Collette Gravity Guns: A 60-Shot Rifle in 1854
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- Опубліковано 28 лип 2024
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What we today call the Collette Gravity Gun was actually designed by a gunsmith named Jean Nicolas Herman in Liege between 1850 and 1854. He was an employee of Victor Collette (note: spellings vary), and licensed his patent for Collette to produce. The system was first shown at the 1855 Paris International Exposition, and both rifle and pistol versions of the gun would be produced by Collette until the early 1870s.
The name "Gravity Gun" is a bit more exciting than the reality of the gun; the name comes from the fact that the magazine tube is operated only by gravity. A channel above the barrel holds a stack of rocket ball type self-contained cartridges, and pointing the barrel upward when cycling the action allows gravity to pull rounds into the breechblock one at a time. These were guns intended for recreational parlor-type shooting, and their ammunition was extremely underpowered by military standards. However, the very short cartridge length meant that the standard pistol could hold 20 rounds, and the rifle approximately 60!
Collette Gravity Rifles are extremely rare today, and I didn't want to miss this chance to show one of them on the channel. Thanks to Ader of Paris for the chance to film it!
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Caseless ammunition
Top-mounted, high capacity magazine
Unique technology
Is this a 19th century G11?
German space magic vs French celestial alchemy
@@tacticalmattfoley We never know what new oddities Jean-Paul will have down in his game room.
Doesn't have the velocity, this is on the same order of power as an airgun.
@@anthonyromanelli1392 No, the Germans don't use space magic. It's the secrets of artifice they were taught by the Gnomes.
@UCAtdA-_3cIMRr7DIPBklToQ it’s a joke dining dong
Can we all just appreciate how cool the name “Gravity Gun” is?
Or rocket ball ammunition
Gravity gun sounds like something from an old Buck Rogers serial
@@nigeh5326 you mean... Half Life 2...?
@@r.9158 nope I’m not a gamer I’m thinking of the old old 1930s cinema serials with Buster Crabbe. We used to have them on tv in the weekday mornings in the 70s when kids were off school 😊.
@@nigeh5326 yeah, my dad watched all that stuff back in the day.
Funny how something like that means different things to different generations.
He was born in 62, me in 94.
Random Moon Officer: Hmmm, cadet number 37 seems to be floating to high...better hit him with the gravity gun
Beautiful examples of old world craftsmanship, and clever engineering. What an amazing time to be a firearms designer.
KelTek: am i a joke to you?
@@jussayinmipeece1069 Nerf: "are you challenging me"
@@jussayinmipeece1069 @KelTec
Yes you are.
@@jussayinmipeece1069 yes
Umm. You know what is an amazing time to be a firearms designer? 2021
I can hear Rock Island watching this and going "Ooo! Aren't we fancy Ian. 300 year old 'maison des ventes'. You'll be crawling back when she breaks your heart!"
He'll be back... He'll always be back
Was parlour target shooting really a thing? Can see it now: after dinner dessert, coffee and brandy, a little concerto on the harpsichord then blast away at the parlour wall. Mais Oui! Magnifique!
I'd imagine it was as regular a thing as modern dinner games
It was very much a real thing. When the ladies were over you might have someone play some music and dance/sing and that sort of thing. When the men were over it would often be smoking and target shooting indoors with very low powered pistols and rifles. We are talking like .17 caliber pump guns, .22 BB (look up the cartridge its basically a .22 ball in a flanged percussion cap) and things of that nature. A gallery would be brought into the parlor or if you were particular well to do you'd have a dedicate room setup for it and people would target shoot, drink, and smoke like the well to do gentlemen they were.
It was generally a gentlemens thing, but at times ladies could be involved though its rarely recorded and when it is usually as "omg look at becky shooting with the men, what a harlot!" kinda thing.
By the end of WW1 this sort of thing had largely fallen out of favor and it was mostly now restricted to things like carnival target shooting and since the peasantry now enjoyed it obviously a good gentlemen must find other pursuits.
I keep the tradition alive, fear not.
