The Fabrique d'armes Émile et Léon Nagant, later known as L. Nagant & Cie, Liège, was a Belgian firm established in

Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...

in 1859 as a manufacturer of firearms and later automobiles.

History

The company was originally founded by brothers Émile (1830–1902) and Léon (1833–1900) as an industrial repair business, which included repairing damaged firearms. In 1867, the Nagant brothers entered the firearms market when their company received a license to produce 5,000 Remington Rolling Block rifles for the Papal Zouaves; they later adapted the rolling-block design to produce double-barreled shotguns under the name "Remington-Nagant". The company is best known for Émile's contribution to the design of the

Mosin–Nagant The Mosin–Nagant is a five-shot, Bolt action, bolt-action, Magazine (firearms), internal magazine–fed military rifle. Known officially as the 3-line rifle M1891, in Russia and the former Soviet Union as Mosin's rifle (, ISO 9: ) and inform ...

Russian service rifle, adopted in 1891. This introduction to the

Tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

's military administration led to the adoption, in 1895, of the

Nagant M1895 The Nagant M1895 is a seven-shot, gas-seal revolver designed and produced by Belgian industrialist Fabrique d'armes Émile et Léon Nagant, Léon Nagant for the Russian Empire. The Nagant M1895 was chambered for a proprietary cartridge, 7.62×38 ...

revolver (designed by Léon) as their standard-issue sidearm. The following year, Émile's progressive blindness led to his retirement from the firm which was renamed to "L. Nagant & Cie, Liège", with Léon being joined by his sons Charles and Maurice.

Car manufacture

Later, the firm moved to the manufacture of automobiles; Nagant began with building cars under licence of the French firm Gobron-Brillies and later Rochet-Schneider. Nagant cars were made from 1900 to 1928. Overhead-valve engines appeared after

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, at which point the company was making around 200 cars per year. The firm was purchased by Impéria Automobiles in 1931.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fabrique d'armes Emile et Leon Nagant Firearm designers Defunct firearms manufacturers Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Belgium Car manufacturers of Belgium Companies based in Liège Defunct manufacturing companies of Belgium