Dieudonné Saive
| Dieudonné Joseph Saive | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Dieudonné Joseph Saive 23 May 1888 Wandre, Belgium |
| Died |
12 October 1970 (aged 82) Wandre, Belgium |
| Occupation | Inventor, gunsmith, firearms designer |
Dieudonné Joseph Saive (23 May 1888 – 12 October 1970) was a Belgian small arms designer who designed several well-known firearms for Belgian armsmaker Fabrique Nationale, including the FN Model 1949 and the FN FAL (Fusil Automatique Leger or Light Automatic Rifle). He is also known for modifying several of John Browning's firearms designs, including the 1931 Baby Browning and Browning Hi-Power pistol.
In 1921, the French military requested that Fabrique Nationale create a new semi-automatic nine millimetre pistol with a 15-round magazine. John Browning, who was FN's chief weapons designer, initially declined to respond to the French request because he felt standard single-row magazines holding seven or eight rounds (such as was used in his Colt's Model 1911) were sufficient. Saive, who was then Browning's assistant at FN, set to work designing a high-capacity, double-row magazine. Saive mated his experimental magazine to a modified FN Model 1903 for testing. Saive then provided the completed magazine to Browning who developed two 9 mm pistol designs using locked and unlocked breeches. Browning and Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Co. submitted a U.S. patent application for the locked-breech version of the pistol on June 28, 1923. The patent was granted on February 22, 1927, four months after Browning's death at FN's plant in Liège, Belgium. Colt's elected to concentrate on manufacturing its hugely successful Model 1911 instead of either of Browning's new 9 mm pistols so Browning's son Val offered the design to FN. This pistol design, modified after Browning's death, was offered as the 13-shot FN Browning Model 1922 or Grand Rendement (meaning High Yield). Following the expiration of the patents on the Model 1911, Saive redesigned the Grand Rendement to incorporate the best features of both pistols in the FN Model 1928, which still bore Browning's name.
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