Emilio Ghisoni (1937 – 28 April 2008) was an Italian

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an id ...

and firearm

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

, best known for his innovative work with revolvers.

Biography

Ghisoni was born in

Pavia Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the cap ...

northern Italy Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative Regions ...

in 1937, and attended university to follow a course in

classical studies Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

. His father founded a company, Macchine Termo-Balistiche ( Mateba), that manufactured

pasta Pasta (, ; ) is a type of food typically made from an unleavened dough of wheat flour mixed with water or eggs, and formed into sheets or other shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. Rice flour, or legumes such as beans or lentils, are ...

kneading machinery and other

food processing Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing includes many forms of processing foods, from grinding grain to make raw flour to home cooking to complex industr ...

equipments. The death of his father, who ran the company, caused Ghisoni to leave school in 1956 to learn the business. He later became a

mechanical engineer Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations o ...

and a designer of food processing equipment. An avid firearms enthusiast, he had an interest in designing revolvers. His designs came from wanting to improve accuracy in international rapid-fire competitions. He accomplished this by aligning the barrel with the lower chamber of the cylinder instead of the top in order to lower the

bore axis The bore axis of a firearm is the longitudinal axis through the geometric center of the gun barrel. In a rifled barrel, the projectile (bullet/ball, pellet or slug) will spin around the bore axis as it goes through the barrel. Boresighting is a ...

and minimize the

muzzle rise Muzzle rise, muzzle flip or muzzle climb refers to the tendency of a firearm's or airgun's muzzle (front end of the barrel) to rise up after firing. It more specifically refers to the seemingly unpredictable "jump" of the firearm's muzzle, cau ...

due to

recoil Recoil (often called knockback, kickback or simply kick) is the rearward thrust generated when a gun is being discharged. In technical terms, the recoil is a result of conservation of momentum, as according to Newton's third law the force r ...

. In the 1970s he designed his first prototype: a revolver with a lower barrel and cylinder in front of the

trigger guard A trigger guard is a protective loop surrounding the trigger of a firearm designed to prevent unwanted contact with the trigger, which may cause an accidental discharge. Other devices that use a trigger-like actuator mechanism, such as inhalers ...

. He followed this with: * The Mateba MT1, a

.22 LR The .22 Long Rifle or simply .22 LR or 22 (metric designation: 5.6×15mmR) is a long-established variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition originating from the United States. It is used in a wide range of rifles, pistols, revolvers, smooth ...

semi-automatic pistol A semi-automatic pistol is a type of repeating single- chamber handgun ( pistol) that automatically cycles its action to insert the subsequent cartridge into the chamber (self-loading), but requires manual actuation of the trigger to ac ...

, produced in small numbers in 1980. * Mateba MTR-8 of 1983. * Mateba 2006M. * Mateba Autorevolver. * Chiappa Rhino revolver. He died in 2008 at the age of 71 following a

bone tumor A bone tumor is an abnormal growth of tissue in bone, traditionally classified as noncancerous (benign) or cancerous (malignant). Cancerous bone tumors usually originate from a cancer in another part of the body such as from lung, breast, thyr ...

.http://www.armietiro.it/scomparso-emilio-ghisoni-geniale-inventore-darmi (Italian)

Notes

External links

MatebaFan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghisoni, Emilio 20th-century Italian inventors Firearm designers 1937 births 2008 deaths

Biography

See also

Notes

External links