Justin,
Nice gun. First "Beesley" marked "wrist breaker" I've ever seen. I believe it to be a rare and special gun, not too many people can claim to have ever seen one, thanks a million for posting pics of it!
The "wrist breaker" design was patented in 1884, patent number 425. The patent block safety used on the gun was also patented in 1884, #14488.
With these dates, it's hard to imagine that Thorn took out a patent in 1881 for something that pertained to Beesleys gun of 1884.
Thorn was granted a patent for an improvement to the Beesley design...this was #7242 of 1894. It is my understanding that Lancasters made after this date are in fact different from earlier "wrist breakers", this goes for both the sidelocks and body action guns.
Going back to how Companies bought designs outright, the cycle seems to have been repeated when Lancasters bought the 12/20 design from W. Baker later on down the line.
I would like to read about patent #499 of 1881.
Dustin
Last edited by LeFusil; 03/17/11 04:31 PM.
