The female gunsmith behind the Patrick Pistols, with firearms and weaponry expert Jonathan Ferguson

[@OverlordMaggie]

Always glad to hear of other lasses who like smithing, invention, and guns! Also had been wondering when I'd hear of the VHS/Betamax battle.

[@RDG99]

Guns and women. Jonathan's definite expertise.

[@isgodreal1337]

Ferguson, Jonathan Ferguson 🇬🇧 😏🍸

[@samholdsworth420]

He could wine and dine me All night 😍

[@alostbaron781]

Jonathan Ferguson keeper of firearms, artillery and women.

[@jezjukes]

​@@alostbaron781 just how many women, does he keep?

[@mikeblair2594]

@@jezjukes A couple few, here and there.

[@wilsonlaidlaw]

In 1992, when on a skiing holiday in Kitzbühel, Austria, as a result of the lack of snow, I was wandering round the back streets and spotted in the window of a small antique shop, a flask primed pistol. The owner of the shop, said it was Austrian made from the early 19th century. It was at a reduced price because the lid of the primer flask was missing and he wanted 4000 Schillings for it (about £220 at the time). However he would only take cash. I offered to go with him to his bank and pay him there by debit card (as good as cash), at which point he started to reduce the price but only if I brought in notes. I was now smelling a rat and as the News of the World used to say: "I made my excuses and left." However I wonder now if these pistols tended to get a "flash over" from the touch hole into the primer flask, which then blew the lid off into the weeds, never to be found again.

[@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries]

That is a definite possibility. The fit of the rotating bottle would have to be very good to prevent it.

[@agoogleaccount2861]

That makes perfect sense I've seen one of these bottle actions years ago it was a long slender gun of about 10mm caliber and of possibly Austrian or German origin and yes the perfume bottle plug wasn't missing but it was damaged by a small explosion

[@grahampalmer9337]

Hmm. Interesting thesis. Could be right. Jonathan had said that it may have used a grey granule primer. Possibly the too & fro of the priming 'bottle' left enough residue betwixt & between - & up through the clearance that must exist (impossible to see if there is a brass/spring steel scraper blade) - & WHOOSH !, an unforeseen projectile & self disabling device. 😀

[@benlaird7878]

I'd love to observe your work for a day, your knowledge is truly amazing.

[@FenWolf68]

I'd now like to watch a documentary about 19th century female gun manufacturers!

[@baconatordoom]

If they can make a sandwich, they can make a gun.

[@snowflakemelter1172]

5 minutes long.

[@hetrodoxly1203]

They'd be portrayed as being twice as good as the weak men around them, except for one man who was as good as her and he'd be black.

[@meagain3876]

Thanks for last Saturday's WitW event in Leeds. My family really enjoyed it.

[@stephencody6088]

My Son is becoming a gunsmith and his GF is an artist who helps with ornamentation. I love hearing stories about outliers in the profession.

[@elitearbor]

I wonder how common it actually is! In my business, I occasionally have my wife assist with engraving, carving, and inlay as well.

[@flyingpadre5756]

Dr Who & Jonathan could be one of the best episode ever !

[@malcolmgibson6288]

A variation on the scent-bottle lock which was usually manually rotated to prime the weapon.

[@calvingreene90]

I prefer that self priming system to primer caps. Particularly if I'm going to be trying to fire in rapid succession.

[@spasticjackson9578]

A video by candle light. Very fitting.

[@JakeyBaby6]

Awesome as always. I hate making comment on quality normally as I know how much hard work goes in but if I could make one suggestion, the lighting could do with being a bit brighter. I'm struggling to make out certain details. Love the series though and not faulting anything else 😊

[@lionelallen2157]

The tablecloth needs to be a lighter colour, and Johnathan's wardrobe should be a less black, too. The details are being lost against the dark backdrop. Johnathan, however really knows his material, though

[@neilcam]

I must admit that I was wondering if the recent news about food shortages in supermarkets in the UK also applied to electricity. I appreciate that Jonathan likes to create a warm and intimate atmosphere to his videos, but I'll have you know that I have standards young man.........ohhhh prosecco, well why didn't you say!

