doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Help to identify a John Dickson missing patent

Gents,

I know there are some excellent patent knowledge on this board and I need some help with one.

You may know but I have been deep in research of John Dickson & Son for the last 18 months. We know Dickson for his main patents, the cocking slide (to become the round action) and the accompanying ejector and improvements. Least known is the single-trigger that his workshop foreman, William Morrison, designed. Of which they probably only built 30 round-actions with, due to complexity. The use of the Westley selective single-trigger was far more popular.

Now, turns out Dickson may have 'invented' a fore-end catch assembly some time in the 1870's. It's a lift latch like a Scott or Deeley latching to the same barrel lump that a Hackett might connect to.

In the Dickson records, scribbled beside a few gun entries is the words 'Our Patt' and it has been hard to determine if this is 'Our Patent' or 'Our Pattern'. Of course none of these guns exist today to examine and find out what 'Our Patt' is.

I have been through Crudington & Baker Vols. and nothing ressembles the Dickson setup. The use of this catch is ultra-rare and the wild goose chase is Dickson may not have even raised a patent for it even though he signed them "JD&S Patent"

Any thoughts on this and any avenues I might want to persue to get to the bottom of this mystery?

Here is a picture of the latch on the fore-end, eight pictures down:

http://www.mwreynolds.com/HTML/rifleDickson500doublehammer.html

My Index shows Dickson patents in 1885, 1887, 1908, and 1910. None in 1870s.

Hope I'm not missing something, but does the description, about mid way down, of that nice rifle give any clues as to where to look for the original patent.

Craidg, the patent referred to here is the James Purdey & Son patent that was licensed to many gun makers at the time. Dickson built quite a few hammer guns likes this, each stamped with a use number issued by Purdey.

Daryl, the Dickson Patents I have are as follows:

Dickson No.294 of 1880 for bar cocking slide
Dickson and Murray No.873 of 1882 for two and three barrelled guns
Dickson patents No.9399 and No.10621 of 1887 for ejector and improvements.
Dickson and Morrison No.21681 of 1910 for single trigger

Which don't tally with your dates, know something I don't?

Fletch', here's the ones I have from the Index. I do see that my original glance of the Index included one from N Dickson and W Dickson. They read----------

W Dickson 1885 #3928---I cannot find this patent in my abridged book, and it may have nothing to do with John Dickson

J Dickson 1887, # 9399 and 10,621 ---for ejectors and improvements

N Dickson 1908 # 26,031 ---No relationship to the subject at hand

J Dickson 1910 # 21,681 ----With J. Morrison a single trigger.

Sorry for your inconvenience. Oddly the Index I have is somewhat inaccurate . I have found numerous errors. Your # 873 of 1882 , which is a J. Dickson and A G Murray for the three barrel gun do not show in my index, under Dickson, but do show under Murray.

J Dickson # 294 of 1880 does not show in my Index, but I find it in the list of 1880 patent abridgements.

So much for reading and believing all that is written. Sorry for any inconvenience. Daryl

Fletch

I have seen one other Dickson hammer gun with that lever fore end release, but do not remember it as having been marked "Patent". It has been a while.

I see that .500 has a Purdey No.1104 double bite use number. I recently had a Dickson through that had the Scott spindle use number, it had a WMS stamp with the number.