Nova Air Pistol

Nova Air Pistol 

Pics copyright Holts Auctioneers.

Nova Air Pistol (similarity with Tell 3) 

John Griffiths, author of the Encyclopedia of Spring Air Pistols, writing on the airgunbbs.com, said:

While carrying out some long overdue restoration work on some of my lesser items, I suddenly realised that there was one pistol that used a very similar cocking principle to the Tell 3, and was patented several years before. That was the little known German semi-toy air pistol and air rifle called the Nova. The pistol version shown below is cocked by the grip as shown:

The mechanism works as follows, using the 1914 patent drawings for the rifle version for reference.

The first figure shows the gun uncocked. When the grip is broken and swung forward the piston is pushed to the end of the air chamber and the spring is compressed. At this point the trigger, which is part of the cocking lever, is engaged with the piston hook and keeps the spring compressed. This is shown in the second figure and is more or less what happens when the barrel on the Tell 3 is pulled fully back.
The grip is returned to the closed position (third figure) so dragging the piston/compressed spring unit back to the ready- to- fire position. This is also what happens with the Tell 3.

I don't know if Foss was inspired by this earlier patent or not, but the difference in the build quality of the Nova and the Tell 3 could not be any greater. The Nova was more suited to shooting darts and spuds than the Tell 3!