[@dpeter6396]

I also have trouble seeing any detail in the videos. Low light and dark setting I believe are the main causes. One other thing is the close-up camera views don't coincide with Johnathan's commentary and the views could benefit from better camera positioning and lighting. I love this channel and have watched Johnathan's explanations with great enjoyment for quite a while. Keep up the good works!

[@GunsmithSid]

I had the occasion to repair the primer pill turret in a Hunt-Jennings as a new gunsmith decades ago. I have not seen one of your ‘bottle magazine’ before, although I did service a gravity-feed pistol that had dangling canisters under the barrel - rotating them around the axis dropped in a powder charge and a ball. Don’t remember the name of that one… Good to see this new-to-me system!

[@Trebuchet48]

A bit more light would have been a huge improvement to this video!

[@terry7907]

Thinking the exact same thing.

[@Manco65]

Interesting priming and lock system.

[@raykaufman7156]

Gorgeous gun, and a great story. Thanks for sharing this one.

[@bgsam8109]

Great video

[@acorgiwithacrown467]

I've always wanted a pair of duelling pistols in an authentic wooden box and these in particular are some very elegant examples. A very cool mechanism and design thats well put together.

[@F1ghteR41]

1:18 Isn't it basically Alexander Forsyth's chemical lock of 1807, the predecessor to the primer as designed by Egg et al.? 10:44 There's a parallel I find somewhat interesting here in that this pistol demonstrates innnovation in what is now seen as part of a cartridge, i.e. ignition system, and probably among the Soviet female gun designers the ones best known were all involved in cartridge design and manufacture (notable examples being 5.45×39 & 9×39). 18:48 I'm not sure why would one consider this system to be outdated in the 1830s. One could perhaps make an argument for the self-contained cartridge of Pauli as a forefront of technology at that time, but a percussion cap alone does not strike me as all that impressive in terms of ease of use when compared to this approach.

[@felixthecat265]

Agreed, It looks very much like a self acting Forsyth scent bottle lock. They usually had an ivory plug closure as screwing metal on metal over fulmanate powder is likely to end badly!

[@F1ghteR41]

@@felixthecat265 Wouldn't brass be enough for such plugs? I've always thought that it is iron-on-iron contact that is specifically undesirable in spark-sensitive areas.

[@felixthecat265]

@@F1ghteR41 Fulminate is more sensitive to blows and nipping than sparks... there is also the situation where the whole magazine blows.. a soft plug like ivory would probably disintegrate rather than become a projectile!

[@hendriktonisson2915]

Which army in what year was the first to officially adopt percussion cap firearms?

[@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries]

Well, we Brits issued the first (converted India Patterns) in 1836. I suspect that's the earliest but as a very limited issue there could well be other nations that did the same a bit earlier.

[@hendriktonisson2915]

@@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries I see. Thanks for the info! So it took almost 20 years from the point of the percussion cap technology being invented to adoption of this technology by a military force.

[@isaiahcampbell488]

@@hendriktonisson2915 Depending on the sources, I've even heard of the southern forces during the civil war use flintlocks out of desperation or in the frontier skirmishes. That was in the 1860's. So the old tech hung on for a while either due to money, availability/logistics, or a bad rare form of stubbornness.

[@allangibson8494]

Napoleon turned the Pauli metallic cartridge breach loading centerfire double rifle in 1812 because of logistical issues. Functionally a double barrel shotgun with rifled barrels (but no ejector).

[@michasowik2438]

Very clever and simple system. That is what I love about old firearms. People didn't exactly knew what is the most optimal solution and tried many things. Nowdays glock, AR15 and AK clones are getting really boring. Of course there is still innovative engineering but I feel that in past days there was a plenty of it.

[@kepanoid]

"As you can see, ..." Jonathan, sorry, we can't! *More light* please.

[@martkbanjoboy8853]

Pill lock pistol possibly trialled for military use at one time. I wonder if the technical trials included a study of what happens when the pill magazine explodes ? 😲

[@johncoffin9354]

Please light another candle. We'd love to actually see the piece.

[@michaelguerin56]

I do not see the book references in the description, just the link to the shotgun article.

