Spud gun
small toy gun used to fire a fragment of potato
A spud gun or potato gun is a small toy gun used to fire a fragment of potato. To operate, one punctures the surface of a potato with the gun's hollow tip and pries out a small pellet which fits in the muzzle. Squeezing the grip causes a small build-up of air pressure inside the toy which propels the projectile. The devices are usually short-range and low-powered.
Early history
The first spud gun was invented during the Great Depression. The original inventor sold his patent to E. Joseph Cossman for US$600 after World War II. Cossman, the brother-in-law of "Uncle" Milton Levine, sold two million spud guns in six months as a result of an advertising campaign.
In Mexico City a company named WELCO created a similar model of a spud gun with a metallic appearance. Tomas Welch, a Mexican Jewish chemical engineer, developed a spud gun named "TIRA PAPAS" (Spanish for "potato shooter").
“Spud gun” enters the record as small toy gun used to fire a fragment of potato. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Spud, small and used can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Spud gun” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Spud, small and used provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 3, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q7581483. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Spud gun”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Spud gun primary sources, Spud gun archive and Spud research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Spud gun”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Spud gun” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.