Belgians weren't the only tribe capable of making a round bar with a nice hole in it.
But the Belgians were the only klan capable of making a quality round bar with a nice hole in it at a price-point and that's the key. The had the craftsmen; they had the machinery and they had the market. Baldwin Brothers(
http://books.google.com/books?id=9n7PAAA...;q=&f=false ), William Henry Cole & Son(Baltimore Hardware), Henry Keidel & Co(Baltimore Hardware), William Read(
http://books.google.com/books?id=igBEAAA...;q=&f=false ), Joseph Giles Riga(possibly directly to Belgium), Perry, Ryer & Company all had the connections which may not have been straight to Belgium but to the Netherlands or Switzerland and then on to Belgium. It was, and still is all about economics.
I had considered ignot importation, and it is still a very, very small option, but consider a gunmaking center churning out 200k, 500k tubes a year, maybe PeteM knows who many tube Liege could turn out a year. If it's pre-WWI, you are importing patternwelded tubes, why turn to another source for fluid steel. Daly would have done it if it was feasible out of Germany and that's why he fought so hard for multiple tube import(actually joined/completed) while the rest of the American contigent fought him and the U.S. of A. was right there in the middle with their had out. "Forged" was the politically correct term of the day, in addition to "rough bored", and when fluid steel tubes began being imported(
http://books.google.com/books?id=bfxDAAA...els&f=false ), it had to be proven that the tubes were "forged". William Henry Cole & Son(Baltimore Hardware), Henry Keidel & Co(Baltimore Hardware), Daly, William Read, Joseph Giles Riga, Perry, Ryer & Company(
http://books.google.com/books?id=9n7PAAA...els&f=false ) all were businessmen first and maybe a collector of guns 2nd. At the same time Joseph Giles Riga was also doing the same with rifled tubes:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9501E7D91E31E733A25756C1A9609C946897D6CF (select "Full Article") and info on what led up to it -
http://books.google.com/books?id=3fcWAQA...els&f=false (I would guess Mauser Krupp steel tubes.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
