Treatise on Henry Quackenbush and George Gunn (founders of modern airguns)

Treatise on Henry Quackenbush and George Gunn (founders of modern airguns) 

By David W Trull

Early parlor Air rifles and pistols before 1870 were usually expensive and cumbersome affairs designed to shoot large reusable darts in a gallery setting. In 1871 two Herkimer Gunsmiths named Quackenbush and Gunn revolutionized the airgun field by designing cheap affordable air pistols that utilized both darts and lead shot. The use of Darts required the pistols be breech loading. The use of lead shot required the Gunsmiths to use the barrel caliber that match the common lead buckshot of the day. Quackenbush opted to use type #TT shot which equates to .21 caliber. Gunn on the other hand, opted to use the smaller type #BB shot that equated to .180 caliber. Gunn chose the odd .180 caliber because it increased velocity of the projectile due to the BB shots smaller weight and size. This was necessitated by the direct pull cocking and small pistol grip/ wrist  air chamber of the airgun.  These two pistols were primarily marketed as dart shooting toy parlor pistols, but the ability to use commonly found buckshot allowed the pistol to be used outside the parlor setting to shoot vermin such as rats and birds, since this is not a setting for reusable darts. George Gunn also created a rifle version of the 1872 design utilizing the same wrist air chamber and direct pull cocking. This rifle which was marketed together with the pistol exclusively by Alfred Morse, most assuredly use the same .180 "BB" caliber as the pistol, but no examples have surfaced, so cannot be verified. The significance of these two pistols cannot be overstated. These two Herkimer Gunsmiths ushered in the age of the affordable modern air guns. Additionally, the George Gunn pistol and possibly rifle, introduced the BB caliber shot to the airgun market and is the very first BB guns. This is 15 years before the introduction of the Markham all wood BB rifle. This re-writes early BB gun history. 

 

The sad fact is neither men benefitted in any significant way from ushering in the modern age of air guns worldwide. Now it's my opinion that the least successful of the pair ultimately had the greater impact overall, but the story of George Peck Gunn is one of   constant struggle to stay solvent as a manufacturer. Quackenbush would become a wealthy man, but George Gunn never prospered during his lifetime.

 

So lets delve into the further contributions to the birth of the modern age of airguns by these former Remington employees.

Now both men had designed a direct pull cocking action pistol, but if they were to produce a stronger more powerful spring airgun, they would have to have a stronger spring. Cocking a stronger spring would require some type of advantage over simple brute strength pulling it straight back. Now these two former Remington employees were not only friends and neighbors, but also friendly rivals who wanted to top each other with their designs. This friendly competition brought the best out of both men.  

 

Both men came up with a different approach to providing an advantage for cocking a more powerful spring.  Both men would come up with a design that utilizes the barrel to cock and compress the spring. Both  of their designs would be patented on a pistol models, but ultimately it would be the rifle version of these designs that would revolutionize the industry.  

Henry Quackenbush came up with a push barrel design which utilized body weight to push the barrel against a hard surface thus cocking the gun. There would be  two versions of the push barrel design. The first version has the barrel push back against a piston and spring located in an air compression chamber. Once the barrel has pushed back the piston compressing and cocking the spring, the barrel is returned to its original forward  position. This is the design that was subsequently used on all Quackenbush air rifles except the model 5. The second version was also cocked and the spring compressed by pushing back the barrel but it was a more compact design only  suitable for a small pistol. The spring was located externally and surround the barrel which uncocked, protruded out of the pistol. The piston was attached to the barrel, and when the barrel was pushed into the gun , the external spring was compressed, and the piston was now located in the back of the compression chamber. When fired, the compressed spring drives the barrel forward and the piston compresses the air ejecting the projectile.  This is called a "Popout pistol" since the barrel pops out when fired.

 

George Gunn on the other hand, came up with a break barrel design which utilizes the mechanical advantage of the barrel being used as a lever  to cock and compress the spring. This is the design that was subsequently used on all Haviland and Gunn air rifles except the Parlor model .

Unfortunately for George, his break barrel rifle was significantly more expensive than the Quackenbush push barrel rifle at a time when America was going thru a "Great" Depression. In 1876, the Quackenbush was priced at $10 and the Haviland and Gunn rifle was $25. As a result the Quackenbush sold quite well and the Haviland and Gunn rifle sold poorly.

 

By 1880, Gunn had sold all his airgun patents to his good friend Quackenbush, after only selling a small number of Haviland and Gunn rifles. Several Gunn designs along with Quackenbush's unsuccessful pop-out pistol design were copied by a German manufacturer named Michael Flurscheim, later known as  Eisenwerke Gaggenau. Michael Flurscheim founder of the company copied the principle of the Gunn grip reservoir pistol in 1878 and had the designed patented in Germany. This coincidently is the same year the Gunn pistol was discontinued in the U.S. The so called MF pistol would be the first air gun produced by the company.  By 1881, this German company was manufacturing a close copy of the Haviland and Gunn "Junior" airgun model, a pistol based on the Gunn designed Morse pistol, and a pop-out pistol based on the 1877 Quackenbush design. These three designs totally jump started the European air gun market and were widely imported into the United Kingdom. These three designs from Quackenbush and Gunn did not fare well in the US, but were extremely popular in Europe. The rifle was first marketed in the UK in 1881 as the "GEM" rifle, and the pistol was initially marketed as the  "William Tell" for the Gunn designed pistol, and the "Little William Tell" for the Quackenbush pop-out pistol. These were so popular that all three designs are still produced today.

And the copying of Gunn's ideas by German manufacturers didn't end in the 1800s. Haenel copied George Gunn's lever arrangement and ring ended lever from his first BB rifle introduced in 1888. Haenel produced a direct pullback pistol the Haenel 50 during the 1930's. It suffered from the same issues that plagued the early Quackenbush and Gunn pistols from 1871, weak spring due to the pullback design. Haenel copied George Gunn's circular ring ended lever mechanism that gave the user a mechanical advantage in cocking the gun, and therefore allowed for a stronger spring in the Haenel 100 and thus a more powerful pistol. 

 

 

George Gunn would go on to design and manufacture the first magazine repeater air rifle in 1886 and in 1888 he would produce the first magazine repeater BB rifle in the world. Just to put things in context, Daisy was just now giving away single shot BB rifles as a promotion to buy a windmill, and Markham was still making all wood single shot BB rifles introducing the Chicago model in 1888. Gunn was right in the mix at the dawn of the BB rifle and raised the bar with the introduction of his magazine repeater "Volunteer" BB rifle, which caused the other manufacturer to scramble and introduce their own magazine repeaters. The GP Gunn company would soon be renamed the Atlas Gun Company.

 

So you can see why I think George P Gunn is so important to the history of the modern Spring-Air gun.

He introduced the BB caliber, the break barrel air gun, the pistol grip reservoir airgun, the first combo air rifle / 22 cal. cartridge rifle, the first magazine repeater break barrel air rifle, and the first magazine repeater BB rifle. This is all from a guy is is mostly forgotten by airgunners today.

 

I am currently researching George P Gunn, and more detail will be in the George Gunn chapter of my book. I just want to give a quick summary of some of his accomplishments.