Cavalero "Champion" Catalogue 1946 and the first of the Arbalete's

I think that they must be two different people, a Dr. Wilen would have used his title in the patents and Gilpatric given his penchant for slang terms would have called him "Doc" Wilen, but birth dates and places of residence would settle it. Wilen's place of residence for the "Fusil Americain" spring gun patent is Brooklyn, New York. At the time of the earlier 1937 patent for the dive mask or monoplane goggle both he and Kramarenko are resident in France at Alpes-Maritimes. He and Kramarenko are still there in December 1939 when they submit their ball valve snorkel patent shown here.

By May 1946 Wilen is back at Alpes-Maritimes when he lodges his spear pistol patent shown here at Saint-Etienne.


The flat rubber band drive system was also adopted by the Japanese for their timber and brass rollerguns using a twin guide rail system where a sliding carriage propelled a slim spear.

Here is a Japanese rollergun, but I believe them to be surface interface shooters as the band drive will be more effective in air. Both Alexandre Kramarenko and Commandant Yves Le Prieur spent time in Japan and no doubt ideas were exchanged about diving and underwater harvesting of food with the Japanese.

Recently I purchased a four socket head Cavalero “Champion” Arbalete, a model of which I already own one example, but this one has a sort of “paravane” on the forward barrel and I have only ever seen photos of two of them before. So what is it for, a hydrodynamic aid or a loading assist for pushing with your feet, but as a simple screw holds it in place I don’t see it taking much load without slipping on the barrel. Pretty sure that they were soon removed to eliminate a snagging hazard, but here you can see one still in place.

Just been informed that the cross bar is for bracing your feet against when cocking the gun.

popgun pete said:

Here is a Japanese rollergun, but I believe them to be surface interface shooters as the band drive will be more effective in air. Both Alexandre Kramarenko and Commandant Yves Le Prieur spent time in Japan and no doubt ideas were exchanged about diving and underwater harvesting of food with the Japanese.
View attachment 54018
View attachment 54020

Click to expand...

The influence of the French side-slotted barrel guns has now been realised when we see a rollergun version of the former alongside one of the first Tairyo Japanese rollerguns. Side-slotted barrel guns precede the Arbalete, they are derived from the spring gun, but place the energy storage medium outside the barrel tube rather than inside it.