Trinchet air pistol, Barcelona

Trinchet air pistol, Barcelona 

With thanks to John Griffiths, author of the Encyclopedia of Spring Air Pistols.

John said on the airgunBBS.com:

I first heard about this pistol about in about 2007, when collector Rob Morton told me that while on holiday he had seen it in a military museum in Barcelona, along with a corresponding air rifle. Luckily he took some pictures, as the museum was in Montjuic Castle and the museum was unfortunately closed down in 2009. So what happened to the guns in the display is anyone’s guess, but they are probably in crates in the cellars, never to see the light of day in our lifetimes...

As the labels say, the inventor was a L.J.Trinchet of Barcelona, and the pistol and rifle are dated 1952 and 1950 respectively. I have not yet been able to find a relevant patent. I originally thought that these were unique prototypes as they had never been reported before, or since. Until the pistol on Facebook turned up that is. So it seems that more than one of the pistols were made, but it probably never went into production.

The pistol is discussed in the first edition ESAP on page 249, and on page 333 in the second edition.