Available at Morphy’s here:
In 1929 Elek B. Juhasz of Lebanon PA patented this sleeve gun. It is a single-shot, manually cocked firing mechanism with a screw-on barrel and is worn on the inside of the forearm, presumably under a sleeve. The firing sear is connected to a pull string, which is to be tied to a finger ring. The gun is then fired by lifting the hand up, a la Spiderman shooting webs.
The design was manufactured by Elmer Carlstrom of Chicago, but only a small number (a few hundred at most) appear to have been made. Despite often being referenced as using a .30 or .32 caliber pistol cartridge, this example is made for a blank or tear gas round – which would be a lot less randomly dangerous than a live bullet in this sort of very impractical device.
An idea for the next project for Headstamp Publishing: “The Truly Stupid Guns of the World”.
If one were spoofing 007 consider the running joke scenes this would lend itself to. Stopping a sneeze, swatting a mosquito, zipping one’s fly. And each time, a bystander gets plugged.
The “wrist dart” used by Roger Moore as 007 in Moonraker (1979) comes to mind.
cheers
eon
Idea of fore-arm fire-arm appeared many time in history, but if you want to crank up to 11, then take https://guns.fandom.com/wiki/Soldier_2025_Weapons_Pod which is supposed to fired 15 mm guided rockets.
“(…)Truly Stupid Guns of the World”(…)”
“cuirass of steel . . . when brought into a right angle position may be fired in batteries of four and five by pressing the studs and levers, which release the hammers which are cocked by a hook carried on a chain.” The armor also came with a pair of stirrups that contained two pistols, which would fire by pulling on a strap in case one is pursued or attacked from behind.
https://laststandonzombieisland.com/tag/pistol-armour/
Condition 1: Cocked and locked
Condition 0: Ready to fire
Condition -1: Ready to fire, trigger tethered to body parts
Cool in a forgotten weapon sort of way, glad concealed carry didn’t go that direction. BTW did anyone else see the M26 MASS over Ian’s right shoulder?
Yes, and the Marble Game Getter opposite it.
cheers
eon
Yeah, I’ve been reading the posts long enough to have guessed you saw it. To be able to ID a Marble Game Getter, in the game of name the obscure guns in the background, is quite impressive. You sir are in a league of your own. Or Ian’s I’m not sure. Well played.
The firing comparison to Spider-Man reminds me of SCotUS case Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment, LLC. , where Marvel had failed to include a clause in a patent licensing agreement for a “A toy that makes it possible for a player to act like a spider person” that their royalty obligations would end when the patent expired, and managed to get SCotUS to let them out of their mistake by declaring contracts licensing an expired patent weren’t lawful. Kimble had patented a “combination of known components” (per his own patent) including “A trigger mechanism [that] enables the player to activate the valve at will by the exercise of pressure with the fingers of the hand wearing the glove.” . I wonder if, in the alternative to getting a major SCotUS decision in their favor, Marvel could have used this as prior art for invalidating Kimble’s patent.
I’m guessing this one wasn’t a .30 or .32. From dimensioning I’d estimate .44 or .45.
Or possibly a short .410 shotgun cartridge, which was used in some tear gas guns back then.
Keep in mind that in those days, “tear gas” was more likely a solid, i.e. more of a “dust”. Chloropicrin was an example, as it degraded rapidly in liquid form but prepared as a powder its storage life was almost unending.
For that matter, a cartridge loaded with red pepper could be highly effective at “spray the thug in the face” range.
clear ether
eon
Gotta work on the trigger mechanism. The “string on a ring” would lead to lots of accidental discharges.
I am thinking the basic design needs to be changed so that firing is pulling backwards, rather than forward. The button gives me the idea of having a button on the jacket sleeve attached to the string. Grab the button and pull towards the body.
P. S. Pulling backwards with the offhand would get the hand out of the way of the discharge. The hand with the gun would still have to be flexed out of the way.
“(…)work on the trigger mechanism(…)”
In 2011 Hayden filled patent US20110265364A1 Firearm apparatus to be worn on the user’s forearm https://patents.google.com/patent/US20110265364A1/ which shows electrically fired weapon described as such
The electrical wire includes a first connect and a second connect such that the firearm apparatus is operable by touching the first connect with the second connect in order to complete the electrical circuit.
with 1st connect at 1 finger and 2nd connect at another finger.
This should prevent entangled-wire accident.
