellow passengers constituted the major portion of the Dutch government in exile; the group was headed by Foreign Minister van Kleffens, looking like a high-school boy in prim spectacles. The Netherlanders had flown from England with communications from Queen Wilhelmina to President Roosevelt and, after conferences in Washington, were now on their way to the Dutch East Indies.
Our pilot, big, burly Captain Steve Bancroft, invited me up to sit beside him at the controls, where I could watch, as though from a glass cage, the barely perceptible cloud shapes coagulate and take form over a buttermilk sea. After seven and a half hours of flying we coasted into the lagoon of Midway. Sand Island and the smaller Eastern Island make up Midway—projections of an extinct volcano two million years old, whose base rests forever unseen two miles down on the ocean floor.
Long before our giant flying ships had found this a convenient refueling point on the way to the Orient, long before the Japanese had coveted it as a valuable steppingstone toward our Pacific shore, the discovery of Midway as a halfway rest post had been made. Millions of birds, winging their way over the paths of ancestral memory on their mysterious migrations, stop here with the regularity of certain Manhattanites who return to their favorite Florida hotel during the season.
On Midway the season for visitors in wings and feathers is from November to July. The entire sanded, beshrubbed surface of the island was one huge bird nursery. Spaced at a distance of three feet, each standing singly in a primitive sandy hole which passed for a nest, stood half a million gooney youngsters demanding their suppers. Each baby gooney bird was as big as a goose, and their combined voices blanketed the island with chronic protest. Their parents were ignoring their children’s wishes completely, as though their offspring should not be allowed to interfere with their enjoyment of this tropic resort. In twos and threes they circled around each other in a strange little dance, nodding their heads and snapping their beaks, like socialites exchanging polite conversation.
The goonies fascinated the clipper passengers, and I found them especially interesting, since natural history has always been a hobby of mine. We were permitted to walk only a few yards outside the pleasant little Pan American Hotel, far enough to watch the goonies, but not far enough to observe the work of the marines who were engaged in defense construction on the other side of the islands.
At dawn, as we made our way down the slippery pier, the half-million goonies bowed with equal politeness to us and to each other. I hope that when their hour of trial comes they will not show such courtesy to the Japanese.
After seven hours of flying over a sea like shimmering cellophane, we saw below us, suspended in translucent light, a slender little horseshoe, Wake Island. We stepped out on a sand bar, wild with wind and waves. On the fringe of the atoll, which surrounded the island like the rim of a cup, the breakers rose into fountains of spray.
“I always go swimming when I get to Wake,” said Captain Bancroft. “They have the most gol-darned fish here you ever saw.”
We jumped into bathing suits, and the Captain strapped heavy glass masks over our faces. I took a deep breath, plunged down, and found a miraculous pink coral world which opened up just below the surface of the water. I had to keep my fingers and toes out of the way of giant clams which, embedded forever by their own growth in rocky pockets, still were able to reach for me with their thick scalloped lips of purple velvet. Suddenly I realized that I was being watched by hundreds of eyes. A school of transparent fish, almost invisible except for their coal-black eyes, was staring into my face. Soon I felt like a fish myself as exquisite creatures, some sapphire, some indigo, and some smart black ones with red circles on their tails, began swimming along with me. A flounder, looking like an old tire, flapped its way along the ocean floor. Then ahead of me the disembodied leg of a giant with five human toes swam into my vision. I came up, gasping for breath, and identified it as the magnified foot of my husband, who was lost in the exploration of a little cave just ahead of me.
In the morning, while the clipper’s motors warmed up, the Dutch Foreign Minister and I took a last walk along the beach and watched the love terns maneuvering themselves on and off their eggs. The tern, who
lays her single egg on a slender branch, where it remains balanced despite constant winds, executes her take-offs with miraculous precision so as not to knock off her egg.
The perfection of Captain Bancroft’s take-off from a choppy sea also had something ternlike about it, and after seven hours he deposited us gently at Guam. On this hot, lush island we sipped cool drinks with navy officers, who complained, with more prophecy than any of us could know, about Senators who refused to vote appropriations for adequate armaments, for fear of offending Japan.
During our dawn departure we were witnesses to a small dispute between the A and D nations. The Dutch Minister protested heatedly that he had diplomatic immunity when asked to conform to the blanket rule that all passengers open their baggage for examination before boarding the clipper.
“What do you think I have in my dispatch case,” he stormed, “a time bomb?”
“We’re not taking any chances,” replied the Captain. “Someone else might put one there.”
As his ruffled excellency stepped down the dock, the Captain said, “The Japs make the most trouble on this rule. We had one of those special Japanese diplomats a while ago who continued making a scene during the whole time the ship was warming up. ‘He says he doesn’t have to open his brief case for inspection,’ said the dispatcher. ‘No, he doesn’t have to,’ I answered as sweet as sugar, ‘and I don’t have to take him along or take his brief case either.’ At which I took off, leaving the Jap on the pier to reconsider until the next clipper arrived.”
At Manila our clipper was met by a flock of Filipino correspondents, eager, well-informed young people, hungry for news of the mainland. What were people reading? What was being done about this or that social problem? These natives showed a surprising amount of knowledge about the United States. Several of the Filipino correspondents were endeavoring to get assignments in Free China, whose struggle they greatly admired, for they all had a deep-seated distrust of the Japanese.
One more day of flight above the truly china blue of the China Sea, and we descended over rocky coves patterned with groups of sampanslike floating wheat grains, circled over a city rolled out across hills and valleys and beaches, and finally swung into Kowloon Harbor. We were A in Hong Kong, and we had flown halfway around the world.
Lubov Orlova and Grigory Alexandrov, Moscow 1941
