An appeal for help. In 1854 or 1855 the then new outdoor magazine "The Field" ran a review of the Lefaucheaux center-break type breech-loader just being offered for sale by Joseph Lang. It including analyses of the gun and detailed drawings. I have searched in vain for this article or articles without success although it is referenced in numerous subsequent letters to the editor, etc. Does anyone know where this article/review can be found? In view of its significance, might it be posted here?
Gene,
There were no mentions or descriptions of Lang’s pin-fire gun in
The Field in 1854 and 1855, let alone any illustrations.
In 1854, the year we can be sure Joseph Lang had started to build and sell pin-fire fowling pieces, there was no mention of breech-loaders anywhere in the pages of
The Field. Not even in Joseph Lang’s own advertisements, which ran in the July-December 1854 issues. This lack of any mention by Lang of his new breech-loader is curious in the extreme, as Lang was quite willing to use
The Field to promote his business. Perhaps he was waiting for word-of-mouth feedback from customers using his new guns in the 1854-1855 shooting season, to address any concerns or flaws before actively promoting them—but this is only speculation on my part, in trying to understand Lang’s silence on the matter.
Lang’s advertisements remained unchanged in the January-April 1855 issues. In May 1855 Lang advertised needle guns and Flobert’s rim-fire, but not yet his pin-fire guns. It was not before the 21 June issue of 1856 that Lang finally included, in his first advertisement of the year, mention of his breech-loader, albeit rather obliquely:
“Guns by Purday [sic], Moore, Lancaster, Lang, S. Nock, Forsyth, as also several genuine Joe Manton’s, warranted, at LANG’S, Gun Manufactory, Cockspur-street.
N.B. — Single and Double Rifles, as also the improved Breech-Loading Guns and Rifles and Revolvers, on the most approved make. 22, Cockspur-street, London.” The advertisement was repeated, spelling corrected, in the 28 June issue, throughout July, and in the 9 August issue. There were no further Lang advertisements in 1856.
From all other advertisements and from articles and letters on guns and shooting appearing in
The Field, one would hardly believe breech-loading fowling-pieces existed, let alone had been in use across the Channel for decades. The subject was singularly ignored. Then, in the 1 November 1856 issue, a cryptic response to a query from “Major R” was published in the
To Correspondents section,
“— It is a French invention; we never shot with one, therefore cannot give an opinion.” Unfortunately
The Field’s practice of not including the original question is unhelpful, but it appears Major R may have been seeking information on the pin-fire gun.
In the 20 December 1856 issue, also in the
To Correspondents section, a more informative reply to a query from “Capt. B” was provided, which at least indicated the Editor was familiar with the subject of Lefaucheux and Beringer guns:
“Capt. B. — The patent for the breech-loading fowling pieces was taken out about the year 1848, by M. Lefaucheux, of Paris, and effectually brought before the world in 1850. They have been manufactured in Liège for the Patentee. Several improvements have since been made, but not with any material change; except Beringer’s, which drops the barrel down by the action of moving the guard on one side; the other improvement being the tubes with a nipple attached, so that the gun can be turned into an ordinary gun to load from the muzzle — which tubes are made of brass, and fit exact in the barrels where the cartridges go when loading at the breech. The Lefaucheux gun acts by moving a lever (which lies flat against the bottom of the breech end of the barrel) on one side, which drops the barrel.”Finally, in the 20 December 1856 issue, in the
Shooting section under the heading
Breech-loading Shot Guns, the following innocuous-sounding question appeared:
“Sir, – If any of your numerous correspondents have used the breech-loading shot guns, would they be so good as to say what they think the advantages or disadvantages of them may be? Curious.” In hindsight this was the proverbial starting-gun, whereby the subject of the pin-fire would begin to occupy a substantial portion of
The Field’s shooting columns.
The article or writings you may be referring to, might be John Henry Walsh’ s book
“The Shot-Gun and Sporting Rifle,” published in 1859. The book does describe and illustrate Lang’s gun. Walsh became
The Field’s shooting editor in late 1857, but he was working for the paper earlier than that. As Walsh and
The Field became somewhat synonymous with shooting matters after that, the confusion in later writings might be understandable.
I’d be happy to be corrected if I’m wrong, but I have gone though
The Field from 1853 to 1870 in great detail.
