I'm afraid I veered off this thread as it went into Civil War territory. I see it is back on track.
On the subject of the earliest British pin-fire game guns and how they came about, I think I've come to a satisfactory conclusion, at least for myself. I think the idea that the Hodges-Lang gun was patterned after Casimir Lefaucheux's gun is only partly correct, in so far as it was based on Lefaucheux's pin-fire system, i.e. a breech-loader using the pin-fire cartridge. I think mechanically the Hodges-Lang gun is mostly based on Beatus Beringer's design, with the single bite, rising stud action, which might have been in circulation from at least 1841. There may be others in the mix, as a number of other French makers had guns on display at the Great Exhibition of 1851, for Hodges and others to see. The time between the end of the Exhibition and the appearance of first Hodges-Lang gun means there was time for Hodges and Lang to examine, and perhaps dissect, various French guns. I think that the Hodges-Lang gun duplicates the internals of the Beringer gun, which cannot be a coincidence. The original Lefaucheux was a double-bite design, which Lang did not copy. As to the small forward underlever and the wood fore-end of the Hodges-Lang gun, I had previously thought this was a British stylistic addition, to differentiate from the Lefaucheux under-lever. Not so; I've now seen a Prélat gun with that very same configuration, built under licence from Lefaucheux in 1836. There may be little of the Hodges-Lang gun that was not copied wholesale from French makers including Beringer, Lefaucheux, and possibly others. The original inspiration
might have come from the Great Exhibition, but a number of French guns may have passed through Hodges and Lang's hands before Lang launched his seminal piece in 1854 (or possibly late 1853). This might go some ways to explain why Lang did not patent the design.
I felt confident enough of this conclusion to put it in my latest article in the Vintage Gun Journal:
https://www.vintageguns.co.uk/magazine/lever-over-guard-originsAs always, new research and contrary opinions are always welcome.
