Belcher's Paper Bird?

Howdy, fellas. I'm new here, if you hadn't noticed.
Didn't see any mandatory introductions or anything like that in the rules. Hope I'm not diving into the deep end of the pool without permission.

I have spent an inordinate amount of time researching the evolution of shotgun sporting targets over the last year. One of the most irritating dead-ends that I have hanging over my head is the Belcher's Pat Paper Bird, noted as being introduced in 1884 by several sources.


Does anyone have any more information on this than can be found in the advertisements?
I can't find a photograph, a surviving example, or even a written statement about one beyond DH Eaton's book(s) in the '20s. (Which everyone else cites/references, even if not explicitly.)

I have looked at literally every surviving/available patent from 1873 to 1887 (and searched well beyond in both directions, otherwise), and cannot find anything applicable to this target. There are many Belcher surname patents for textiles and fruit dehydrators, there are hundreds of paper and eyelet patents, there are dozens of wire form patents, etc.; but nothing that seems applicable here.

I have also researched GF Kolb. He was a jeweler with several of his own patents, the President of the Philadelphia German Community League, and quite the popular figure in Philadelphia in the 1880s. He even had a classical music composition dedicated to him: the Titania Waltzer, by the original composer of that version, Louis Brachet.
But nothing about this target.

I have had to conclude that this is a BS claim that it was patented, that the patent is tangential (the eyelet, or similar), and/or that the patent is lost.

Am I missing something?
Can you help me?
Thank you.

(I have more questions for the future, if acceptable. This one is just the most irritating.)

 

I researched the Belcher Paper Pigeon many years ago and was unable to locate a patent.

But, notices of Mr. Belcher's patent were reported in newspapers across the country as early as March 1882.

I do have gun clubs including paper pigeon events along with clay pigeons, live pigeons & sparrows and glass balls. The clubs were in Alexandria, Va., Philadelphia, PA and South Bend, IN.

I believe the inventor was W. M. Belcher who used to shoot with George Kolb and Mr. Kolb's son.

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March 29, 1882, THE WEEKLY WISCONSIN, (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) pg 6

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Welcome Squigie !!!!!

You certainly have come to the right place when asking about Trapshooting history and getting answers from the right people.

IF History Buff doesn't have answers, it will be pretty much that not many others will either. He is our Guru of Trapshooting History.

I WILL WARN You though, this fellow History Buff is VERY contagious when it comes to learning about the past, and getting you so interested you will begin to collect many items of historical interest.

I certainly am glad my wife has also gotten the Bug from History Buff also. She likes the hunt for treasures as much as I do.

Enjoy, HS

A partial example of what HB has created in our home. LOL

 

Forgive me Squigie, I should have first welcomed you to our great forum.

William M. Belcher (c.1840-24OCT1886) was the inventor. He was born in Winthrop, MA and moved to Philadelphia, PA where operated a leather shop. He did have a patent for an improvement to inner soles for shoes & boots, but I've never found a patent for his paper bird, though it was announced in several newspapers.

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I added information to D. H. Eaton's report on the paper pigeon.

Belcher’s Pat. Paper Bird was introduced in 1882 by its inventor William M. Belcher and distributed by G. F. Kolb (Geo. F. Kolb & Sons) (Morocco case manufacturer), of Philadelphia, Pa. in 1884. Mr. Belcher, George F. Kolb and his son were all members of the Sportsmen’s Gun Club shooting on the club’s team.
The Belcher paper bird was reported in newspapers across the country as being patented, but no patent information has been found. This target was an oddly-shaped paper bird with wings that was attached to a wire ball and thrown from any glass ball tap. It was dubbed to be the cheapest and most satisfactory trapshooting. The birds were designed to be reused after marking the shot perforations with a pencil. However, competitors were unhappy with the delay caused by gathering and marking the birds for reuse. Belcher’s Rules for paper pigeons were created. Mr. Belcher also placed a Belcher medal in competition.
Fifty birds and one ball were sent by mail for $1.00. Additional birds were per hundred and wire balls were 50 cents each. Belcher’s Pat. Paper Birds were only sold by G. F. Kolb.

My records show that George F. Kolb was actually a case maker, to include jewelry boxes.