[@kenwheeler6150]

Unfortunately 45 Strand Street no longer exists, there is a gap between The Gym Group and The Hilton Hotel where it probably was. It is now called Kenyon Steps and is part of the Liverpool One complex. As a point of interest there is a Shooters Bar in the Bierkeller, Thomas Steers Way, but that's just coincidence as it's a different kind of shooter. Thomas Steers Way joins Strand Street in about the spot where number 45 probably was.

[@brealistic3542]

Jon, just curious about something.. There are materials that give off a electric spark when struck. Have you ever seen a patent for a ignition system using such a device ?

[@Ginrummy33]

Disposable lighters use a tiny bit of flint, rubbing against steel, to spark, so really it's still "flintlock" if used in gun ignition, even though its done with rotation instead. I'm sure people tried to use a version of it on guns occasionally, but i have no details.

[@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries]

Good question but no, no piezoelectric ignition as far as I know. I think by the time that was discovered firearms had moved on. Electrical ignition has been experimented with since and is used on certain weapons but hasn't caught on for nearly all smallarms.

[@jessestreet2549]

piezo sparks are probably too weak to ignite gunpowder. flints require "tuning" to produce sufficient spark and those sparks are actually white hot pieces of steel. i could see piezo working in a propane powered weapon like a converted air rifle.

[@derekp2674]

@@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries Piezoelectric materials can often also generate small amounts of electric charge when exposed to infrared radiation. That is specifically called the pyroelectric effect and was used in the development of infrared imagers during the 1960s and 1970s. Without doing further research, I cannot say if this led to any night vision sights for small arms or other things military.

[@isaiahcampbell488]

@@Ginrummy33 that was actually used in firearms though wound with a clockspring, you may recognize it as a Wheelock. It baffled me the first time to see one of those guns and look over at my mom's $1 bic throwaway lighter and see a family resemblance.

[@mattparker9726]

Cool video.

[@mikeblair2594]

The word you were looking for was "patent breach" which was used in everything from Royal guns to Hawken rifles. Though they were invented during the flintlock period, they lasted in sporting gun (civilian guns) until the end of the nineteenth century in Bedford County rifles and trade guns in Canada.

[@the_godfather9974]

Did Mr. Ferguson appear on an episode of QI in the I Series rolling a Vickers into the studio?

[@MrWarwick15]

Wonderful! I've always respected The Ladies who 'venture' into what is, unfortunately, a male dominated engineering world! I'm 52 and was lucky enough to have served my apprenticeship under a wonderul young lady who was doubly qualified as an Electrical AND a Mechanical Engineer. Major respect! I ended up working for the RAF as a civilian where I saw other young ladies working as flying or weapons instructors on fast jets! A joy to see! Go Girls! Show the macho blokes where it's at!

[@michaelhill6451]

A couple things I would worry about: 1. Not being able to tell if you get priming compound in the hole for it 2. Possible ignition of the entire reservoir of priming compound

[@i.warrenhastings2526]

Turn the lights on, Jonathan

[@jazeenharal6013]

0:49 "That's typically a cap." Jonathan calling into question the entire firearms industry from this era. Spittin' fire, calling cap.

[@darkmann12]

Bwahahaha

[@georgesakellaropoulos8162]

Variation on the 'scent bottle ' lock.

[@marmite8959]

An attractive & innovative firearm, mechanically interesting, a cool story, and a piece of historical female empowerment. You do spoil us Mr Ferguson ✨

[@leogazebo5290]

Does anyone knows what the grey substance he's talking about? I'm interested in learning more about this unique and ingenious lock system. If anyone would be so kind to point me in the right direction, thanks.

[@somefool4625]

Love these videos, but the lighting needs some improvement.

[@jeremiahsafford1389]

17:03 I don't think these would look out of place in Yharnum.

[@johndoe8520]

I heard that the royal armouries stores the one of a kind AKMSU from the khyber pass region of Pakistan, you should showcase it

[@isaaco5679]

Can you help me? I have a muzzleloading double barrel shotgun (possibly 11 gauge, .74") It has nock on both side plates, London on the center barrel rib, cown marks under the Damascus barrels, and a plain silver shield on the top of the grip of the stock. Nothing else that I can find and I can't figure out anything about it, like when it was made and where.