Another “issue”. It does appear that the gun was used for a chemical deterrent, rather than a solid projectile. So the shooter would have to pull back the cuff of their jacket to fire. Otherwise the powder/gas would get trapped by the cuff and do damage to only the shooter.
You would have to put a gun to my head to get me to strap that thing to my forearm.
Ideas like this can only spring from the minds of people who’ve no familiarity with firearms or combat; just like the usual cartoonish science-fiction weapons that are described as “arm cannon” or being built into people’s bodies or armor.
You just don’t do that, for oh-so-many reasons. One, you’re just going to lose the arm it’s on when you have the inevitable misfire, and the lack of flexibility inherent to the entire idea.
I’m pretty sure that widespread issuance of this bad idea would produce a spate of hand and arm injuries such that the reconstructive surgeons would experience a veritable renaissance of surgical repair technique.
They’d have to, what with the number if idiocy-induced self-injuries.
Of course, it’d be a huge boon to anyone seeking to malinger or get out of combat.
I’d more likely expect to see something like this at a poker table. As in something a guy caught with five aces would deploy to get a head start for the door.
Riverboat gamblers and etc. had all sorts of clever gadgets like this “back in the day”.
cheers
eon
I just thought of another danger. One’s wrist gun could go off by accident and destroy the fifth ace tucked up one’s sleeve. Imagine: unarmed gambler with evidence of his perfidy floating through the air like incriminating confetti.’We’re in mid channel.Lesee iffen you kin swim to the Arkansas side of the river with both hands tied behind the back!’
Travis Bickle approves
James West beat him to it.
I immediately thought of Chamber of Horrors (1966). Patrick O’Neal (1927-1994) played a serial killer with only one hand. He had a variety of nasty implements he could attach to the stump, one of them being a moulded wax fake hand with a .41 caliber Remington Double Derringer inside.
clear ether
eon
I always wondered about James West. Each week he had the exact once in a lifetime gadget he needed. Either that or he walked around with forty pounds of gear under those splendid suits of his. Yes, there are hard feelings. My dad caught me trying to modify my new school boots to feature a West-eque boot knife.
In the very first (pilot) episode, “The Night of the Inferno”, you see West in a wardrobe compartment of his train that is in fact a concealed armory. Everything from Winchester 1866 carbines to Remington Rolling Block cavalry carbines, plus assorted handguns from his trademark nickeled .45 Peacemaker down to a .320 Webley British Bull-Dog pocket revolver. (The latter showed up several times as West’s hideout gun.)
He puts on a springloaded sleeve holdout for a Remington Double Derringer. Later in the episode, he escapes from a dungeon with another Remington DD concealed in two parts in his detachable boot heels. The two rounds of .41 Rimfire are in his belt buckle.
At the very end of the episode, Artemus Gordon takes down an enemy sentry on the train’s caboose with a “gadget”. A simple, no-BS,Trapdoor Springfield cavalry carbine; in the time frame (just after Grant’s first inauguration), it’s probably a .50-70.
Going back to West’s bootheel gun, a similar gag was used decades later in an episode of Star Trek; Deep Space Nine, “Our Man Bashir”, in which one of Dr. Bashir’s 1960s-era spy spoof holodeck programs goes wonky on him. He has a concealed gun in his shoe heels, that fires “bullets” that are actually shirt cuff buttons.
Sillier than the average even for DS9, but at least we got to see Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) in a stunning 1960s evening gown.
cheers
eon
Didn’t ‘Repairman Jack’ pack a .45 Semmerling in his lower colon or some such?
The hero always just happens to have the correct gadget to escape the peril the writers have concocted. This is called “plot armor”. The greatest armor ever invented.
Never watched the original series, unfortunately,
though I remember the Wild wild west movie from that end of the millenium magical “everything will be possible” time, being agressively promoted (including a song that blared on the radio everyday – what a great promotional stunt of actor also mixing it with his rapping/singing efforts),
yet beside all the hype the movie ended disappointingly bad and “meh”.
I watched it back in the day on VHS and only remember 2 scenes from it; some fake breast transvestite filling BS advice, and a giant mechanical spider/base? or whatnot.
Meantime the guy with a simple paperweight is knocking in one’s head. As a concept, it springs from a ‘wouldn’t it be cool…’ mindset, not ‘what situation am I solving…’ (with a dash of ‘what could go wrong…’)
OH === don’t be such a buzzkill.