Parris Manufacturing Company
The Parris Manufacturing Company of Savannah, Tennessee is an American company that primarily manufactures toy guns.[1]
History
Iowa inventor William G. Dunn (1883–1968) originally owned a hardware business in Clarinda, Iowa. With the start of World War I, Dunn created the Dunn Counterbalance Company that operated out of the hardware store until he built a factory in Clarinda and renamed his company the Dunn Manufacturing Company.[2] Dunn was responsible for 48 patents, 7 to do with wind power.[3] The Dunn Manufacturing Company also built a 3-seat Cruzeaire Monoplane in 1928.[4]
In 1936 Dunn teamed up with Cecil Lewis "Catfish" Parris, a marketing specialist, to form the Parris-Dunn company. The company was formed with Parris as President and Dunn as Vice President to sell a wind driven generator[5] for farms to recharge electrical items. The Dunn Governing Principle was able to use a controllable propeller speed with fewer moving parts than other wind generators.[3] The idea was successful with over 37,000 units created the next year that were sold throughout the USA and foreign countries.[6] Philco Electronics contracted with Parris-Dunn to put their well known name on their "Skychargers" and marketed the items to their customers.[7]
World War II
With surplus American arms sent to England and other countries prior to America's involvement in World War II, the American military suffered a severe shortage of rifles. As the U.S. Government decided that wind generators were not a priority item, Parris-Dunn could only manufacture spare parts for the ones in use. When the company sought some war work the government recommended making
Impressed by the rifles made for the
Over 500,000 rifles were produced with Parris-Dunn being awarded the
Postwar
With the end of the war, the training rifles were sold as surplus. From 1943, Parris had approached the company's chief engineer, Maurice Greiman with the idea of Parris-Dunn manufacturing
Dunn retired in 1949 with Parris moving the company to Savannah, Tennessee where it remains.[6] During the Civil War Centennial the company manufactured replica cork shooting Civil War muskets and pistols.
The company manufactured full size replicas of the M1903 Springfield and smaller sized models for children that featured a working bolt with a dummy bullet, leather sling, the clicker action, and a smaller rubber bayonet similar to the
In the 1960s Parris used the cork gun design to make several types of BB guns.[13]
So much of the mail to the Parris Manufacturing Company was missent to Savannah, Georgia that Cecil Parris visited the local post office and had the postmaster add "Catfish Capital of the World" to the postmark.[14]
Kadets of America
In 1953 Parris started the idea of Kadet
Notes
- ^ "Toy Air Gun Western Cap Gun Military Frontier". parrismfgco.com. Archived from the original on 2015-01-12. Retrieved 2015-01-12.
- ^ "PARRIS-DUNN TRAINING RIFLE". user.pa.net. Retrieved 2015-01-12.
- ^ a b http://www.dailygate.com/articles/2007/12/19/opinion/07.txt [bare URL plain text file]
- ^ "American airplanes: Da - Dy". aerofiles.com. Retrieved 2015-01-12.
- ^ "Wind driven generator structure - Cecil, Parris L." freepatentsonline.com. Retrieved 2015-01-12.
- ^ a b "WebCite query result". webcitation.org. Archived from the original on May 24, 2024. Retrieved 2015-01-12.
{{cite web}}
: Cite uses generic title (help)CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "Philcoradio.com - The History of Philco, Chapter 3". philcoradio.com. Archived from the original on 2015-04-05. Retrieved 2015-01-12.
- ^ pp.95–97 Brophy, William S. The Springfield M1903 Rifles 1985 Stackpole Books
- ^ "Knife Knotes 9". usmilitaryknives.com. Retrieved 2015-01-12.
- ISSN 0032-4558. Retrieved 2015-01-12.
- ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 2015-01-12.
- ^ http://user.pa.net/~the.macs/PDTOY.html
- ^ Beeman, Robert D. & Allen, John B. Blue Book of Air Guns 2007 Blue Book Publications
- ^ "Catfish Capital: Savannah, Tennessee | Outdoor Life". outdoorlife.com. October 2005. Retrieved 2015-01-12.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2009-08-01.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
External links
- Parris Manufacturing web site https://web.archive.org/web/20090703165204/http://www.parrismfgco.com/home/history.html
- Parris-Dunn web site https://archive.today/20240524162631/https://www.webcitation.org/5knxDsURg?url=http://www.geocities.com/jdd47/pdhistory1.html
- Parris toy drill rifles http://user.pa.net/~the.macs/PDTOY.html
- Parris-Dunn Training Rifles http://user.pa.net/~the.macs/PDTR.html