John & Georg's Ears; an 8 Years Legal Issue
 

What's the connection between John M. Browning, possibly America's greatest firearms inventor and Georg Luger? It's an interesting story to be sure.

In late 1894 or early 1895, John M. Browning made sketches of an idea for a semi-auto shotgun based on a toggle action. The idea was laid aside until late 1897 when a crude prototype was made by John's brother Ed. The project was shelved until the Fall of 1898 when John Browning returned from Europe. On November 9, 1898, the shotgun was ready to be taken afield. With a second person, 75 shells were fired without mishap. In March, 1899, Hans Tauscher visited the Brownings in Utah and during what seems to have been a pleasant stay, was given a demonstration of the shotgun. Browning filed for a patent on 6 May, 1899, and sold the design to Winchester on 20 May, 1899. The contract with Winchester stipulated that because the mechanism was similar to that used by the Borchardt pistol, there must be no problem with Herr Borchardt. There wasn't.... but not so with Georg Luger. His attorney contacted Browning's attorney threatening to file suit and prevent Browning's shotgun from being sold in Europe unless Browning acknowledged in writing that the toggle opening mechanism was Luger's invention. Browning refused.

Beginning in 1900, Luger contested Browning design in court, a case that lasted 8 years. Luger contended that Browning had learned of his design while on a transatlantic voyage from Hans Tauscher. They were on the same ship but Browning claimed that they never met during the trip.

Tauscher, who could have cleared the matter up easily, sided with Luger. What couldn't be explained was the fact that Browning's patent had been filed before any information about Luger's work had been made public in any way. The US Patent Office ruled in favor of Browning and set the stage for the legal battle. It should be noted that Browning's "ears" that opened his toggle action were almost triangular in shape and internal while Luger's ramps are external.

Two weeks later on 28 August, 1900, Georg Luger, asked that the patent lawsuit be dissolved with the understanding that neither he nor Browning had invented the toggle opening idea and that it was based on previous inventions. Both Browning and the US Patent Office rejected the offer. The Patent Office thought the ideas so similar that a decision should be made.

Hans Tauscher, who could have cleared up the matter, took the side of Georg Luger and claimed that he had described the toggle opening mechanism to John Browning during daily discussions aboard the ship during the previously mentioned trip. Browning denied having talked to Tauscher at all during the trip. While Luger insisted that he had invented the system in 1898, his patent application filed in the US on 29 April, 1899, shows the original Borchardt toggle system.

The Patent Officer examiner explained that even if Luger's account of his work and Tauscher's story was true, Browning had almost completed his shotgun before the voyage took place. The case was ruled in favor of Browning and an appeal to the U.S. District Court in Washington was also ruled in Browning's favor.

In 1905, Browning and Colt tried to bring an injunction against the sale of the Luger in the US. After three more years of litigation, the matter was decided in favor of Luger, noting that Browning's toggle action shotgun had not been manufactured and was too similar to other mechanisms to warrant patent protection. Browning and Colt were ordered to pay Luger's court costs - plus interest - of $1,034. Thus ended the argument over John and Georg's "ears".

The above information comes largely from the new book "THE GUNS OF JOHN MOSES BROWNING".

Adding that book to the list. Thanks for the post!

G2

I had never heard that, fascinating stuff. Thank you
I have one or two books on Browning, he was an amazing man.

The book is excellent so far. I'm up to the beginning of the development of the 1911. Anyone interested in firearms advancement should find the book fascinating.

Fascinating stuff.

I have read the story many times of Hugo Borchardt's pistol that was bought by DWM who hired George Luger to improve it. Was that true or not? I have seen many pistols called Borchardt that look like the Luger, at least in regard to toggle and receiver.

Ditto that :thumbup:

The bottom line here is that both men were genius's and both are responsible for the evolution of semi automatic firearms and much more. :cheers:

Borchardt and Browning were a class apart. Luger was a bottom feeder who abused his position to fill his pockets by patenting other people's ideas.

What still puzzles me is why Loewe allowed this to happen. Probably money: preventing a single designer to come out on top by keeping the rivalry going.

That's pretty accurate I believe. Borchardt invented his pistol and it was revolutionary. He seems to have been somewhat stubborn though and rejected DWMs request to modify his pistol to make it a viable candidate for military use. Georg Luger did the work that gave us the Parabellum pistol but otherwise it seems that he lacked vision or original thought.

Browning was highly regarded as a person, especially in Belgium. His reputation there was one of a humble man with a few quirks who treated everyone with respect without regard for their position in life. His model 1900 pocket pistol literally saved FN. Browning's genius as a firearms inventor is indisputable.

