Can anyone identify the weapon?

[Mostonian]

It's a bizarre looking thing...

[trajan]

I am pretty sure it is a surveying instrument of some kind - but what eludes me!  Can you identify his collar badges? Might be a clue there! But a quick glance before leaving the office suggests a harp, and so Irish?

[Doug504]

Stab in the dark if you pardon the pun!

 

Could it be a signalling lamp? There appears to be a trigger, possibly to flash the light and an aiming scope above. Just a guess but a possibility. I’m sure someone will be along soon who has one on a shelf at home and can give definite identification.

 

Doug

[Mostonian]

Thanks for the replies. I'm stumped, but yes it's an Irish regiment. It was posed on a Facebook group for the Ulster Rifles.

[trajan]

Signalling device works for me also - I was thinking too modern when I replied earlier, Electronic distance measurer of some kind,,,

[Open Bolt]

You may well be right, but it does look like the barrel rotates out of battery, and it has both trigger and hammer. It also looks aluminium, however unlikely. Bigger than a flare gun and not as long barrelled as a rocket line thrower...

[MikB]

He's clearly proud of its size and complexity... 😈

[Dave66]

Odd looking thing, certainly looks to have a hammer and trigger with a hinged barrel, but from the front of the handle it also looks as though it hooks onto something at an angle to fire.

Expanded view below to help.

 

Dave.

 

[Skipman]

Mostonian here did you get the image?

 

Sorry, I see you answered that . the nearest I can find is this sort of thing.

 

Cabin pressure flare pistol

 

It's an odd contraption whatever it is.

 

Mike

Edited 23 May , 2019 by Skipman

[Gardenerbill]

Does his rank (3 pips on shoulder) and unit suggest anything?

[KGB]

Royal Irish Rifles. 

[NigelS]

Proof of the use of alien or time travelled future  technology during the Great War . Agree with Dave's comment, certainly looks as if it's been designed to clip onto (or into) something else at a fairly precise angle; possibly the cut out on the bottom edge to the left of the chain also had something to do with that?

 

NigelS

[T8HANTS]

Did anybody come up with the brilliant idea of a gas grenade thrower/pistol. 

It looks like those old antifyre extinguishers that would adorn public halls years ago.

[trajan]

Well, I don't know what the 'eck it was meant to do to the Hun but it sure looks scary...

[NigelS]

As nobody as yet has come up with a positive identification, it seems to be something rather rare; this coupled with the fact its being carried/'worn' by an officer possibly suggests something experimental, special or even unique. Although he's been identified as an officer with the Royal Irish Rifles perhaps he was with another regiment/unit  - say one of the RE special units - at the time. Identification of the officer might help, perhaps the gadget is something he invented or developed, if so he  would be

4 hours ago, MikB said:

... clearly proud of its size and complexity... 😈

 

NigelS

Edited 23 May , 2019 by NigelS

[michaeldr]

It's very strange and must also have been quite difficult to fire;

compare relative position of the grip and the trigger, with that of the Webley Scott flare pistol 

[Ron Clifton]

Given the pictures in posts 9 and 16, some form of flare pistol certainly seems most likely. The next most likely might be the working part of some form of early hand-operated rocket launcher, which would be completed with some form of launching tube and a shoulder extension.

 

Ron

[MikeyH]

Looks like something Dan Dare might have encountered.

 

Mike.

[RobertBr]

I go along with the idea of it clipping over something. There may also be another 'fixing' point under the pistol grip. Is that a rotating adjuster and locking screw on the top?

 

Some type of  'flare gun' which can be aligned with whatever it is mounted on?

 

Bob

[Dave66]

Smoke grenade launcher?????

[pierssc]

I wonder if it was his own invention and a one-off?

 

It isn't blued, which suggests to me that it may be a prototype.  It looks like a multi-barrel flare pistol intended to fit on to something.

 

Somewhere I have a book published by HMSO about rifles from the collection of the Enfield Pattern room.  If I recall correctly it included some odd looking inventions.  Does anyone have something similar relating to pistols?  Royal armouries maybe?

Edited 23 May , 2019 by pierssc
Further thoughts

[Skipman]

I wondered if the part marked  in red might swivel at the yellow X in the green direction if that makes any sense.

 

Mike

Edited 23 May , 2019 by Skipman

[pierssc]

You mean like a Webley revolver?  I think it swivels out to the left hand side for reloading using the left hand, with the catch on the right.  Immediately below your bit marked X is the head of the bar on which the barrel section swivels - it probably unscrews so you can take the whole barrel section off.

[MikB]

It may not be blued, but it doesn't look like a prototype either - it's got enough attachments and accessories to look like an advanced mark no. of whatever it is.

 

Plus the casing looks like an aluminium alloy pressure diecasting, a technology In its infancy at the time. Probably far too expensive to lay off for a prototype.

 

Perhaps it's the 1950s diecasting look made MikeyH think of Dan Dare?

Edited 24 May , 2019 by MikB

[MikeyH]

2 hours ago, MikB said:

It may not be blued, but it doesn't look like a prototype either - it's got enough attachments and accessories to look like an advanced mark no. of whatever it is.

 

Plus the casing looks like an aluminium alloy pressure diecasting, a technology In its infancy at the time. Probably far too expensive to lay off for a prototype.

 

Perhaps it's the 1950s diecasting look made MikeyH think of Dan Dare?

 

Yes, thought that the item did have a futuristic look.  As you say aluminium was not something in common use at that time.

The first automotive alloy pistons, were used by W.O.Bentley in a D.F.P. engine in 1913.

 

Mike.

Edited 24 May , 2019 by MikeyH