Hi Heinz!
[quote]Originally posted by Heinz:
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Kyrie, although I always enjoy your posts I would like to hear your references on the Luger grip angle and the Luger toggle placement.
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Thank you for your kind words :-)
If you will consult the more common references (John Walterâ??s â??The Luger Storyâ?? comes to mind) I think you will find a common theme that the movement of the mainspring to the rear of the frame â??permittedâ?? Georg Luger to change the frame grip angle. My comment that the movement of the mainspring to the rear of the frame required, rather than permitted, a steeply angled grip frame is based on a published interview with Georg Luger in a technical journal dating, if memory serves, to about 1905. Therein the interviewer managed to get Luger to speak about the technical challenges he faced and overcame in the design of the Parabellum.
As an aside, Luger remarked that one of the most difficult of the early problems was finding a balance between the strengths of the main and striker springs. As you know the effect of the main spring on the toggle train is limited and does not obtain significantly over the full range of toggle train movement. The last fraction of an inch of forward travel of the toggle assembly to battery is performed purely under inertia - there was little or no remaining tension in the main spring. This last bit of toggle train travel was also the movement necessary to compress the striker spring, and the striker spring compression robbed the toggle train of momentum, sometime preventing the toggle train from going into battery. This balancing act of relative strengths of the two springs had not been successfully completed during the 1900 US Army Field Trials, and there a number of complaints that either the toggle train failed to return to battery or the striker spring was insufficiently strong to provide reliable ignition. As we know from history, this problem in spring balance appears to have been solved by about 1904, and was certainly solved in time for the 1908 Imperial Army contract.
Regarding providing references, Iâ??d normally be happy to supply a bibliography. But as you are (frankly offensively) concerned that my references â??may have been imaginativeâ??, I will leave the literature search to you so you can be assured my imagination plays no part in what you find.
[quote]Originally posted by Heinz:
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(snippage)
I think the Luger recoil lever could be adjusted for a range of grip angles. It would seem to me that it is the angle selected for the recoil lever that dictates the grip angle.
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Yes sir, your latter comment is a paraphrase of what I wrote :-)
[quote]Originally posted by Heinz:
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Also it seems to me that the toggle does have some spring tension from the recoil spring in the closed position but that spring tension tends to (very lightly) keep the toggle closed.
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Respectfully, no sir. What keeps the toggle closed is the rigidity of the toggle train with the toggle train pivot point below the centerline of the toggle train, The main spring plays no direct part in keeping the toggle closed.
The main spring does inhibit the rearward movement of the entire barrel/barrel extension, and does help delay, somewhat, the barrel/barrel extension movement to the point contact between the frame and the toggle knobs brings the toggle pivot point above the centerline of the toggle train. While I suppose one could regard this distant relationship between the main spring and breaking the rigidity keeping the toggle closed, this would not be a position I could support.
[quote]Originally posted by Heinz:
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The action of the toggle when it strikes the breech is a simple cam action. I cannot understand why there would be any question as to if it would work.
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(snippage)
Iâ??m sorry, but youâ??ll have to help me out here. The breechblock on the forward end of the toggle train doesnâ??t strike the breech of the barrel. Iâ??m unclear on just what you mean here - can you help me understand?
Warm regards,
Kyrie
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