![\"GT1\"](\"https:\/\/hcsblogdotorg.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/07\/gt1.jpg?w=620\")
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On the April 20th, 1897, now-legendary firearms-designer John Browning<\/a>\u00a0received four patents for various pistol designs. These included two recoil-operated systems, a blowback design and\u200a\u2014\u200amost interestingly\u200a\u2014\u200aa pistol using a gas-operated toggle action.<\/p>\n Browning had developed the gas-operated design a few years earlier in 1894 and \u201995. It was actually Browning\u2019s first<\/em> pistol design. Unfortunately, it also proved to be an evolutionary dead end.<\/p>\n Chambered in what would become known as\u00a0.38 ACP, the prototype reflected Browning\u2019s then-ongoing experimentation with gas-operation. It had a vent on top of the barrel that allowed venting gases to act on a \u201cgas lever\u201d connected to the breech-bolt by way of a toggle link.<\/p>\n Unlike Browning\u2019s later recoil and blowback designs, the gas-toggle pistol didnot<\/em> feature a slide. To cock the weapon, the shooter pulled the gas lever, bringing the bolt to the rear.<\/p>\n When the pistol fired, the gas lever flipped back toward the operator. A connecting rod then pushed the breech-bolt to the rear, unlocking the breech, ejecting a spent case, cocking the hammer and stripping a new round from the magazine as it returned forward under spring-pressure.<\/p>\nThe prototype was 21.6 centimeters long, weighed 964 grams and fed from a seven-round box magazine. It was this pistol that Browning first demonstrated to Colt<\/a> representatives on the July 3, 1895. They were so impressed with the pistol and Browning\u2019s other designs that they entered into a verbal agreement to purchase production rights to Browning\u2019s<\/a> pistols.<\/div>\n