[@mikeblair2594]

What are the proof marks. Nock could have just made the locks or it could be a forgery from Belgium. I wouldn't know without the proof marks. I wouldn't be surprised if it was made by one of Henry Knocks sons. They tore each other down in rivalry after the old man died. One was better than the other, but neither was bad. I'd say its one of the sons, the both made a lot of shotguns.

[@grahampalmer9337]

What was going on with the 'front' camera? The (your) left camera shows clear & well lit (from your front) but the former is dull & grainy!

[@michaelwright2986]

When I heard "pill-lock pistol" I immediately thought of the companion self-defence weapon, the bollock knife (or ballock dagger). And yes, that is a bona fide, fair dinkum, technical term. Any clue what was the composition of the priming compound? As there was some still in the flask, I do hope it got analysed. And, as for the proportion of female gunmakers, my hobbyhorse is that, although the patriarchy is real, it is a mistake to assume that it was worse the further back you go. There's a fairly common thought that the status and opportunities of women declined in the Renaissance, and again in the 19th c. But I do hope Ann Patrick retained a significant role in the new merged company.

[@calvingreene90]

There would be no surprise in pellets breaking down over time but the self priming Flintlock worked and why fix something that ain't broke.

[@williamromine5715]

This gun looks like it was just made. The condition is great(except for the "bottle" cap, of course), and it is a beautiful gun. The design of the ignition system is so elegant. In some ways, it is better than fumbling with a cap. The disadvantages must have been enough for caps won out. They are much simpler in design, more rugged, and cheaper to manufacture. Obviously, the lady was quite the gun smith.

[@vattmann1387]

Speaking of duelling I remembered there was a video on some wax firing revolvers for sport duelling. It got me thinking as I got my little nephews, nieces and cousins Nerf guns for Christmas. I was wondering if there were any old style non-lethal sorts of firearms or munitions for combat sports/ training in the vaults, like old versions of airsoft, paintball or nerf gear?

[@mikeblair2594]

I think you saw the wax ball duelling pistols on forgotten weapons. Those weapons were for practice. They would wear padding, but they got the old training in duelling without getting killed. Must be a french thing cause the were from the last quarter of the nineteenth century I believe.

[@vattmann1387]

@@mikeblair2594 Ah yeah, that rings a bell :)

[@NovaAge]

I watch so many scholarly firearm videos that KZbin just recommended me a video about a mil-spec _shear bolt_ model by the company that made them. Not which tanks use it or even footage of it being tested under load like an advert, just a single bolt from multiple angles followed by technical specifications; at first I thought it was sarcastic, but the channel has 2.1k videos so I assume they just host the videos on KZbin to be integrated to their online store.

[@c1ph3rpunk]

Friend once says “why didn’t cartridges come into use faster, they seem so obvious”. Well, why aren’t you using space-time folding, it was obvious to us to get to your reality.

[@allangibson8494]

Napoleon turned down breech loading metallic cartridge centerfire rifles in 1812 over cartridge manufacturing logistical issues. These used machined steel cartridges. Cartridge brass (70/30) deep drawing techniques were developed in the 1860’s.

[@tim31415]

Really? You puzzled over it??? It takes about 5 seconds to see its relation to the Forsythe lock. It is remarkably ingenious, though. It looks to be much less problematic than the Maynard system.

[@ray.shoesmith]

Is it just me or is this video really dark?

[@nigelbarker8726]

It's the famous Ferguson black on black look.

[@Stevarooni]

He's wearing a dark shirt, showing off a firearm with dark wood and blued metal...yes, it can be hard to make out what's going on.

[@Stevarooni]

If he'd use his hand as a backstop for some of those shots, it would have made it a lot easier to see.

[@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries]

​@@Stevarooni Better to just enhance the lighting. I've already mentioned it to the crew.

[@Stevarooni]

@@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries Thanks! Your presentation is great, and the venue looks cool, upping the lighting will help. 👍

[@pcka12]

Given that this works with black powder it must have been prone to a great deal of fouling & be very fiddly to clean! Especially since all of these things (powder & primer) tend to be hygroscopic!

[@El_Grincho]

It's actually sort of rude to call the gun a pillock ...

