Browning's .38 blowback pistol prototype, which was scaled down to create the FN M1899
Although this experimental pistol did not progress further, its general layout and fire control group design were reused in three other designs he developed in the following year. Patents for them were filed in October 1896, and two out of three later became Colt M1900 and FN M1900.[5] All four prototypes were chambered in .38 caliber and are currently exhibited at the Browning Firearms Museum in Ogden, Utah.[6] Browning licensed the rights to produce and sell them to Colt within the US and Canada in July 1896, but it's believed at the time Colt was mainly protecting its revolver market.[5] In 1896[7] or 1897[8] Browning also scaled the .38 blowback pistol down to .32 caliber to use as a pocket pistol.
US patent for the Browning .32 pistol, issued in 1899
According to a widespread legend,[2] in April 1897[9] FN sent their sales manager Hart O. Berg to Hartford, where he had previously worked, to investigate advances in bicycle design introduced by the Pope Manufacturing Company.[7] There, he supposedly accidentally met John Browning[7] and persuaded him to have his pistol manufactured at FN by telling him the story of a modern factory with nothing to produce.[10]
Despite state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities, by the end of 1895 FN was in poor financial shape due to a lack of orders on their M1889 rifles and a lost legal battle with Mauser over the rights to produce improved M1893s.[11] In 1896, most of their primary shareholders left and a major competitor, DWM, took over a controlling stake, excluding the company from the export market for military firearms and forcing it to diversify into sporting firearms, their parts, and even bicycles.[11]
Receipt for $2,000 downpayment received by Browning brothers from FN in July 1897
However, documents from Browning's later legal dispute with Georg Luger tell a different story. In 1896-1897 Berg, who was acquainted with Browning due to their joint work on the Colt machine gun in 1893-1894, persuaded him in correspondence to visit Liège with his pistol designs, which he did in April 1897. FN managers were impressed by the design's reliability and simplicity (it's unclear from secondary sources if it was already in .32 or still in .38) which were uncommon in those early days of semi-automatic guns. Afterward, Berg and Browning traveled to Berlin and showed a locked-breech and a blowback pistol to Hugo Borchardt to obtain approval from DWM.[2]
Berg presented a draft of the license agreement to the FN board in June 1897[9] and then traveled to Hartford to finalize it with John and Matt Brownings in July 1897.[2] The agreement granted FN the rights to manufacture and sell what became the M1899 in France, Belgium, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Spain.[2] In 1898 Berg was unsuccessful in attempting to persuade Browning to supervise the pistol’s production in Belgium, but its manufacture by FN transformed the fortunes of that company and laid the foundation for its long-term relationship with Browning (who died on FN’s premises in 1924).[10]
Browning's .32 blowback pistol prototype
Serial Browning 1900 pistol produced ca. 1909
Production
Serial production started in January 1899, but the M1899 nomenclature postdates it. FN originally called M1899 “modele de présérie”,[12] approximately 14,400 of them were made in total.[13]
In 1900, driven by feedback from the Belgian military, FN introduced what was later called M1900, an improved design based on the M1899. These designations were applied retroactively after FN began manufacture of other Browning pistol designs; initially the M1900 was marketed as simply the "Pistolet Browning" (Browning Pistol).
A shorter barrel reduced the overall length by less than a millimeter while maintaining the same caliber and magazine capacity. The grip plates were made 1 mm wider, offering a more comfortable and secure hold for shooters with larger hands.[13]
In addition to these external changes, M1900 incorporated several internal improvements. The reinforced area of the frame above the trigger guard was enlarged and thickened, enhancing the pistol's durability (cf. the image comparison above). The diameter of the breech block screws was increased, further strengthening the action. A cocking indicator, visible as an extension of the internal cocking lever, was added, providing a visual confirmation of the pistol's cocked status. Finally, M1900 introduced a slide lock, activated by turning the safety lever upward when the slide was retracted in order to facilitate easier cleaning and maintenance.[13]
Production ceased only 11 years later, with a total of about 725,000 units having been produced by FN only (excluding all the numerous copies).
Usage
The same pistol shown from the other side
United States PresidentTheodore Roosevelt owned a mother of pearl-gripped Modele 1899, which he regularly kept on his person and in his bedside drawer. It now resides in the NRA Firearms Museum.[14]
Eugen Schauman, a Finnish nationalist activist, assassinated the Governor-General Nikolay Bobrikov (the highest Russian authority in the Grand Duchy of Finland) with a Browning pistol in Helsinki on June 16, 1904. The act was followed by spontaneous anti-Russian celebrations in the streets of Helsinki and after the 1917 independence Schauman was considered to be a national hero of Finland.[15]
The pistol was popular in China from its introduction through World War II and was often copied and used as the basis for other designs.[20] State-run arsenals produced serialized production runs for warlord militias, and local craftsmen produced one-off handmade versions.[21]
Cutaway view
The North Korean Type 64 pistol [ja] is closely based on M1900 although with modifications to fire 7.62×17mm Type 64.[22] Specimens examined by western authorities were marked with the date of 1964. A silenced variant was produced that featured a shortened slide to allow the threaded barrel to protrude far enough to attach the silencer.[23]
North Korean Type 64 pistol
Ammunition
The weapon is chambered for .32 ACP, also known as 7.65×17mm Browning SR ("SR" denotes semi-rimmed).
Finland - First acquired by police before 1917, in total up to a thousand were bought. The pistol was very popular in the civilian market and among early Finnish nationalist movement Voimaliitto. Also used by the State Railways and the Bank of Finland.[30]
France - 200 issued to officers of the criminal brigade in june 1912[31] Used by trench raiders during WW1[32]
German Empire - Privately purchased by military officers.[33] Bought by police agencies.[34]
^ abcJohn Browning and Curt Gentry, John M. Browning, American Gunmaker, An Illustrated Biography of the Man and His Guns, Doubleday & Co., Garden City, NY, 1964, p. 181; Anthony Vanderlinden, “1899: Year of the Browning Pistol”, American Rifleman, Vol. 168, No. 9 (October 2020), p. 40.
^Zetterberg, Seppo (1988). Viisi laukausta senaatissa – Eugen Schaumanin elämä ja teko. Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. pp. 246–247, 268, 281. ISBN951-1-09266-9.
^Lee, Sung Joo (2019). 우라웍스 (ed.). 안중근, 사라진 총의 비밀 : 이토 히로부미를 저격하고 빼앗긴 M1900을 찾아서. 청림출판. ISBN9791155401569.
^Compendio histórico del Perú. La República (siglo XX). Vol. VI. Lima, Perú: Milla Batres. 1993. p. 254.
^"Browning 1900". Forgotten Weapons. 3 October 2014. Archived from the original on 10 July 2021. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
^McCollum, Ian (2021). "FN 1900 Copies". Pistols of the Warlords: Chinese Domestic Handguns, 1911 - 1949. Headstamp Publishing. pp. 334–461. ISBN9781733424639.
^Mitzer, Stijn; Oliemans, Joost (2020). The Armed Forces of North Korea: On the Path of Songun. Helion & Company. p. 26. ISBN978-1-910777-14-5.
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