My Friend, Doug Smith

[Steinar]

Given the two criterias;
1. the shooters hand connects a circuit between the two brass plates and turns the light on.
2. the configuration is of pre 1933 origin.

=> it's plausible, but unfortunately I find it unlikely

-Until the 1940s they only had relay's. They could detect as little as 30uA and in theory do the trix. But then they would need many turns and a VERY low tension spring, it would be fragile for the beating during recoil and it had to be made very small.
-From the 1940s until 1960s they could solve it with miniature vacuum tubes. A difficult difficult solution to an easy problem..
-From the 1960 they could use both MOSFET (or simular) and transistors. They would take the recoil beating and be a good reliable solution.
-From the 1970s they could also be detecting the hands capacitance by using a puls generator. This would be the most reliable solution.. one tiny 1.5V watch-battery could detect and switch on the light for about 5 years without being replaced, neat stuff.

As Mike pointed out.. I also believe the grip safety would be the way to go.

Perhaps the brass plates is simply misleading. A few of pictures is really not enough to say anything on how it's made. So i'm not judging the Luger as real or fake, and I'm sure not judging the owner/seller.
It just brought out the curiosity in me, trying to find a way it could be done the way it looks like it's made.
A fascinating Luger it is regardless! As well as the other Lugers on the site refereed to


it's just my two �¸re.