If I was around in 1854 I would be way into that
Hell I'd be way into that now LOL
Bring back parlor shooting
I can see it now sitting at Friday's on a Saturday night with a 10/22 shooting all the junk that they have on the wall
I'd love to see this revisited in the modern day with better quality metal for using smokeless powder. Would be very interesting to see the performance if just for curiosity's sake.
I suspect the 'magazine' of these things is going to be the weak point.
There's no tension from a spring etc and it's obviously enough of an issue that they built in that little manual assist loading lever to push the next round into the weapon.
Very interesting historical novelty item though.
Not the only one.
I'd also wonder what the maths, ratios are for optimal performance here. If you could make it long enough, you should be able to keep the wall thickness high enough for a reliable, consistent round.
I know, right. I always thought rocketball ammo could work substantially better with modern processes, you just need to figure out a way not to make your gun overheat.
Google caseless ammunition
H.K. G-11 a work in progress. lol
Ian: I have 60 shots in the 1850’s
Me: gasp
Ian: what’s more, it’s french
Me: magnifique!
It reminds me of that 20 shot revolver they made.... weird how they have a history of just shoving as many rounds as possible in a gun
@@kameronjones7139 And yet some jurisdictions impose a 10 round magazine limit on their citizens!
@@jp9094 10 round magazine limit, nothing about a 10 round cylinder limit!
@@ATruckCampbell Just lug around an absolutely absurd 100 round cylinder revolver in CA
4:41 Backward assist.
A sniper button for the 19th century gentleman.
And a breach block thing that goes up. This weapon is a legislators nightmare.
Gaupulat used to make the "cartridges" for these. As far as I know, like a BB cap they contained no powder and relied on the priming compound for power. (A gentleman once tried firing a percussion musket with a ball, cap and no powder, and was surprised by how hard the ball came out of the muzzle! Perhaps that's where the idea came from.)
When George Orwell was a small boy, there was a sporting goods shop in Henley on Thames which sold "Saloon Pistols"; all the boys aspired to own one, of course, probably because they didn't know any better. Those would have fired flobert rimfire cartridges by Orwell's time, though.
Rudyard Kipling's "Stalky & Co." includes one story where Stalky, Beetle and McTurk go to the dunes to settle a dispute using saloon pistols firing "dust shot" caps (so similar to modern "snake shot" in the US?")...and wearing heavy overcoats to reduce the risk of injury.
@@christopherreed4723 iirc, during that last hurrah of "dueling" they used wax or chalk based pellets. See also Mensur, another time they nerfed the weapons and increased protection until the whole thing became a drunken fratboy episode of Jackass set in the late 19th century.
@@TheB3e3 Almost certain the one in the dunes used dust shot. Beetle's shot nicks McTurk's ear, causing it to bleed. Doubt that would have happened with wax. I think that's the one where Beetle nearly bowls over an elderly pensioner out playing golf. Which, in turn, results (how could it be otherwise) in a summons to see The Head. The incident is also referenced in the last story/epilogue.
i know a guy who reloaded something in that same vein. i think he used 5.56 brass but basically it was a soft cast .22 cal lead ball. maybe all of 10 grains. zero powder. and a primer. neat little target round. could basically shoot all day for pennies. he said getting a crimp to hold the ball in place was a pain in the ass
@@commie4164 One way of doing it was with a .22" Hornet and a .22" air-rifle pellet loaded backwards. I don't think it needed a crimp. You could add a pinch of powder, as it's a small rifle primer, but I don't think it's necessary. .218" Bee and others would work fine with the same method.
Very fascinating. "Rocket ball" is one of those things that I've thought of myself without realizing it was already a thing.
James Bond has a rocket ball cigarette in You Only Live Twice he kills a guy in the control room with it 😉 lol
@@nigeh5326 no that was gyro-jet, even less practical 🙂
@@williampratt1066 and yet for over 60 years militaries all over the world produce, test and lug around rocket assisted shells for high caliber artillery.
Gyrojet is not a gun, it's the ammo.
@@TheArklyte Your target is unlikely to put their thumb over your high caliber artillery.
@@alexcgilliland putting thumbs over a barrel of two stage system would only potentially give you a Darwin award:D
Ah yes, the Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator, in rifle and pistol configurations
Oh, i always love it to see a Stargate reference
@@mithonig6553 Half-Life reference. Stargate has Zero Point Modules, which is a different but vaguely-related piece of technobabble!
