Summer ’s here , and for many of us that intend the season of small fry guns and Super Soakers is upon us . But this American pastime goes back much further than most of us realize , for these dear water pistols have enjoyed a long history predating even the Civil War itself .
believe at the battle ’s dawn that a relatively small militia would be more than sufficient to “ put down the insurrection in the south ” within three months , Abraham Lincolncalled for 75,000 volunteer for the cause on April 15 , 1861 .
But not every pundit and strategian believe the southern forces would be so easily subdued , with one of the loudest part for massively upgrading the Union U. S. Army come fromWilliam Tecumseh Sherman , who would be promoted to the social rank of general later that year . Having long exalt that the Union was “ sitting on a vent , ” Sherman found the size of Lincoln ’s estimated war machine dangerously deficient , saying “ Why , you might as well essay to put out the flames of a cut edifice with a squirt - gun . ” TheChicago Tribunealso enlisted the frivolous weapons in their call for action , publish “ Let there be no boy ’s drama … no battles with spirt guns and butter words . ”
Very primitive squirt guns did fiddle a lively strategical role in another conflict several decades before the Civil War . Squire Boone Jr.(brother ofDaniel ) was charged with the task of vote out a large force of Shawnees in 1778 . The labor was partly accomplished by his decision toconvert a grouping of rifle barrels into water - launch deviceswith which his military personnel dip the native ' Aaron’s rod .
Though the detail about specific models used prior to the deluxe age are cover in secret , the first patent weewee gun , knight “ The USA Liquid Pistol,”was released in 1896 . As for the Super Soaker , overheated mischief - manufacturer the creation over exuberate in 1989 , when the first model was released by inventor and former NASA engineer Lonnie Johnson .
