The Velodog Revolver was a very small pocket 5-shot pocket revolver that fired 5.75 mm (.22 calibre) Velo-dog cartridges in order to kill or scare away dogs chasing bicyclists. Bicycles were originally called "velocipedes," hence the name of the gun.
Created in France in 1904 by René Galand, the son of gun maker Charles-François Galand, the weapon had no trigger guard, instead having a trigger-lever that folded into the body of gun when not in use.
The more humane cartridges were loaded with cayenne pepper or salt, or had bullets made from wax, wood, or cork. Less humane bullets were lead, but had a fairly low amount of powder.
3 comments:
Actually that etymology for the name is incorrect. "Velodog" doesn't refer to velocipedes or to dogs at all, but is a contraction of "High velocity bulldog".
This refers to bulldog revolvers, which were very short guns firing rather low velocity rounds from very short cartridges. The Velodog cartridge (the term refers to the cartridge type, not to the actual weapon) was an attempt to increase velocity whilst keeping felt recoil down by pushing a small slug a lot faster than the big, slow bulldog rounds.
The folks at American Rifleman disagree as does Wikipedia, but not sure it matters. Advertising of the day was directed to bicyclists.
https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2011/4/5/the-velo-dog/
Looks to be parallel or dual-action naming. A very good and interesting history here >> http://www.velodogs.com/ showing ads for "bicycle pistols" and going over the name origin(s).
"In general, bicycle manufacturers and gun manufacturers were closely tied together for several reasons. The skills involved with both were similar, gun manufacturers had an existing network of retail sales which helped them advertise bicycles as well and, most important of all, manufacturing both guns and bicycles diversified their market and helped shield against slow periods in one or the other industry. Not all bicycle manufacturers made guns, but the leading gun makers made bicycles."
So much information at this link, I may blog it!!
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