Arthur William Savage

Arthur William Savage (13 May 1857 - 22 September 1938), was a businessman, inventor and explorer. He is most famous as the inventor of the Savage Model 99 a famously innovative lever action rifle, which remained in production for over 100 years, and the founder of Savage Arms, a gun company. However, his most lasting and valuable inventions may be radial tires, and the modern detachable box magazine used in almost all modern military firearms. He also invented an early torpedo and the recoiless rifle. He built and raced cars.

Early Life

He was born in Kingston, Jamaica, British West Indies. He attended schools in Britain and the United states and had a classical education. He married, and had eight children.

In the late 1880s he took his family to Australia, homesteading in a covered wagon. He came to own what was then the largest cattle ranch in Australia. Later he sold it and bought a coffee plantation in Jamaica. In 1892 he moved to Utica New York, and hired himself to a railroad and also a part-time to a gun factory.

Savage began designing guns. His first model, in 1887, was a lever-action rifle with the magazine in the stock, rather than under the barrel.

Six years later, he patented a lever-action rifle able to shoot then-modern military center-fire .303-caliber spitzer bullets. This was the predecessor of the model 99. The classic underbarrel tubular magazine used in most lever-action rifles holds rounds end-to-end. In such a tubular magazine, pointed spitzer bullets can detonate the centerfire primers used in military ammunition. So, he invented a rotary magazine. The gun also used a firing pin, rather than a hammer, and was the first mass-produced hammerless rifle. Another benefit of this magazine was that it had a cartridge counter that enabled the shooter to tell how many bullets remained. Hammers are inferior because they can jam on cloth or brush. A hammerless rifle was therefore a substantially more practical gun for use in the field.

In 1894, Savage started Savage Arms in Utica, New York to produce his new rifle.

Slightly later, in 1897, he filed for the patent on a nearly identical gun with a removable box primer. This is substantially the modern Savage Model 99 lever action rifle. It stayed in production until 1999.

The modern removable box magazine often seen on military rifles was invented in 1908 by Savage, as an improvement to the Model 99. It did not come into wide use until his patent expired in 1942. It has many attractive features that ensured its eventual dominance. It has shoulders to retain cartridges when it is removed from the rifle. It also operates reliably with cartridges of different lengths. So, is insertable and removable at any time with any number of cartridges. This allows the operator to reload the gun infrequently, carry magazines rather than loose cartridges, and to easily change the types of cartridges. It is assembled from inexpensive stamped sheet metal. When empty the follower stops the bolt from engaging the chamber, informing the operator of the gun's emptiness before any attempt to fire. His magazine first appeared in the Savage Model 99 lever action rifle.

Savage also collaborated on the invention of the Savage-Halpine torpedo, which was eventually adoped by the Brazilian navy. ALthough U.S. sea trials were successful, it was not adopted in the U.S., due to political considerations.

In 1901 Savage moved to San Diego and formed the Savage Tire company, a $5,000,000 corporation formed to make tires and inner tubes. Here, he invented radial tires as well as new production methods.

Savage died at the age of 83, on September 22, 1938 in San Diego, still director of his successful tire company.