full auto 45 Posted July 20, 2003 Report Share Posted July 20, 2003 WOW!! I was at my local gun shop where I hang out and shoot the shit on week-ends. I live here in Indianapolis as some of you know. Well if you know your Thompson history, Theodore Eickhoff and John Blish are both from Indianapolis. I had my '28 in the store BS'ing with the boys when a older guy comes in. We get to talkin' about the Thompson and he says he has a paper written by Eickhoff later in his life telling of his own personal account about meeting Thompson and Goll. Going to work for and designing and testing all the calibers and bolts to work in a automatic gun. The first prototype was a belt fed gun but the belt was to heavy! This guy tells me he has it at home and if I wanted it he could dig it out and get it to me. Well shit the bed Fred! I gave him my card and told him to call me if he finds it, thinking he was starting to show signs of Alzheimers or something. I never expected a call. But by golly he calls and I go a runnin'. In a old folder typed on a rice type,transparent paper, is this 16 pages of old Ted's history. From his graduating Purdue in 1908 to him seeing the Wright Brother's first public demonstartion of a "heavier than air" flying machine! The pages are very fragile and faded. I took each one and scanned it into my computer. Now I am retyping each page to print it out for copies to hand out at the show next month. The old guy I know had meet Eickhoff when he was much younger and got to know the family. He was given this paper by the grand-daughter or something like that, that worked at his church. He told me he has had them for 25-30 years at least. I am going to include a photo of one page(teaser) and you tell me what you think. Very interesting! They are locked away in the safe now next to the Thompson and drums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LIONHART Posted July 20, 2003 Report Share Posted July 20, 2003 Simply Amazing! This kind of stuff really is out there! Nothing like a good 'ol treasure hunt!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
full auto 45 Posted July 20, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2003 OOOPs forgot the picture of page 3 Development of the Thompson submachine gun by Theodore Eickhoff Picture was too big to post here, so link to the page with it. Thanks ok try this now. Big file takes a minute or two. It's a scan of the original paper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TommyGunner Posted July 20, 2003 Report Share Posted July 20, 2003 Comes up file not found. http://www.machinegunbooks.com/forums/invboard1_1_2/upload/html/emoticons/sad.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
full auto 45 Posted July 21, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2003 Ok the page is up. I forgot to publish it earlier. It is a big file to download. It is about 4mb but it is the only photo on the page. It is a scan of the original paper. Just one page for now. I am retyping it and when I'm done I will post the whole thing. http://www.machinegunbooks.com/forums/invboard1_1_2/upload/html/emoticons/cool.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WILSON Posted July 21, 2003 Report Share Posted July 21, 2003 Great stuff! Keep me in the loop with this new find. I am very interested in reading the entire article. WILSON Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt Posted July 21, 2003 Report Share Posted July 21, 2003 Mike-- You might want to make sure interested museums and archives have a copy of this, like the Smithsonian, etc. Wonderful & significant find! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TSMG28 Posted July 21, 2003 Report Share Posted July 21, 2003 Mike, What an exciting and tremendous find! http://www.machinegunbooks.com/forums/invboard1_1_2/upload/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif And some people think we waste our time bs'ing with folks. As has been said many times in recent years, if you know a vet or the family of a vet, talk with them. It is often amazing to hear the special stories they have to share. Your experience is even more special considering yours and our interest in things Thompson and how long ago much of this took place. Thanks for saving this special part of history! We all look forward to seeing the whole paper. See you next month at Tracie's. Roger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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