Monday, May 1, 2023

Nothing is New Under the Sun; Gunnie Ed.

Lights on pistols? I give you the Wespi Pistol Light:



In some ways, it was more like a laser sight. The Wespi light had a black dot at the center of the light beam. It may have had black bars at four edges of the light cone to aid in sighting.

Activation apparently was even easer than a Crimson Trace laser sight. When the gun was levelled, the light came on, due to an internal mercury switch. When it was lowered and holstered, the light switched itself off.



I read about it in an old book about handgunning, Pistol and Revolver Shooting, by A. L. A. Himmelwright. The device came out just before the First World War.

My guess is that it was both expensive and too delicate for professional use, so it faded from use in the 1920s. But I don't know for certain.
on or about

5 comments:

  1. CenterPuke885/01/2023 2:51 PM

    Gun Jesus has a video on the 1970’s HK version…

    https://www.forgottenweapons.com/hk-zeilen-punkt-projektor-a-flashlight-for-aiming/

    Here’s a open source book reference…

    https://bookspublicdomain.com/Shooting/Pistol-and-Revolver-Shooting-by-A-L-A-Himmelwright.html

    Gatdaily seems to have a Russian language ad in its little discussion…

    https://gatdaily.com/the-wespi-searchlight-a-turn-of-the-century-weapon-light/


    ReplyDelete
  2. Tam5/03/2023 12:53 PM

    Someone should write about how tech tends to advance from “not ready for prime time” to “edgy and expensive” to “mainstream acceptance”… ;)

    https://www.recoilweb.com/dont-become-a-fudd-a-how-to-guide-175706.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. Comrade Misfit5/03/2023 1:15 PM

    My "grab 'er in the middle of the night" gun is a 3" M65 with CT laser grips. The Taurus 856 is interesting, and I gather you're working up a review.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Richard5/03/2023 3:58 PM

    I am just going to leave the guns with you, Misfit. I feel that i could trust you. Me personaly, i am not a person who uses them. But i do trust you, mostly. And no, i am not going to show you the secret cave, or the sacred tree.
    Would they still be holy if i dragged an angry gun-toting bitch to those places? I think not.
    But this is meant to be an appreciation and a hello.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Tam5/04/2023 10:58 AM

    "The Taurus 856 is interesting, and I gather you're working up a review."

    There's one on newsstands now, in RECOIL: Concealment. :)

    ReplyDelete

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