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Here's a shoot report from 1883 with Mr. Belcher shooting with Mr. Kolb and son.

PAPER PIGEONS
(Belcher’s Paper Pigeons)​

PAPER BIRD SHOOTING
The Sportsmen’s Club defeats the West Philadelphia, and wins the Series​

The second of a series of three matches between the above teams was contested on Thursday last, at 60th and Market streets, West Philadelphia, in the presence of a very small and disorderly crowd of spectators. The first match which took place about two weeks ago, was won by the Sportsmen, killing 70 out of a possible 90, and the West Phillies only grassing 62 out of the same number. In the recent match the shooting was exceedingly poor on both sides, each having an extra man, and the winning team only succeeding in grassing 53 out of 100, the West Philadelphians 49. Certainly there is a little excuse to be made, for the ground was a public lot, and surrounded by trees which made it almost impossible for the shooter to see his mark. At times the shooting had to be delayed on account of the travelers walking directly across the trap which made it annoying both to the shooters and company. The best scores of the day were made by Belcher and Harding of the Sportsmen, and Taney of the “West Phillies,” all three grassing eight birds out of their ten; of the other shooters we have nothing to say only that Griffith and McKinney need a little more practice. Subjoined is the correct score

SPORTSMEN K’d M’d Total

Belcher . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 8 2 10
Buckley . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 7 3 10
Davis . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 5 5 10
Harding . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 8 2 10
Williams . . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 5 5 10
E. Kolb . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 4 6 10
Radey . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 5 5 10
McKinney . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 9 10
G. F. Kolb . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 6 4 10
Ruffner . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 4 6 10
Totals 53 47 100

WEST PLHILADELPNHIA K’d M’d Total

Townsend . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 3 7 10
Taney . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 8 2 10
Hoagland . . . . . . . . . . 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 7 3 10
Bones . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 6 4 10
Kerrigan . . . . . . . . . . . 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 7 3 10
Dickey . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 5 5 10
Walling . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 8 10
Guthrie . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 4 6 10
Griffith . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 9 10
Volker . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 6 4 10
Totals 49 51 100

Mathew Brierly officiated as Referee,. Edward Godfrey Judge for Sportsmen, and Jacob Hagans, Judge for West Philadelphia, all fulfilling their duties admirable. Belcher’s paper birds were used instead of live pigeons which gave general satisfaction.

[ SPORTING LIFE, April 22, 1883, page 8 ]

Enjoy Our History !

HB

 

Thank you very much for the help.
I really appreciate the information and warm welcome.

I'll have to go digging again, and see if I noted the sources when I was researching GF Kolb. Since he wasn't the primary focus, I didn't take very good notes about him.
I believe it was primarily newspapers, two of them German-language Philadelphia papers. The last name and business address were my most useful bits of information for getting hits. He was noted as a jeweler at least twice, and there was a notable fire in his shop at least once - but they recovered quickly.
I'll share if I find it again.

Armed with the information that you have provided, I think I will run down the Kolb patents again, too. I just can't see a guy that patented his other inventions letting this one hang out there, unprotected. There must be something. And if he was a box maker (or box maker and jeweler), I feel like the construction of the bird is going to come back to one of the box patents.
I know I eluded to it before, but I think it is something as simple as the eyelet or crimp style.
Edit: Another option is that they filed for a patent, but it was denied. There would be no surviving record in the database, if it was denied.

I have a patent lawyer friend that has been extremely helpful with other things, and helped me discover half a dozen orphaned patents that would have been unsearchable without his professional tools (no meta data, no categorization, no classification, no author, no title, no description in the databases - just scans of the original documents). I may sic him on GF Kolb and see if anything new comes up.

History aside, I've also been working on recreating this target. I can't find any evidence or mention of a photograph, high quality illustration, or surviving example. But I want to be able to demonstrate what this target was like to launch, and shoot.

I believe I have the wing shape down, and I do have one wire globe made up. But the globe doesn't look quite right, and I have not yet found the right size eyelets. With a few tweaks and some eyelets, it should be viable. I'll share here once I feel good about it.

