As discussed under the 8mm Protector, this was another French invention based on the original Jacques Edmond Turbiaux palm pistol design. In 1885, two French firearm designers and business partners Pierre Blachon and Etienne Mimard purchased the Manufacture Française d’Armes et de Tir, from fellow Frenchman Martinier Collin. They renamed the company to Manufacture Française d’Armes de Saint-Étienne and the original product line wassome cheap pinfire revolvers, but with bicycles becoming fashionable the name of the company was changed in 1892 to Manufacture Francaise d’Armes et Cycles de Saint-Etienne (MANUFRANCE). In 1893 the started to manufacture the Mitrailleuse Palm Squeeze Pistol. It used basically the same inside-primed cartridge as the Le Protector pistol. The name of the Mitrailleuse was changed shortly after to the Le Gaulois. (Erlmeier, Brandt Ref. 93A).