The Borshardt pistol was rejected by various militaries for a number of reasons so DWM asked Hugo Borchardt to modify it in order to make it more appealing for military use. From what I read, Borchardt was a somewhat stubborn man who didn't see the need to change his pistol. DWM then hired Georg Luger to make the changes and the result was the Parabellum or Luger pistol. The major changes included placing the recoil spring in the grip, changing the grip angle and using the ramps on the frame to unlock the toggle system. The cartridge also required shortening to function in the revised grip space.

Browning's toggle lock prototype at the JB museum in Ogden, UT.

rolandtg, I visited that museum in 1989 and it's fantastic.... well worth a visit if one is in the area. I bought the book about John Browning that was on sale there and have read it a couple of times. The new book I mentioned above has new information and is very interesting.

Fascinating information, thanks for posting Doubs. I find the period of firearms development from about 1880 till 1914 very interesting.
I always thought that both Borchardt and Browning were inspired by the Maxim gun.
Hiram Maxim's patents 1883, prototype trials 1884 and full scale production by Vickers in 1886.
Mark

Mark,

Agreed!

The toggle lock system, used in most machine guns of WWI, is, indeed, of Maxim design! Browning's machine gun designs came a little later on and do not use the toggle lock system.

If memory serves, Maxim was presented with both a C93 Borchardt and Early Model Luger as a gift in recognition of his toggle system design (as now utilized in handgun format).


Sieger

Luger was already working for Loewe when Borchardt's pistol was conceived. He was originally hired to assist Mauser to obtain an Italian rifle contract. Luger had worked for the main competitor, Mannlicher, and spoke Italian.

Worth mentioning that the first manager of Vickers after the merger with Maxim was Siegmund Loewe, brother of Ludwig and Isidor Loewe. When Siegmund died, Albert Vickers took over his seat at the supervisory board of Loewe.


Luger pulled one over on Paul Mauser, patenting an insignificant design feature and subsequently demanding royalties from Mauser. This also ended in court, but Luger won. Needless to say he was unwelcome at Mauser afterwards.

So there were very close ties between Maxim, Vickers, Loewe, DWM, Mauser and FN.

Luger's methods included cheating and bribing. In a letter he mentioned offering bribes to the wife of an acceptance official.

This also led to the situation where Paul Mauser started patenting in his own name, rather than the company.

In regards to the togggle action, neither Borchardt, Browning or Luger came up with idea, Winchester did. Both the 1873 and the 1876 used it as did Hiram Maxim in his machine gun. I have not heard of those companies being sued.

Winchester was not the inventor of the toggle mechanism used in the 1873 rifle. The inventor was Benjamin Tyler Henry whose 1860 Henry rifle was manufactured by the New Haven Arms Company from 1860 until 1866. The New Haven Arms Company was then renamed the Winchester Arms Company and they released an improved Model 1866 rifle.

Until John Browning designed the mechanism that became the 1886 Winchester, the Winchester lever action rifles were unable to handle cartridges more powerful than pistol calibers.

Doubs,

The facts you quote seem true and complete enough to me!

Browning's 1886 design perfected the locking-system of another engineer's prototype he reworked with his Winchester 1885 Single-Shot Rifle lock-up system. This made the 1886 Winchester capable of shooting full-power black powder cartridges, such as the U.S. Government 45-70. Meanwhile, I believe Marlin had already meet that particular challenge in 1881.

None of the aforementioned, however, addressed the full-automatic fire of high-power rifle cartridges.

Again, Maxim seems to me to be the inventor to credit for developing the toggle-system capable of full-automatic, high-power rifle fire.

Depending how far back in time you want to travel, actually, the toggle-system was designed from the human knee's ability to withstand very heavy loads without buckling under the pressure.

Respectfully,


Sieger

Absolutely agree. The Maxim machinegun was a marvel of engineering that changed warfare forever. It was also the first fully automatic weapon and was based on the toggle action.

and all of that without the slightest help from the internet search engines in 1898....!!

I am aware that Oliver Winchester never invented anything. He manufactured men's clothing. He bought the Volcanic Arms company at auction and hired B. Henry to see what could be done with the design. Mister Henry turned a pistol into the Henry rifle just in time for the war between the states. It didn't have a lot of power but it was a repeater. Early receivers rifles were made of iron , then switched to brass. The first rifle to carry Winchester's name was the 1866 model. It had a brass frame and was nick named Yellow Boy. It was made until the 1890s despite the fact that the '73 and '76 were available. I have owned three '73 Winchesters but I didn't care for them. Personally, I don't like any Winchester made before 1892. I once had six of them. I got hooked on single shots and never looked back.

Luger Rifle: https://www.historicalfirearms.info/...one-of-the-few