(Sorry if that got disjointed in the middle. I was distracted by a Crosman M50 trap head being delivered - which seems to have been based on Moskeeto dimensions. Looks like Targo, but fits Moskeeto. )

 

Mr. Kolb was a pretty good rifle shooter in the 1860s & 70s, shooting Scheutzen events. He was also involved in the German community in Philadelphia. I believe the fire at the store happened several years after the introduction of the paper pigeon.

But Mr. Kolb wasn't the inventor. Mr. Belcher worked with leather. He reportedly had a machine for punching out paper pigeons. I've seen some old targets for some reason get placed under toy patents. I've got Mr. Belcher's will and inventory of his belongings after his death. He was only about 46 years old.

It should be in late 1881 or early 1882 according to newspaper clippings.

Again, Mr. Kolb had his own patents. William M. Belcher is credited with the paper pigeon and as I stated earlier, had a patent 123,665 on February 13, 1872 for his improvement in the inner soles for boots and shoes.

George Kolb won the Belcher Paper Pigeon medal.

Wm. Belcher also shot Globe Flights. They were patented March 5, 1884 but I have yet to locate a patent. Another lost application?

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John L. Brewer was champion of the world at one time. He shot against all the best, even in other countries. He died in 1913 and is buried in New Jersey.

HB

 

HB... pulled out some of Mr. O`Malleys Forest and Stream from 1883 & 1884. Of the dozen or so that I looked through I found one ad in the Feb 14, 1884. Also read through the Trapshooting Tournament sections of those F&S but didn`t find any mention of Mr. Belcher shooting...

Trap3

 

Trap3, truly appreciate you taking time to locate another nice AD for the Belcher Paper Bird.

I assure you Mr. Belcher was a shooter. In 1897 he helped organize the Pastime Gun Club in Philadelphia, serving as President.

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HB... no doubt Mr Belcher was a shooter. The Forest and Stream publications I looked through did not list any of Sportsmen`s Gun Club shoots. Have some others from 1881,82,85&86. I`ll search through them in the next couple days...

Trap3

 

HB... This is interesting...Ligowsky ad placed directly under the Belcher`s "Pat".? Paper Bird...
Could be the answer for not finding a listed patent...

Trap3

 

Thanks for the replies, guys. I also spent a few hours looking through Forest and Stream, and Sporting Life today.
Nothing new on Belcher/Kolb. But some new hits for my own notes on other shooters and clubs.

I guess I should have specified: Unless I find a patent, I have to assume that it could be either man that tried to patent the target. I have exhausted all of my leads on Belcher. So, I have to return to Kolb, under the assumption that the name was a favor to a friend.

Your reminder that Belcher was a leather worker does make sense, though. Leather die-cutting presses could easily be repurposed for die-cutting the birds.

I don't remember where I found it, but the inventory of Kolb's estate is also out there. It was of no use for purposes of target research, so I didn't save it or note its location on the interwebs. But I did run across it back in October or November of last year. It was within a *huge* text file with completely unrelated information and transcribed documents, listed by some kind of historical society.

 

Globe Flights are another one that I have been trying to assign a patent to.
What source do you have showing a March 5, 1884 patent date?
I have March 1884 mentioned in Traphsooting: The Patriotic Sport; and probably elsewhere. But nothing with the day of the month.

The closest fit that I have for a patent (that I have not yet tied to a company) is US303885A, by Elmer and Howard Ridge of Philadelphia - Aug 19, 1884. But it doesn't seem like a good fit, even if the date is ignored.

A quick search for March 5, 1884, yielded zero results for US, GB, or FR patents. Seems to be a dead zone, even though it was a Wednesday.

I do have this, though. You guys probably already have it. I have not yet had the time to go digging for information based on the address or names
.
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Nope. Ligowsky traps could not throw Belcher Paper Pigeons. They had two types of carriers, both designed for clay pigeons. Ligowsky did file infringement cases against American Clay Bird, Fischer and Peoria Black Bird companies all of which produced the saucer type targets. US Pigeon got put out of business as well but I can't recall off the top of my head who caused their demise after only a couple years in operation.

Here's more of Mr. Belcher's shooting. View not permitted. File must be too large.

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It May be Ligowsky knew a good Harvard lawyer...

Trap3

 

A Globe Flight advertisement in the May 27, 1885 issue of Sporting Life, on page 12. If you look closely on the pasteboard rim of the target you'll see the patent date.

