A harmonica gun or slide gun is a form of firearm which was breech loaded with a steel slide, containing a number of chambers bored in it and which were filled with projectiles. Most harmonica guns are percussion cap guns, although some designs exist for compressed air guns and some examples were made in

pinfire cartridge A pinfire cartridge is an obsolete type of metallic firearm cartridge in which the priming compound is ignited by striking a small pin which protrudes radially from just above the base of the cartridge. Invented by Frenchman Casimir Lefaucheux i ...

form. In percussion cap guns, each chamber contains a separate primer, powder charge, and projectile. The slide was inserted in an opening in the breech action and could be advanced by releasing the camlock, moving the slide by hand. The gun comes in both pistol and rifle models, as well as single-action and double-action. The earliest example of a harmonica gun is probably the one constructed by the Swiss inventor Welten in 1742. According to Clive Scott Chisholm in ''Following the Wrong God Home: Footloose in an American Dream'' and Louis A Garavaglia & Charles G. Worman in ''Firearms of the American West: 1803-1865'' the slide gun was independently invented by a Mormon gunsmith called Nicanor Kendall in 1838 and it was from this gunsmith that Browning got the idea for his own harmonica guns when he moved to the area in which Kendall was living in around 1840. The most famous maker of harmonica guns was Jonathan Browning, father of

John Moses Browning John Moses Browning (January 23, 1855 – November 26, 1926) was an American firearm designer who developed many varieties of military and civilian firearms, cartridges, and gun mechanisms many of which are still in use around the world. He m ...

. Commencing in 1834 in Quincy,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

, he began to make harmonica guns and more conventional revolving

rifle A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ( rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with ...

s. He continued to improve on the principle after he became a member of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

and emigrated to Nauvoo, Illinois, and finally Ogden,

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...

. In 1837 a percussion cap harmonica gun was patented by Elijah Fisher and Dexter H. Chamberlain. In 1854 a

pump action Pump action or slide action is a repeating firearm action that is operated manually by moving a sliding handguard on the gun's forestock. When shooting, the sliding forend is pulled rearward to eject any expended cartridge and typically to ...

harmonica gun was patented by Alexander Bain. A crank-operated harmonica gun was patented in 1856 by C G Terrel.

References

External links

Jonathan Browning, Mormon gunsmith (Nov 6 2008)
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More Pictures of a Harmonica Gun
Firearm actions

See also

References

External links