| Arthur William Savage | |
|---|---|
| Born | Arthur William Savage May 19, 1857 Kingston, Jamaica, British West Indies |
| Died | September 27, 1938 (aged 81) San Diego,California, United States |
| Occupation | Inventor, explorer, businessman |
| Spouse | Annie Bryant |
| Children | Arthur John Savage |
Arthur William Savage (13 May 1857 - 22 September 1938), was a businessman, inventor and explorer. He is most famous as the inventor of the Savage Model 99 a famously innovative lever action rifle, which remained in production for over 100 years, and the founder of Savage Arms, a gun company. However, his most lasting and valuable inventions may be radial tires, and the modern detachable box magazine used in almost all modern military firearms. He also invented an early torpedo. He built and raced cars.
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He was born in Kingston, Jamaica, British West Indies. His father was Welsh, a special commissioner to the West Indies, charged with setting up an educational system for the newly freed slaves.[1] He attended schools in Britain and Baltimore, MD in the United states and had a classical education. He married, and had eight children. Four were boys, four were girls.
In the late 1880s he took his family to Australia, homesteading in a covered wagon. He came to own what was then the largest cattle ranch in Australia.[1] Eleven years later he sold it and bought a coffee plantation in Jamaica.[1] In 1892 he moved to Utica New York, and hired himself to a railroad, the Utica Belt Line Street Railroad (See List of New York railroads). He also got part-time work at a gun factory, the Utica Hammer Magazine Company.[1]
Savage, and his son Arthur John began designing guns. His first model, in 1887, was a lever-action rifle with the magazine in the stock, rather than under the barrel.[2]
Six years later, he patented a lever-action rifle able to shoot then-modern guncotton military center-fire cartridges with .303-caliber spitzer bullets.[3] This "Model 95" was the direct predecessor of the model 99. The classic under-barrel tubular magazine used in most lever-action rifles hold rounds end-to-end. In such a tubular magazine, pointed spitzer bullets can detonate the centerfire primers used in military ammunition. So, he invented a rotary magazine. Another benefit of this magazine was that it had a cartridge counter that enabled the shooter to tell how many cartridges remained.
The gun also used a firing pin, rather than a hammer, and was the first mass-produced hammerless rifle. Firing pins, as used in the model 95 and 99, are superior to hammers because they have less mass. Therefore, they can be accelerated more quickly to strike the primer. As a result, the muscular tremors of the rifleman have less time to move the rifle's point of aim. Hammers can also jam on cloth or brush. A hammerless rifle was therefore a substantially superior gun.
In 1894, Savage started Savage Arms in rented space on Hubbell street in Utica, New York to produce his new rifle.[1]
Slightly later, in 1897, he filed for the patent on a nearly identical gun with a removable box primer. This is substantially the modern Savage Model 99 lever action rifle.[4] It stayed in production until 1999.[1]
The modern removable box magazine often seen on military rifles was invented in 1908 by Savage, as an improvement to the Model 99.[5] It did not come into wide use until his patent expired in 1942. It has many attractive features that ensured its eventual dominance. It has shoulders to retain cartridges when it is removed from the rifle. It also operates reliably with cartridges of different lengths. So, is insertable and removable at any time with any number of cartridges. This allows the operator to reload the gun infrequently, carry magazines rather than loose cartridges, and to easily change the types of cartridges. It is assembled from inexpensive stamped sheet metal. When empty the follower[6] stops the bolt from engaging the chamber, informing the operator of the gun's emptiness before any attempt to fire.
Savage collaborated on the invention of the Savage-Halpine torpedo,[7] which was eventually adoped by the Brazilian navy. Although U.S. sea trials were successful, it was not adopted in the U.S., due to political considerations.[1]
There are some claims that Savage invented the recoilless rifle, but searches produce no U.S. patents predating William Kroeger's 1944 patent.
In 1901 Savage moved to Duarte, CA, and formed the Savage Tire company, a $5,000,000 San Diego, CA corporation formed to make tires and inner tubes. Here, he invented radial tires as well as new production methods.[8][9][1]
Savage committed suicide at the age of 83, on September 22, 1938 in San Diego,[10] still director of his successful tire company.[11] He had left a note beside himself claiming to have been suffering from a terminal illness.