Schwarzlose Model 1898

Schwarzlose is a name that most will associate with the M1907 medium machine gun used by the Austro-Hungarian army during the First World War. However, in 1898 Andreas Wilhelm Schwarzlose completed a truly advanced pistol design, well ahead of its contemporaries in design and ergonomics. 

Schwarzlose himself was a Prussian, as a young man he served as a gunner and armourer with the Austro-Hungarian army before training at the National Ordnance College and setting up his own company, A.W. Schwarzlose G.m.b.H., in Berlin in 1897. While His early pistol designs gained little traction his Model 1908 blow-forward pistol saw some success but it was his M1907 machine gun, adopted by the Austro-Hungarian army, which was his greatest success.

Schwarzlose filed his first patent for the design in Britain in 1898 while his US patent was granted in 1902 as production in Berlin began. The design evolved between the two patents with the first showing a small bolt handle on the left-hand side of the bolt this was later replaced by a T-bar configuration charging handle. Additionally the early patent describes an accelerator which would have in theory ensured the action cycled however the 7.63×25mm Mauser ammunition the pistol used proved to be more than powerful enough to cycle without an accelerator and it was removed by the time of the second patent in January 1898.

The Schwarzlose M1898 (sometimes called the ‘Standard’ or ‘Standart’) unlike many of its contemporaries, like the C-96 Mauser, was designed to be purely a pistol and not a pistol-carbine as such there was no provision for one of the holster stocks which were popular at the time. There are at least two examples of the pistol with a slot cut in the back strap to fit a holster stock but this is not seen on the majority of pistols. The pistol’s grip angle was very ergonomic making it extremely pointable. Another aspect of its design which was very advanced for the time was its controls. The M1898 had both a slide release lever (to the rear of the receiver - the pistol locked open on an empty magazine) and a safety which was designed to be thumb operated, with down being safe and up being fire (see image #1). Unlike rival pistols the controls were accessible without the firer altering their grip. 

The pistol had an overly complex sight, typical of the period, that rotated for graduations from 100m to 500m. It fed from a 7-round box magazine loaded into the grip and fired Mauser’s 7.63x25mm round. It was striker fired and used a short recoil system with a 4 lug rotating bolt locking the action. This was unlocked by the barrel and bolt assembly’s recoil as it traveled rearward with the bolt being cammed by a stud in the wall of the frame. Another modern feature of the pistol was that its main spring acted as a recoil spring, a striker spring, and an extractor spring. There was also an additional ‘barrel spring’ which arrested some of the barrel’s rearward motion absorbing much of the energy. The pistol’s primary design shortcoming was that if the pin or loop holding the bolt in place sheared the bolt assembly and barrel could in theory slide of the frame under recoil and hit the operator.  

The M1898 is an extremely elegant design for the period however, its manufacture must have been prohibitively expensive. The construction of the pistol would have required highly skilled machining with the bolt itself made from a single milled piece. As a result less than 1,000 were made with only serial numbers below 500 commonly seen. Some were purchased by the Boers during the Second Anglo-Boer War however, commercial and military interest was minimal with the pistol being overtaken by DWM’s Luger. The remaining pistols were apparently sold to Russian socialist (not Communist) revolutionaries in 1904/1905 for their planned revolution. However, the shipment was intercepted by the authorities and the pistols were allegedly issued to customs officers and border guards.

While the Model 1898 proved to be a commercial failure Schwarzlose continued to develop his pistol designs next turning to a toggle-locked design the Model 1900. This too failed to find traction however, his work with toggle-locks would come to fruition with the M1907 machine gun. In 1908 a departure from large service pistols Schwarzlose designed a small blow-forward pistol which found some commercial success but production ended in 1911.

Undeniably advanced for its day Schwarzlose’s M1898 was the victim of being a little late to market and a relatively small name in a field with giants such a Mauser and DWM. Schwarzlose’s company continued to manufacture firearms up until 1919 when the factory was closed by the Allied Disarmament Commission. Schwarzlose then acted as a freelance firearms consultant until he died at the age of 69 in 1936.

Sources:

If you enjoy the content please consider supporting Historical Firearms through Patreon!

Revolverul Dimancea

Designed by Captain Haralamb Dimancea, a Romanian Army officer, the eponymous pistol is a curious revolver patented in Britain in 1885. Chambered in the dominant military pistol cartridges of the day, .38 or .45 caliber, the pistol held six or five rounds respectively.  At first glance the Dimancea Revolver looks much like many other 'hammerless' pistols of the period.  However, Dimancea's pistol truly was hammerless, it used an unusual star-shaped ratchet wheel inside the frame to the rear of the cylinder which when the trigger was pulled caused the wheel to strike the firing pin.  

With no hammer the pistol could only be fired in what could be described as double action although due to not needing to reset the hammer the length of pull in the Dimancea was much shorter giving a crisper and more accurate trigger pull.   The small hammer seen on the rear of the pistol's frame is actually a latch which when pulled down allow the cylinder and barrel to pivot to the left to allow the pistol to be loaded.  the pistol in image #3 appears to differ from the original design and has a more common top-break action - although the small hammer latch remains.

There are several examples manufactured by the Kynoch Gun Factory, but it seems that the vast majority of the pistols were produced by the Gatling Arms Co. in Birmingham sometime between 1888 and 1890, when the company went into liquidation.  A run of 1,000 revolvers was produced for trials with the Romanian Army in 1899 however, the Dimancea was not adopted with the French Modèle 1892 chosen instead.   Today the pistol's are very rare, fetching perhaps $2,500 for a revolver in very good condition.

Sources: