http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=267191&page=1"Rudolf Frommer was born in Budapest on August 4th, 1868 and a source or 2 gives him being an engineer before joining Femaru Fegyver es Gepgyar in 1896. Other sources,
http://sunblest.net/gun/Bio.htm , give he was a banker and was drawn to Femaru Fegyver es Gepgyar(prior name in 1896) to rectify their finanical troubles and in 1898 became obsessed with weapons. He may not have been a master but it would have been after his employment at Femaru Fegyver es Gepgyar and for now I don’t know where his walk-about took him, or if he was a journeyman. So with this additional info I have less faith in the fact that Rudolph Frommer was a scattergun designer but the probability still exists. He had some sort of disease in his 60s and that was the reason for his departure/retirement from Femaru Fegyver es Gepgyar in 1935. Shortly thereafter on September 1st, 1936 he expired in Budapest. From afar, and about 100 years later, it is difficult to determine just what part Rudolf Frommer played as a designer, practical product manufacture and supervisor at Femaru Fegyver es Gepgyar. Several other masterful minds were involved in theory as well as application and Karel Krnka was one of them. Karel Krnka(April 6th, 1858 – Feb. 25th, 1926 in Prague) was more of a theorist in gun design as well as writer but may have played a part, or imported the technology, as he was an employee of Zbrojovka Praga and then Ceskoslovenska Zbrojovka. So I know he came in contact with the Holek boys(Emanuel-master 1920/1921/1922???, Frantisek-master 1919??, Vaclav Holek was an apprentice in Pisek and then on to Mulacz in Vienna in 1905 and should have been a master by 1909/1910. He traveled to Nowonty of Prague in 1910, possibly as a master, to streamline the mechanized production of H&H sidelock scatterguns) and I guess Krnka may have taken some pointers from the boys Holek, specifically Vaclav, although I’m not positive who was the father of the ZP series but suspect Vaclav Holek. Karel Krnka apprenticed to his father, Sylvestr Krnka, who had been an apprentice to the Viennese gunamker Nowtony in the 1840s. I don’t know if his walk-about took him outside of the Austro-Hungarian empire but guess him to have been a master by 1881/1882. So in my mind, and for now, you have a supervisor, theorist and boys Holek all who may have contributed to the Femaru Fegyver es Gepgyar scattergun."
Let's see the marks.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
