Random objects: Ball's patent anti-garrotter

Victorian problems call for Victorian solutions.

Back in October, I talked about the value of looking past the hagiographies of leaders and turning for insights to the history of things:

“The quintessential example is money: the shrinking antoninianus of the Roman Empire, the dodgy promissory notes of the Confederacy, the worthless trillion mark bills of the Weimar Republic, and more.

Firearms make for another interesting area of study. It’s not the role they play in conflict; it’s how faithfully they chronicle nearly ten centuries of progress in mechanical design, manufacturing, and materials science.”

But that’s not all: weapons offer unexpected glimpses of societal woes as well. One of my favorite examples is the anti-garrotting pistol devised by Henry Ball, a noted gunsmith who operated out of Birmingham between 1849 and 1868.

A carrying case for the anti-garroter and accessories. Photo by author.

Thanks to the works of Arthur Conan Doyle and the legend of Jack the Ripper, most of us have Victorian London pegged as a hotbed of violent crime. Some modern-day historians debate the actual scale of the problem, but the phenomenon certainly worried many Londoners in the mid-1800s. In particular, there was a series of moral panics related to garrottings on the city’s dimly-lit streets.

Enter Mr. Ball’s solution: a belt-suspended, short-barreled firearm meant to be worn under clothing, with its business end pointing back. A pull string sewn into the belt allowed the weapon to be discharged to strike whoever might be choking you from behind.

The mechanism of the Ball pistol, with string visible. Photo by author.

At its core, Mr. Ball’s design was a classic single-action percussion gun, except for a string loop machined in the sear where the trigger would be. Pulling the string moved the sear out of the way, allowing the hammer to drop and setting off a side-mounted percussion cap.

Presumably owing to its impracticality and dubious safety, the design never took off; only a handful of specimens survive to this day. Nevertheless, if you’re worried about garrottings in your neighborhood, you can rest easy knowing that there is a solution within reach.

PS. If you’re interested in other bizarre weapon designs, I wholeheartedly recommend “Firearms Curiosa” by Lewis Winant (1955).