Jammed Shell

[mrerick]

Originally Posted by Sieger

mrerick,

"(Luger, BTW, was renown for stealing inventions from others - there is original documentation about his behavior when stealing Mauser's 3 lug rifle bolt action model from Oberndorf and patenting it in Berlin in his own name)..."

Please provide a copy of or quote from the original documentation as mentioned above.

Thanks!


Sieger

Hi, the documents that confirm this are in the book Gerben and Mauro published recently, and that I edited.

The original documents from the legal cases are part of the archive. It took decades to finally adjudicate the case.

http://www.paul-mauser-archive.com/b...nformation.htm

The story starts in 1891 when Ludwig Loewe (Via Oliven Kosgarten) introduces Luger to Mauser after hiring Luger away from Mannlicher. The Mauser book discusses this starting on page 109.

Luger traveled to Oberndorf where he spent time observing activities in the Mauser research and development office. Luger eventually returned to Loewe in Berlin.

A batch of experimental rifles were sent by Mauser to Berlin in 1894 for evaluation by US Representatives, and they had a modification which included the 3 lug bolt (after an 1880 design that Fidel Feederle remembered working with at Mauser).

Luger subsequently observed the rifles in Berlin and applied for and received a Utility Patent on the 3 lug bolt. This was the subject of an observed argument between Luger and Feederle. Gebrauchsmuster 40,134.

Luger subsequently sued Mauser for royalties on Mauser's original idea, and the lawsuits continued for years, including 1896 testimony by Feederle in court.

Mauser lost that lawsuit on a technicality relating to the 1891 patent law in Germany. This involved the US representatives removing the sample rifles with the design from Germany to the USA. The M1903 US Rifle was subsequently based on these designs, an infringement that Mauser sued the US government over. The 1896 case was the first time Mauser claimed that Luger had observed the design and patented it in his own name. This was claimed in court, but could not be proven in spite of Feederle's testimony.

German patent 82394 was issued to Luger in 1894 for the bolt design.

Loewe eventually stepped in to settle the dispute in 1899, and royalties continued to be paid by Mauser to Luger (a receipt from 1902 remains in the archive).

Loewe eventually fired Luger from DWM in 1919 over other patent related litigation.

Many years later, Mauser (the company, as Mauser himself died in 1914) eventually collected his royalties for the design from the US Government.

I don't have the rights to reproduce the book or the documents from the archive, so cannot post them.

Marc