The first step in this project was choosing the product that it is to explored.

We decided that we were not going to doing something extremely simple, as it

would not only be boring, but would also limit what we would learn in the process of
completing this project. We jotted down several ideas, including a hand lawn
seeder, a hand-operated bilge pump, a quick-release hand knife-- and then
suddenly, it struck us. Cap guns are toy guns that produce a loud pop sound and a
small puff of smoke simulating a real gun being fired, and are a popular toy among
children of ages 5-15. Toy cap guns are not only fun to play with, they are also a
perfect example of many simple concepts of engineering. Their operation is entirely
mechanical in nature, and they are neither too simple nor too complex for the scope
of this project. We both had memories of playing with toy cap guns as children, and
we thought that it would be interesting to revisit them, but this time from an
engineering stand point. We went to a nearby Dollar Store and bought ourselves a
pair of toy cap guns to begin our investigation. After responsibly firing a few caps to
make sure the guns were functioning correctly, and then a few more because it was
so entertaining, we unscrewed a cap gun to see how the functioned from the inside
and take measurements of the parts. Made from cheap plastic and a few springs, we
were amazed at how complex the interior of the gun actually was. We imagined how
the inside of the first toy cap gun must have been different from the bright orange,
mass-produced one we were staring at.
Although many think of toy cap guns as a very modern invention, they were
actually invented in the early 1900s. According to Nichols Cap Guns, the first
company to popularize toy cap guns commercially, cap guns get their name from
the small discs of shock-sensitive explosive compounds (roughly 1.4 to 1.6 mm in
diameter) that provide the noise and smoke, effectively the same as the separate

percussion cap primers used in real firearms of the mid to late 1800s, although
invariably smaller and made from cheap plastic or paper rather than soft metal.
Some are arranged in plastic rings of eight or twelve. There are also single caps, roll
caps (of 50 to 500), and disk caps, all of which are actually extremely small versions
of percussion fireworks. Armstrong's mixture is often used today as the explosive,
but previously the tiny powder charge was a simple mixture of potassium
perchlorate, sulfur and antimony sulphide sandwiched between two paper layers
which hold in the gases long enough to give a sound report when the cap is struck.
(Nichols Cap Guns) Cap guns became extremely popular in the era of the "Wild
West" fad, which featured many stars in cinema and television riding through the
vast expanses of the western United States. Many of these stars had their signature
gun holstered to their side, and every child who watched these shows and movies
dreamed of emulating their role model. Cap guns were most popular in the 20 years
immediately following World War 2, the period when many Americans bought a
television and the popularity of these broadcasts really sky-rocketed. Companies
such as "Nichols, Hubley, Kenton, Kilgore, Wyandotte, Classy, Mattel, Actoy,
Esquire, George Schmidt, and Stevens. (Cap Guns) made millions of cap guns in
different versions. Many of these had western sounding name, such as "Pioneer" or
"Colt 45." The pistols generally were in 3 styles, the semi-automatic, the revolver
(that actually had a revolving cylinder carrying a disk of caps) and the mockrevolver that looked like a regular revolver, but opened to load a roll of caps.
According to "capgunstore.com," the world's largest online toy cap gun sales
platform, Almost all of the early models used either roll caps or circular disks of
caps, but in 1950 Nichols Industries came out with a large model called the Stallion
45, which had a revolving cylinder into which individual bullets were loaded, which

each had two parts. The circular cap was placed into the 2-piece bullet and then
when the gun was loaded and fired, it seemed more realistic. Eventually several
companies used this idea and a few years later Nichols invented a plastic bullet that
was inserted into a hollowed out version of the regular 2-piece bullet and when the
gun was fired, the plastic pellet shot out of the end of the barrel. Eventually Mattel
also came out with a model called Shootin' Shells. (Cap Gun Store) While conducting
research on the developments made on the product, we found that the famous toy
company Mattel had produced a battery-operated automatic firing cap weapon
based on the design of the Thompson submachine gun. This was an interesting
innovation, however we found it unnecessarily advanced, and thought it is strayed
from the simple, manual nature of the cap guns that we have grown up with. This
innovation made us think about the boundaries in which cap guns are made, and
who they are made for.
There are several constraints that come into play when manufacturing cap guns, as
with all toys. Of course, there are obvious safety regulations imposed by the
government which include:
- Only being made of regulated, allowed materials. Plastics are strictly regulated by
the Consumer Product Safety Commission, or CPSC. As children are playing with
these cap guns and may put them in their mouth, there can be absolutely no
materials which are harmful to their health used in their production.
- The size and weight of the product-- the packaged box of the toy cap gun should
be economical to transport and store in toy stores and other retail outlets, both
space and weight-wise.

- The cap guns should be able to use caps from competitor's guns, in order to
increase potential audience (e.g, if someone already has a box of caps at home but
their gun has broken).

http://www.capgunstore.com/
http://www.nicholscapguns.com/earlycappistols.htm