Yeah, you don't play too many videogames...
Who needs a girlfriend, right?
@@chadwik4000 ur mum
Don't forget your crowbar!
Now that is a work of art.
I have to wonder though, if that open slot is a deliberate functional purpose. I'm wondering as well if it's not just for visual purpose. If you get a ball a bit stuck, slow moving, it would seem easy to get a rod, give it tap, wriggle it a bit, you can slide it down.
And if it's just screws, so easy to take apart for cleaning, easy to reset too. No specialised tools required.
Sounds like an awesome plinking gun. Yeah, I'd buy it.
well, the most obvious function for that slot would be keeping track of your ammo.
@@EliasKaydanius Ain't going to argue. It would be pretty good for that.
I'd of thought so you can see how much ammo left
Is interesting to think of these Victorian Expos as the Shot Shows of their time. Design ideas are moving around at a rapid rate.
Liege (Belgium) was full of mechanics and gunsmiths, back then... That's how FN Herstal was actually born: A union of the region's gunsmiths. FNH kept the craftsmanship going on its hunting rifles for decades, with beautiful engravings.
Every time I imagine 19th-century Liege, I think of a city like Lindblum from Final Fantasy IX, full of steampunk and fantasy whatzits and thingamajigs everywhere you look.
This is just a single shot breechloader with an integrated speed loader. Super pretty!
Every time in this video I heard "V.C. for Victor --" my brain keeps jumping ahead to "...Charlie at the wire! Waste 'em!"
It's a thing of beauty, even if it is limited to mostly purely recreational purposes. Thanks for showing this to us Ian.
When working at Visteon Corporation (Ex Ford electronics) we worked on a generator system with the acronym of RPG. Hated to se VC and RPG in the same sentence.
above reply was for Panzermeister36
The embellishments on the rifle are glorious. That was master level work.
Imagine having some fun at the range with your buddies and pulling out something like this.
"So, how often do you want to reload?"
Today: _laughs in SAR-180_
1854: _laughs in Gravity Rifle_
A couple years ago i helped a friend sell his collette gravity pistol. Talk about difficult to get information on! Wish i could have kept it. It was gorgeous.
I wish my dad was alive so 9 could ask him if he had one back in the early 70's. I remember seeing something like that and my dad said that it holds it's ammunition above the barrel and he had 2 boxes of ammunition for it. One all there like new in the box and one that was looked at a lot. I may be wrong and probably am. One of my dad's log books was destroyed in a flood. It had all the sales and purchases that he made for a years worth of firearms transactions. it was his book for 1974. No joy on that one.i guess I will never know. Happy Safe Shooting 🇺🇸 💪.
Think you'd recognize the ammo box if you saw it?
ua-cam.com/video/W4XRSgZ4SpU/v-deo.html
Did he have a Burton Rifle.. lol
@@Bacteriophagebs it was ment to be a play on words and since I'm fat bigger is very fitting plus it's a acknowledgement to the unfair treatment of the African Americans soldiers in Viet Nam. I stand for all that have died in war and not just the popular wars. A hero is a hero.
@@biggerbehindthetrigger2814 Nice. That was more depth than I expected from a username, thanks for explaining.
@@Bacteriophagebs don't want any negative thoughts about my channel name. It doesn't matter UA-cam has pulled all my gunsmithing videos and reloading videos. All that is left is my old junk videos. I spent a lot of money on production equipment that was waisted. I'm going back to the Reloaders Network. They will let me post there
The ornate engraving and filigree was a means of trademarking ones product in the early days. It prevented cheap imitations.
The 1800s were a really cool time for firearms because of all the weird stuff that they came up with trying to find the best way to make a gun. Love this gun!
I imagine this makes the .22 Short look hot!
Given that Ian keeps a deep reserve of videos and recent conditions, my question is, when did he film this? Just random curiosity.
Rather recently I would guess, this museum is in France and he did a Patreon meet up in Paris on the 10th.
@@daytonrobbins3361 Thanks. I'm glad he's able to get around again!
@@daytonrobbins3361 It's an auction house rather than a museum, I believe.
