William H. Whitney of Florence, Mass. has a 1890 patent #451191 of a similar device but I still think the origin to be with the French:

http://www.google.com/patents?id=zK1HAAA...;q=&f=false


I too think Brenneke to have had a similar device. Early on he witnessed a terrible event involving a shotgun/gun(If anyone is interested I'll see if I can find the details) and this lead to his over-design for safety. Have a gander at any of his examples and they are very, very robust to say the least.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse