The Browning Self-Loading Pistol in 1902


If you're like me, and I asked you what sidearm that the G.I. Joes carried in World War II, you would say, "A .45". It's of course not a rifle, but somehow I never thought of it as a pistol. Pistols to me conjure up cowboys, and if female "pistol-packing mamas". As you can tell, I'm no gun expert.

So when I first heard of a 1911 pistol, which to my eyes looked like a .45 from World War II, I wondered if the number was just a random number, or if it meant 1911, because I figured that it had been invented in the '40s, or maybe the '30. Nope, it meant the year 1911.


So I jumped onto the Library of Congress website of old newspapers and looked around. I'll tell you what I found in the Abbeville Press and Banner, March 26th, 1902. Here's the link as a pdf if you want to go read it there https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/data/batches/scu_joshwhite_ver01/data/sn84026853/00237287150/1902032601/0030.pdf , but I'll sum it up here.

First of all, to me, this image looks too modern to be from 1902, and I'd be skeptical if I hadn't found it myself. It must have been absolutely amazing to see back then - very futuristic!

The 1902 Belgian Calvary was equipped with the new self-loading pistol, of the so-called Browning system. Apparently up until 1893 the only type of self-loading mechanism only worked on rifles. Here's the whole text:



Looks like it was a pretty powerful little weapon! The calibre is 7.65 millimeters, which is only about .30 inches, so it's not a .45, but it will be when it grows up! 
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