There used to be something here in Sweden called "salongsgevär", meaning parlour rifle. They were single-shot rifles in calibre .22, and I think they were originally meant as license-free hunting rifles for pest control. Rats and such. Husqvarna made their first one in 1902 and all the way up to 1963, so that's the time frame. Yes, the same company that made motorcycles. I believe salongsgevär are still around, legally and licensed, for finishing off animals that you have caught in a trap. Like badgers or foxes or whatever. But since they were license-free and not registered, there's probably a lot of them still around illegally. The name salongsgevär/parlour rifle came about because they were so un-powerful it was possible to use them indoors for target practice. But that was never the intended use, they were hunting rifles.
I now realize I regret never having seen Bob Munden speed shooting one of these, hammer fanning style.
This is why we love you Ian. Thank you for sharing these gems with us.
Reminds me of those old pellet rifles that took BBs and you had to Gravity load them into a spring loaded chamber on the side..
What beautiful guns ! And a very clever mechanism.
This kind of content is why I love this channel
"Now Edith, just stand over there an balance this apple on your head."
Best regards from Maine, keep up the amazing work Ian!!
What lovely guns! Thanks as always for your fine work, sir!
This shows how firearms as a enterntainment kind of thing is a really old thing! I went to a couple carnivals with shooting ranges, which of course had pellet airguns and not an actual firearm but the concept is similar ^^
Love the channel Ian keep up the great work!
Never heard of a gravity gun. Once again you have amazed me with something very cool. Thanks.
It would be interesting a comparison of the performance of the rifle versus the pistol.
I expect the hollow bullet to expand like a Minié ball providing a good gas seal but quite a bit of friction, However a longer barrel is only helpful if the charge produces enough gas to maintain enough pressure differential to overcome the friction all the way to the muzzle.
If the barrel is too long compared to the charge it might actually slow the bullet down at the end.
This is something where if you had one and ammo for it, you would disassemble the ammo and replace the black powder with a few grains of slow smokeless, that would make them quite potent for what they are.
I can’t tell you how disappointed I am to find that these guns don’t actually fire bullets that disrupt the space time continuum.
I can only imagine the advertisement for something like this. Collette - When your servants taking too long to prepare your parlour room entertainment is a major problem in your life.
I wanted Ian to talk about the mechanism for loading only one round at a time. I expect there is a spur that cams down when you cock it that allows the rear most round to slide back under gravity, but blocks the other rounds.
Beautiful and very interesting bang stick.
I stand in awe of Ian's ability to gain access to some of the rarest and most unusual firearms on the face of the planet.
Doctor Who: Ohh there are my collection of gravity guns that I lost in time, somewhere...
...and where is my Sonic Screwdriver now??
I wish the down vote button worked
I see Ian is in Madame France yet again. I cannot wait to see what other beautiful guns he shall feature in the next week.
Beautiful rifle! Thanks for sharing!
I just found my ultimate most loved type of firearm.
Super cool!! Thank you Ian
I am amazed @ the level of craftsmanship on older guns!
"oh that was a nice initial session"
*puts stock of the rifle on the floor, holding the rifle by the barrel*
*leftover rocket balls in the magazine fall down due to gravity and fire in chain reaction*
They really are BEAUTIFUL!
I can't believe the bluing on the pistol is so pristine after all this time. Just beautiful.
Yes, indoor shooting was a thing. My father was a fairly serious target shooter, Camp Perry every summer. In the winter, we'd shoot Crosman pellets diagonally across the basement into a cardboard box full of newspaper. Predated the CO2 tubes, you loaded the gun's reservoir from a screw on tank. Taught range discipline, a miss would probably break something important. When he died, my mother got rid of his mint early issue DCM Garand :(
Never heard of the collette gravity gun before now and also never heard of parlour shooting. I'm assuming 😁😁 that is shooting inside a parlour. Very interesting and informative. Thanks mate 👍👍
Early 19th century firearms engineering is so fascinating in my opinion. The way every gun manufacturer tried to experiment with new ideas and the different kinds of really interesting mechanisms are honestly one of the best things from that time period. I'm always amazed whenever Ian covers these types of firearms.
These are visually beautiful guns
Very interesting. Great find.
respect to old gun manufacture, its all moving so smoothly...
"So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. "Gimme five bees for a quarter," you'd say. Now where were we... oh yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have any white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones..."
A man of culture, I see...
Thank you , Ian .
That must be the onion belt style trigger guard then. aesthetically incomplete unless one had a large yellow onion suspended from one's belt.
What an eloquent example of firearms ingenuity. To have the powder charge contained within the ball! Brilliant really. Obviously with the lack of space you get a lack of load but….
I watched the first one years ago like Ian said. Today I'm watching another but this time with the freaking *rifle*
A fancy version of a saloon gun, something designed to be used indoors in a shooting gallery. Probably not that much of a report particularly with the rifle and no fuss reloading after every shot.
I think there is a disconnect when it comes to the 19th Century: people seem to think it was one step up from chucking rocks at each other.
This was the equivilent of those exploring the concept of the Assault Rifle in the 1950's, albeit more sophistocated and debonair: a high-volume magazine with quick firing.
You look at the wide variety of weapons being suggested at this time, and it's not unusual.
I'd be wary of anyone who gave me one after dinner, though: alcohol helps my digestion...
This looks like a work of art
Extremely interesting… great video, Ian
never heard of these before. at all. thank you!
Thanks for the video
Minor correction: Rocket ball ammo doesn't contain the primer. Volcanic ammo does.
At least, according to RIA's UA-cam channel.
There is a gravity weapon available today, not really similar to this one in looks or action, but it does have a gravity feed. It's the Slinghammer repeating crossbow, which shoots metal balls (6, 8, 10, or 12mm steel balls) using a crossbow mechanism, and it uses a lever to cock back the bow for fast repeated shooting. And it holds around 60 shots in it. AFAIK it's not available to be bought made, but you can 3d print it, or have someone 3d print it for you, the blueprints are available. There's a few UA-cam clips showing the weapon, how it works, shoots, and how to assemble it..
Very cool. I’d love to see it in action.
I remember seeing them listed in Shotgun News back in the mid 1980s.
Really like historical arms that I've never heard of before, thx for the vid
That is an absolutely beautiful firearm!
This is why I'm here. Look at how cool those are.
Guns can be works of art, especially these ones.
Super cool and ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS too!!
Looks like these are amazing quality guns.
I’m just off to spend some quality gravity-enriched time in my parlour.
The metal appears to be very nice quality too.
Wow this is really neat thanks for sharing
Hey, i love ur video keep up the good work ( forgotten weapon forever)
That gravity feed reminds me of how my Crossman air rifle works.
And the Diana Oktober fest gallery air rifle.
Incredibly interesting pieces.
I really hope atleast one of those gets a range video, very curious about how reliable that feed system is
"Rocket Ball ammunition"
What a save!
What a save!
What a save!
That is v high quality wood and metal engraving and for its time it looks a quality finish
I really enjoyed watching.
A learning experience almost every time
Those old rocket guns sound like the only way for a lethal shot would be a shot to the bridge of the nose or the temple. Like a BB gun they could definitely put your eye out ;)
Imagine that firing pin hitting your finger that’s going straight through.
never heard of any of this, thanks
It reminds me a bit of my Stevens Visible loader .22 rifle. Neat old gun.
I wish, when you say you will provide a link to another video in the description, that you would actually do it.
I don't collect older firearms, I spend all my money on contemporary guns. But the longer I'm subscribed the more I want to get into it. Almost bought a 91 Carcano, the shortened cavalry one, Ian did a video on it, but the price of ammo scared me off. $4 to $6 per round. Not that I'd shoot it much but I'd want to a bit of course. Idk may have to look for another potential 1st collectible gun.
That's just so cool! I have to wonder if modern powders would make them feasible again.
Morning everyone
It's the afternoon silly. 😉 (uk viewer here)
I wish you a good day as well
@@brendandor I would have upvoted, but it's France here.
This is so interesting. I wonder if rocket bullets could be looked into more with smokeless powder and maybe guns like this could be more feasible. At least for the novelty of it
Super cool!
Something you rarely see Nowadays-artistry in a weapon.