[@NM-wd7kx]

"Listen, I'm sorry about the 'pill lock' misunderstanding, I just thought was an odd choice for a cowherd."

[@El_Grincho]

@@NM-wd7kx Herd of cows?, curb your misogyny.

[@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries]

We joked about that when filming - I'm disappointed in myself for not doing it on camera!

[@michaelamos4651]

Hi Jonathan any chance of a job swap. Another fascinating video. Thanks 👍

[@robertl426]

Jonathan, just out of interest, why is it you usually wear rubber or latex gloves rather than white cotton gloves? Is it for the extra grip those gloves provide?

[@F1ghteR41]

Isn't it pretty much customary in the UK? I've seen it done in the Wallace collection as well.

[@allangibson8494]

It depends on the material being handled. For some cotton is better protection, for others latex is.

[@hermatred572]

Neat

[@badpossum440]

Isn't that a scent bottle pistol?

[@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries]

Sort of. The magazine is scent-bottle shaped. But that name is exclusively applied to the Forsyth patent, which is a form of detonator lock, with a plunger that is struck rather than depositing powder into a tiny pan, like the system shown here.

[@parrotraiser6541]

I think i'd be rather offended if someone called me a pillock. :-)*

[@Thecompanioncrate]

Truly what a shame you guys threw away the granules, even if its non suitable for storage in a large collection. Some really should have been saved for posterity, probably some of the only original ones left on the planet. From a historical standpoint it would have been good to have at least done chemical analysis on the pills when presented with the chance.

[@Thecompanioncrate]

@@bebo4807 He said they they were present when they bought the pistol, and that they don't have them anymore. They didn't lose it, their policies don't allow them to have live ammo present with the arm.

[@ZazuYen]

I wonder if the caps are missing because at some point the fulminate in the magazine exploded and blew them off. If you got a mixture that was a bit more sensitive then what it was designed for I can picture the action of the hammer dropping setting off that magazine. Anyway, fascinating video as always!

[@Giovanni-33]

Is there a power outage in the building? Turn the lights on please.

[@JonathanFergusonRoyalArmouries]

Who said that? In seriousness I do think we were a little dark this time. I will keep an eye on it.

[@williamhart4896]

So a scent bottle lock pistol

[@shatbad2960]

10:35 rarer than hens teeth.

[@seangarnett1862]

Dumb question is there a possibility of pieso-electic ignition capsules? Is this possible?

[@barbarossarotbart]

Could it be that this "blip" can be explained by the Victorian believe that gun making is not a profession for a woman and thus they were discouraged by society to follow this profession?

[@Eulemunin]

Pellet primer? Nope, that’s a weird powder primer. I really want to know what it was.

[@mikeblair2594]

Probably very old pill fof the magazine. The stuff would be way past it's shelf life.

[@manuellujan666]

No cap........

[@F4Insight-uq6nt]

PP PA Trick.

[@margaretmcallister5422]

Interesting facts, thank you. Tiny suggestion. Wear a lighter shirt and get a spotlight on the weapon/s you are showing, so we can see better. Dark wood and metal against a dark background and shirt make it difficult to see the details.

[@itsclearasmud7718]

Kinda dark.

[@Matt_The_Hugenot]

I expected these to be pill locks before Jonathan said, at least I was in good company with my wrong guess.

[@soumyajyotimukherjee4752]

Female gunmaker history book recommendation please

[@logruszed]

"pillock pistol"? Are you having a laugh? Is he having a laugh? Be kind of fun to see a video specifically on unfortunately named firearms, or firearms that became unfortunately named due to idiom shift or translation.

[@F1ghteR41]

Bang rifle had its own video in this series already, so you might want to check it out.

[@onpsxmember]

Lighting?

[@cottond62]

God man, get better lighting!

[@rgbgamingfridge]

targets in the back but no shooting demonstration? my day is ruined

[@chooseyouhandle]

Lady's best friend

[@wotwott2319]

Wonder if the lid is gone because the pills exploded in the magazine mid firing and blew the lid off.

[@mfs5493]

Dreadful speaker - one step forward, two steps backward.

[@HowIsAsh]

Awesome video