Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am here in Morphy's today
where we are going to take a look at this little guy.
This (let's hold it in front of the white there) this is a Prideaux speedloader
for a .455 Webley calibre revolver.
And you can't see anything from way back there,
so we're just going to zoom straight in and take a closer look at this.
Alright, what we have here is basically the world's first production used speedloader.
This is typically thought of as a World War One thing,
but ... the actual military ones like this
(note the broad arrow and British military inspection stamp)
these were actually made in 1919
and did not see official formal military use during World War One.
However, on the other hand these were patented in 1893,
so I think a lot earlier than people might expect.
And they were patented by a guy named William de Courcy Prideaux.
And his early version was a little more complicated than this.
But fundamentally what he patented was a push-in style of speedloader,
where when you press this into the gun ... these fingers all retract out
and the cartridges are left in the revolver.
Now right at that same time,
another British gentleman by the name of Watson patented his own speedloader design,
which was a rotary type where ... basically you're holding the cartridges in the front
and then there's a rotating wheel in the back that catches on the rims and holds them in place.
So when you rotate it, it releases the cartridges and they can drop into a cylinder.
That's kind of a more typical format that you'll see today.
Well, Watson's device was significantly more expensive to make, it was more complex.
And it, interestingly, is the one that Webley decided to actually manufacture and market.
And by 1898 you could actually buy those through the Army & Navy [Cooperative] store
being manufactured by Webley.
Those, by the way, were like ten shillings and six pence each.
Where the early Prideaux loaders were more like four shillings and six pence each,
because these are a lot simpler.
But there was never a huge amount of demand for these things before World War One started.
Now Webley also manufactured a full-moon clip style of speed loader.
That was actually a thin plate of sheet metal that had 6 cartridge cases permanently attached to it
that would load and unload as a single unit.
They introduced those in 1901, but those never saw huge service,
beyond the fact that a version of that was adapted for the .38 Webley-Fosbery.
But, getting back to our Prideaux loader here.
Come World War One, these things become much more interesting to people.
And a substantial number of these were actually purchased and used
by British officers with their private purchase sidearms in the field, because this thing is slick.
So, I have here a .455 calibre Webley-Fosbery.
As you might expect, this was pretty popular in the trenches, and a lot of officers,
as I've already said, went ahead and purchased these and used them on their own.
Enough that the British military took note,
but they didn't get around to actually formally adopting this
and type classifying it until October of 1918.
So they did procure a supply of them, like this one,
but none of those were actually in hand until 1919.
And so none of the military ones actually saw service during World War One.
... Well, obviously there was a commercial version.
The commercial versions of these are marked a bit differently,
obviously they don't have the broadhead or the date.
They are instead marked "Prideaux's Patent Revolver Loader Magazine",
number 22653/14, which is his patent date.
He ... had an improved patent for these in 1914.
And they are marked "For Webley .455, Webley-Fosbery .455, Service Colt, Smith & Wesson."
So basically any .455 calibre revolver, these will work with.
It is important to keep in mind that there are absolutely fake ... versions of these out there.
Hopefully taking a look at an authentic one like this
will help you discern between real ones and the fake ones.
Anyway, hopefully you enjoyed the video.
Thanks for watching.