The United Service Agency was a spearfishing company created in France by expatriates Alexandre Kramarenko (Russia) and Charles Henry Wilen (USA) to build a product line that stemmed from their inventions of the compression spring gun and the single plane diving goggle or monogoggle in the thirties. Their spearguns were sold under the brand name "Fusil Americain" and they realised that an updated product line would bring in the customers for a sport that was still in its infancy.
They realised that although coil spring power was reliable it had its drawbacks and so designed two rubber powered efforts at the extremes, a small gun aimed at shooting lobsters and a two handled whopper for shooting anything big. These metal guns were based on the rollergun principle that made the most of the rubber that was available in those days. Fortunately we have the French patents for both of them and they can be seen below.
This lobster gun is rather ingenious but entirely pointless for what it has to do, who knows how many they actually sold. Note that the band tension in the gun can be adjusted by sliding the cylindrical fore grip that moves the anchor pulley which the band wraps around after you have unscrewed the handle a few turns, then retightened it in the new position. The trigger is a pull down sear fabricated out of springy metal strip which allows everything to be made in one-piece. This would appear to be a rather flimsy arrangement which may be indicative of the power of the shot, or the lack thereof.
They realised that although coil spring power was reliable it had its drawbacks and so designed two rubber powered efforts at the extremes, a small gun aimed at shooting lobsters and a two handled whopper for shooting anything big. These metal guns were based on the rollergun principle that made the most of the rubber that was available in those days. Fortunately we have the French patents for both of them and they can be seen below.
This lobster gun is rather ingenious but entirely pointless for what it has to do, who knows how many they actually sold. Note that the band tension in the gun can be adjusted by sliding the cylindrical fore grip that moves the anchor pulley which the band wraps around after you have unscrewed the handle a few turns, then retightened it in the new position. The trigger is a pull down sear fabricated out of springy metal strip which allows everything to be made in one-piece. This would appear to be a rather flimsy arrangement which may be indicative of the power of the shot, or the lack thereof.
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