1949 - first air pressure water gun

General water gun discussion.
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SSCBen
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1949 - first air pressure water gun

Post by SSCBen » Fri Aug 25, 2006 4:39 pm

Remember the Cosmic Liquidator? Turns out that wasn't the earliest instance of an air pressure water gun. Probably the earliest mass manufacturered one, but not the earliest period.

The inventor is Jack Stelzer.

US patent number 2,589,977, appropriately titled "Water gun" is the earliest air pressure water gun I have been able to find, being filed in 1949. I was looking for the Cosmic Liquidator patent number (which is 4,214,674), and I accidentally stumbled upon this one instead. Due to the crappy database of the USPTO website, searching before 1976 is not really possible, so I had to check references instead. The funny thing is that this an the Cosmic Liquidator both were referenced in Lonnie Johnson's first water gun patent from 1983! Another unusual thing is that the patent office themselves allow their employees to search any patent... they have every patent's full text, but they don't allow civilians to search it. As to why, I wouldn't be one to ask.

This is the earliest water gun I have found that was meant to be used as a water gun. You can easily find earlier air pressure pestiside sprayers, flame throwers, water jet cutters, and so on, but this is the first one intended for use as a recreational device.

Image

Design-wise this is nothing but a pressurized reservoir water gun set to a gun shape.

I'll continue looking, but this patent has been referenced numerous times and probably is the earliest instance of an air pressure water gun. The earliest water gun (squirt gun) that I have found is from 1883 too, but that's nowhere near as interesting as this.

Next year I hope to construct a replica of this water gun. The drawings and the inventor both suggest to make the gun look like a real gun, so I'll be interested in buying some real gun parts to house everything in. Brass tubing could make everything else. I'm actually really excited about making it.

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joannaardway
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Post by joannaardway » Fri Aug 25, 2006 9:42 pm

The drawings and the inventor both suggest to make the gun look like a real gun, so I'll be interested in buying some real gun parts to house everything in.

Perhaps a little risky there.

I've seen excellent weapon replicas formed from wooden parts, and even from 3 feet away it would be damned near impossible to tell a real one and the fake one apart.

Based on that, you could get a good "lookalike" without actually having to use real weapon parts.
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SSCBen
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Post by SSCBen » Fri Aug 25, 2006 11:03 pm

You're probably right about that. No one around here would really care though. When it comes to guns, here is so extremely conservative that it's not funny.

Anyway, the only real gun part that I could use would be the stock after taking a better look at the way the gun works. ;)

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Silence
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Post by Silence » Fri Aug 25, 2006 11:46 pm

This sounds very interesting indeed--but you can tell that it was more of a novelty type of thing than a simplified and elegant design. I've got the gist of how it works, but I'm still working out the finer operational details. Good luck with building it!

Your dad works in the patent office, doesn't he?

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Post by isoaker_com » Sat Aug 26, 2006 3:09 pm

Interesting patent. I wonder if any physical stock got made from these designs. Though this 1949 patent opens up a much earlier possible date for air-pressure-water-gun manufacture, we still don't know of any products that made use of this tech prior to the Cosmic Liquidator.

In terms of building a replica, that'd be a fun project. The general design looks fairly straightforward, though I'm not sure whether you should necessarily opt to follow the designs verbatim or take the general design and modify sections to make use of your better knowledge in some parts (i.e. that's an odd looking trigger valve that might be better replaced with either a pinch-trigger design or even a ball-valve if you can get one to turn to open in the limited space).

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Post by SSCBen » Sun Aug 27, 2006 12:34 pm

It is doubtful that anything was made from this patent. I'm quite sure there was a prototype, but without any known product it couldn't have started anything neat.

A few design changes I did plan. The way you pump appears ackward at best to me - the gun separates! I'd opt for the handle on the front moving over the wooden body to move the pump. I also am unsure if the gun had a nozzle originall, and I intend to add one. The valve also probably is beyond my abilities to create, so I'm thinking about a pinch trigger at the moment.

Other than those three planned changes, this should be as authentic as possible.

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Post by Silence » Sun Aug 27, 2006 3:06 pm

Wouldn't a simple pull valve trigger be extremely easy to make, especially in this situation? As in that thread at SM, it might be easily possible to have a plunger open and close the valve, but of course the design of the trigger system would have to be a bit different.

All in all, this looks to be incredibly complex and might be hard without a good array of machining tools. Good luck with building it, though, if more for novelty than for performance. Clearly, the theory of operation has really evolved, and I'm sure he would have changed some of the design if he had known about things like larger barrels, a PC with the opening on the bottom, etc. This is PR, correct?

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Post by isoaker_com » Sun Aug 27, 2006 3:11 pm

The reservoir is the 'metal' can on the bottom near the trigger. From the look (I think Ben noted this,too), this is simple a pressurized reservoir system with the pump pushing in air into the canister. The longer tube that leads from below the diagram towards the trigger assembly would allow the water to then exit the nozzle once the trigger is pulled.

If one could find a prototype (if there is one) for this soaker, that'd be a truly rare find, indeed. Neat patent find, for sure!

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Post by SSCBen » Sun Aug 27, 2006 5:11 pm

I really doubt if any more information on this patent will be found. If we could find a prototype, that would be really cool though! Finding one would be just near impossible. That's why I intend to make a replica or close copy.

To answer something SilentGuy asked earlier, yes my father does work at the US Patent office. I'm still stuck using the same web interface that everyone else uses however. ;)

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ZOCCOZ
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Post by ZOCCOZ » Mon Aug 28, 2006 3:29 am

Prity sweet. An Entertech and Super Soaker Hybred from 1949. It even has a cartrage tank.

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Silence
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Post by Silence » Mon Aug 28, 2006 11:53 pm

Hmm...no, I don't think it has a "cartridge tank." I believe there are threads on the bottom of the tank for a cap to go on; also, for a screw-method of securing the cartridge (although a latch and O-rings might also work), you'd have to make both tubes to the tank into one and screw the tank onto that one.

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Post by ZOCCOZ » Mon Sep 04, 2006 8:58 pm

On Fig. 3, the cartrage does have something that sems to resemble water. For example, the thick tube seems to be threaded on to keep the cartrage in place, while the thin tube goes all the way to the bottom overlapping the ink-drawn water. Its somewhat hard to tell.

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Post by Silence » Tue Sep 05, 2006 12:54 am

That much I see. I thought you were referring to cartridge tanks as something that you could load before hand and then screw into place or something--that's why I suggested that you'd need a single threaded tube or something. Sorry about the confusion. :cool:

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