7 replies to this topic

[PATHFINDER]

While doing some research at the US Patent Office web site I grabed my Thomspon and started typing in the paptent numbers listed on the side. Most of the drawings come back as being invented by Oacar V. Payne. I really do not recall having heard this name before.
If someone has been tajking credit where credit is not due do we have to chnge the name to the 'Payne Collectors Association'?!
I own none of the Trci Hill etc. etc. books as my area of interest in the Thompson is coverd under WWII small arms so grab 'em down and start typing.
Thanks for the help.

[Lancer]

Oscar Payne is covered in all books on early Thompson develpment. I think it is fair to say that he is the inventor. He would not have invented it though without Gen. Thompson's involvement. Thompson did in fact suggest it be named after Payne.

[full auto 45]

Oscar Payne, Theodore Eickhoff are the 2 that designed and developed the Thompson sub machine gun. Eickhoff, from Indianapolis, did a lot of testing on the family farm out near Wanamaker Indiana. John Thompson is the idea behind it and the money came from a investor by the name of Fortune Ryan. The gun was going to be named after Ryan but he didn't want his name associated with it. He was the investor, didn't care for guns all that much. So they named it after the guy that had the idea in the first place, John Thompson. All this is in Tracie Hill's book and in Frank's book American Thunder if I remember right.

[JimFromFL]

"The Gun that Made the 20s Roar" (I believe that is the title) an excellent book.

It contains a lot of history.

From the book (as I remember)...

"Thompson wanted to name it the Payne Submachine Gun since Oscar was the one who gave birth to it, but Oscar said it should be named after its father (John Thompson)."

[Arthur Fliegenheimer]

I think it was Oscar's brother Fenster Payne who was a time keeper for a boxing promoter. It was his job to ring the bell.

[Sgt]

Amazing how history might have changed if Payne used his name. Attaching a buttstock might have been referred to as a Payne in the Butt.

[Murray]

Pathfinder

To be a little serious about the item we so much relish,

The man who came up with the idea of a "trench broom" was the General John Thompson.

Theodore Eickhoff was the engineer and Oscar Payne was the draftsman and an inventor. Between the three of them they changed history.
In a sense, they all invented the Thompson, but in engineering circles we would accept that Thompson invented the idea and Payne and Eickhoff developed the idea while Thomas Fortune Ryan financed the whole project.

Oscar Payne, in my opinion was a genius and his later patents support my opinion, most of which had nothing to do with guns,

Kind wishes
Murray

[JimFromFL]

It is actually a good thing it was not called the Payne Submachine as the media would have had a fiedl day with the name. I can see the headlines now from the 20s...

The Submachine gun is a Payne (Pain)
The Payne Submachine gun is a Pain for police
This submachine gun inflicted much Payne (Pain)