THE STRAY PATH OF A BROOKLYN BULLET (1894)
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Henry J. Hartig was no law-breaker. As a machinist, he had invented one of the first successful gas engines and patented numerous governor designs over his lifetime. An industrious German-born American citizen, well-known and loved throughout his Fort Greene neighborhood, Hartig was a law-abiding family man who would go on to sire five children with his wife, Emma. He started the Hartig Standard Gas Engine Company, manufacturing his engines – which used illuminating gas for fuel – from the early 1890s and well into the 20th century. And so, possessing the intense interest in creating, tinkering and experimenting that drives all serious inventors, his hunger for learning drew him into a variety of fields that sparked his interest. One of them was guns. Hartig owned at least one firearm – a Flobert Remington “Cadet” .22 rifle – with which he enjoyed taking target practice in his backyard. But when a stray bullet from that weapon struck an innocent man one lazy summer afternoon, it looked as though Hartig would lose it all. “CULLOM WAS HALF ASLEEP WHEN HE FELT A SHARP TWINGE…” Of course it was an accident, and many Brooklynites were owners of firearms in the 1890s – it was that kind of place back then. But then again, the […]
