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Naval Toys

By Chris Clemons

SCHOENHUT’S Submarine and Dreadnought NAVAL WAR TOY 

 

SCHOENHUT’S Submarine and Dreadnought NAVAL WAR TOY  is described on the illustrated box lid as being “A Most Exciting and Interesting Toy” and “Harmless Amusement for Young and Old”. It was made as a result of a patent, No. 1,134,579, granted on the 6th of April, 1915, (one of about 890 patents granted by the United States Patent Office on that day) to Maurice A. Audsley. The opening paragraph of the patent application, which was filed on December 24th, 1914, states – “ Be it known that I, Maurice A. Audsley, subject of King George V of England, and a resident of Corona, in the county of Queens and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Games, of which the following is a specification.”

The application then goes on to describe the toy in detail supplemented by one page of drawings which shows two vessels in both plan and side views with the various parts numbered and cross referenced in the text. Interestingly, in view of the actual components of the toy when it was produced, the patent application does not mention a submarine, but in fact a “torpedo boat” which would launch the torpedo at the other ship. Although submarines were part of the naval forces of England and Germany at the beginning of World War I, when this application was filed, they were few in number and had not been used in warfare before, whereas torpedo boats were common in both navies and had been used before in combat.

In supporting his case for having the application granted Audsley claimed that he had invented “1. A game wherein a unit includes a projectile ejector having a manually operable trip, and a unit including a removable upper portion, a trip spring device to throw said upper portion upwardly, and an operating detent for said spring device serving as an exposed mark or target outside second named unit to be actuated by impact from said projectile.

                                    2. A naval game wherein a unit in the form of a torpedo boat includes a projectile ejector having a manually operable trip, and a unit in the form of a gun boat including a removable deck portion, a trip spring device to throw said deck portion upwardly, and an operating detent for said spring device serving as an exposed mark or target outside said gun boat to be actuated by impact from said projectile”.

The full transcript and drawings for the patent application can be found on the website for the United States Patent Office – www.uspto.gov/patft/

The actual toy produced by the Schoenhut Company is a simple, but pleasing toy, which comprises a wooden gunboat, upgraded to a “Dreadnought” – the largest and most powerful ships in the British and German navies at the time – and a submarine with a torpedo. The Dreadnought consists of a wooden hull, about 11"/280mm long, in which a cavity has been machined, and a spring, similar to that found on a mousetrap, fixed to the bottom. A catch holds down the spring when it is drawn back and this is released by a button protruding through the side of the ship when struck by the torpedo. Above the cavity a full-length deck is fitted over the hull held in place by two pegs. On top of the deck are placed two double-barreled gun turrets, a smaller deck and two funnels. When the torpedo hits the target button the spring is released resulting in the deck and other fittings being thrown into the air like an “explosion”.

The submarine is a simple wooden hull about 6"/150mm long, surmounted by a round turret and a metal (?) periscope. A round hole, drilled into the front of the hull, contains a spring to eject the torpedo. A metal lever, which is pivoted inside the turret has a catch on the front end to hold the torpedo, which has a recess to hold the lever in place. When the other end of the lever is depressed the torpedo is fired from the submarine by the action of the spring.

The examples that I have in my collection are all painted grey with the target button in red. Unfortunately none of the submarines have an original periscope, which is shown in a sketch with the instructions, to be a quite tall tube, (possibly metal?), with what appears to be a cone shape on the top.

Inside the box lid are instructions for how to play with the toy and prominence is given to the words “Do Not Put These Boats In Water – they are intended to be played with on the table or floor.”

On the 2nd August, 1916, Audsley filed another application, which was granted as patent No. 1,225,393, on May 8th, 1917. This was basically an improvement on his earlier patent which gave the target gun boat two sets of decks, guns and funnels which could be “exploded” separately by having two springs embedded in the hull and two target buttons. I have not seen on of these toys so do not know if in fact they were produced.

While researching for this toy I also came across another patent granted on June 26th, 1951, to Edward W. Koepnick. The drawing in the application shows a toy ship almost identical to that of Audsley’s with the same layout and spring mechanism. This patent, No. 2,558,257, can be seen on the website www.esp@cenet .