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I have binders of patents on traps, targets and molding machines but have never found a patent for either the Globe Flight or Belcher.

HB

 

squigie,

What's the source of you Globe Shot Company advertisement? I'd like to note it in my files.

Here's the Globe Shot Tower fire.

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Thank you for sharing.
I hadn't seen a clear enough advertisement of the Globe Flight to make out what was on the rim.

Edit: I just did a quick search. March 5, 1884 doesn't appear to be a filing/application date, either.

Unfortunately, the source is unknown. The image came up in a google search, attached to a seller of reprinted "vintage pictures", with no citation.
To me, it looks like a Forest and Stream or Hunter-Trader-Trapper style ad. But it could be from anywhere.

It sounds like I need to spend more time in Sporting Life. But it gets frustrating. The page load times are so very long.

 

I requested a physical patent search for the Globe Flight.

Here is a cleaner image of the May 27, 1885 Sporting Life advertisement:

 

Thanks Squigie. My printer is down so I can't print and scan into jpg. I could only save Sporting Life in pdf, so I took a picture off my computer screen that wasn't very good. I thought I had a decent picture on file but haven't found it yet. Saved yours.

Here are some of the relevant items in Mr. Belcher's estate that were identified for probate that you will find very interesting.

Gun case, Steelyard, Lot of dies and mallets

Wheelbarrow, Saw & hatchet & 2 Desks

Money drawer, Eyelet machine, Eyelets

Cartridge loader and attachments

Punching machine for paper birds

Lot of empty brass cartridge shells

Lot of loaded “ “ ”

360 loaded paper shells

147 empty ” ”

Stove and pipe & Portable forge

Roller for leather & Heel press

Leather cutter, Steam heating pipes

27 Bird traps and castings

Lot of gun and hand loading tools

Machine for spiral springs

Stamping block, Lot of leather top pieces

Forty shares of the capital stock of the Globe Shot Co. par $10, Certificate #51 200.00
Two shares of the same ” #90 10.00
Eighteen shares of the same ” #143 90.00

HB

 

Thank you.
That is interesting.

 

I received a response to my request for a physical search in the patent archives for the Globe Flight.
Unfortunately, they are currently working from home and only have access to electronic records. My request is in the backlog, for when they are allowed to go back to work.

I also learned something. March 5, 1884, absolutely cannot be the patent date. It was a Wednesday, as I pointed out in my request (without knowing that...). Patents were only issued on Tuesdays.
I tried a few variations of the date (Mar/May, 5/6, 1884/1889) with no luck.

An except from the response that I received:

There was, of course, more to the discussion, including an exchange between this man and another archivist. But it doesn't do us any good until they do a physical search.

 

Good work Squigie,

My guess is that they never patented either target. Or were denied. But if so, there should be a record of their patent request & denial.

A patent may not have been issued for the BELCHER PAPER PIGEON, due to the similarity Powell's patent 250,101, using of the wire ball and the Briggs patent 291,287, although application was filed Nov. 5, 1883.

However, it has been reported as being patented in the newspapers March 1882 and the advertisement and Eaton's book.

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The reason I believe a patent was not issued for the GLOBE FLIGHT is due to the similarities to the Spangler patent 248,362, the Moyer patent 290,788 and the Ridge patent 303,885.

Oh well, there are countless target and trap inventions for which no patent has been found.

HB

 

I agree that these targets are more likely than others to have gone without patents.
But I must do my due diligence, especially since they involved parties that seemed very careful otherwise to protect their products.
I've even had to dissuade a couple people from believing that Spangler and Moyer were the fit here, recently. I also had to point out the Powell-Sears connection for the Powell patent. It all gets very confusing, at times. Especially for people that are trying to help, but know very little. (Feeling that way myself right now.)

I have more questions coming for other targets (and maybe traps), as well as something that I'd like to share, which I don't think has been available publicly previously.
Would you prefer a new "catch-all" thread? Or a thread per topic? Or just keep going here?

 

in light of the worlds current outlook on ecology, does anyone think that the paper pigeon may make a comeback?

 

I very much doubt it. Most of the other substitutes for the current composition of targets have had little to no success. This includes plastic, metal and even several patents granted for ice targets.

 

might need a second look, as the world goes even further left. might save on club clean up costs.