Guest Speaker Report
by
Rotarian Peter Douglas
Wednesday 25 February 2009
Our guest speaker was Paul Martin whose subject was ‘Weird and Strange Weapons’.Paul was introduced by Trevor Duxbury.
Paul is a Licensed Firearms Dealer whose specialty is the weaponry of WW1, WW2 and the Vietnam War. He also teaches Australian Military History.
Paul had with him a array of weaponry which he gave details of as they were shown to us.
These included a fork which had been fashioned into a knuckle duster by an inmate of Bathurst jail, a pistol made at Long Bay Jail by Darcy Dugan and Lock Pick which had been made from hacksaw blades and nailfiles. Amongst other items were an 1890 .22 Pistol. a 1937 machete and a genuine ‘bowie’ knife. Paul also displayed a Daisy Airgun, a BSA poachers gun and a 2 shot derringer.Paul also had a selection of concealed weapons. These included a walking stick shotgun, a riding crop with a concealed knife, an umbrella with a concealed knife, a biro with a concealed blade and a pen gun.
Paul told the story about a rifle which came to light after being found concealed in the back of a piano which upon further investigation was found to have been originally been owned the renowned Australian poet Henry Lawson.
Possibly the most unusual and certainly the most deadly was an air bolt weapon which used compressed air to fire a projectile. The recoil from this weapon was apparently vicious and the power of the projectile was such that anything in its path was totally destroyed.
The best looking weapon on display was a Colt ‘Anaconda’ .44 calibre revolver. Although only 10 years old the basic Colt design is straight out of the American wild west of the 1800’s.
The final weapon was described by Paul as “Ladies Best Friend’ and was possessed by the ‘ladies of the night’. It was not a weapon as such but fired a stream of a particularly noticeable perfume if the customer attempted to leave without paying.
After a series of questions Paul was thanked by PP Steve Taylor
