Yes Wikipedia is the best source for information about everything and it is never wrong. The information I am posting is accurate. Please tell me what facts I got wrong. Now you and I can differ on who should get the most credit for the BHP as we know it today but to call my statements miss information would be inaccurate.

I have given credit where credit is due. I have explained in detail the development of the BHP and who did what.

The 2 pictures I post in my previous post are both of the Grand Rendement which was completed in 1927. This is the pistol that JMB designed based around Saive's 15 round magazine. It has his name on the patent because he patented it. This is what the pistol JMB made looks like.



It is not the same as the Grande Puissance. You can see the resemblance but you can also clearly see the differences to what we refer to as the BHP. Saive is the one who did most of the refinement of the original design. JMB was not in Belgium and the French were constantly changing the specs of the contract. After the initial trials Saive was the lead designer. This was done to save the time and costs trans Atlantic travel. I believe the original patent still held for the later design but functionally and ascetically they are different. I am not a patent attorney so I am not sure how that works.





Also if we are going to get nitpicky about small details your original statement about the meaning of "grand puissance" is incorrect. FN released the pistol as "Pistolet Browning Grande Puissance" The Browning High Power Pistol. It does not translate to high capacity as you state. Many people infer that the meaning of "high power" to be referring to the high capacity of the then powerful 9mm round.

Either way I recommend everyone read both the Stevens and Vanderlindens books about the development of the BHP. They are very informative and go into great detail about how the pistol was developed. Both have their flaws in terms of info but both are on the whole much more reliable sources then Wikipedia. IMHO

In the end they are wonderful pistols and am thankful that both JMB and Saive made it happen. The only reason I chimed in was that too often people present the BHP as JMBs attempt to improve upon the 1911. This is simply not the case. It is revisionist history.

JMB in the 1920s was a contract worker under contract with Colt and FN exclusively for pistols. He worked for them under contract to win contracts like the French which gave birth to his Grand Rendement. He in fact did not think that the 15 rounds were necessary but as a contract employee working on a contract he designed 2 guns to meet the spec. If he had total control over the project it would not have been a 15+1 gun. He did not choose the spec. He did not choose the capacity of the new gun. Many of the features of the gun were not under his total control but he built the best pistol he could within the spec of the contract. Just like he did with the 1911.