An Illustrated Police Equipment Catalogue From 1891

This Catalogue of Bean’s Patent Police Equipments from 1891 features a range of weaponry and apparatus for keeping the peace, enforcing the status quo and cracking the heads of anyone deemed criminally deviant. Produced in Boston by John P. Lovell Arms Co., this is a policeman’s ‘how-to’ guide.

h/t: flashbak

In addition to its business of trading in fishing tackle and bicycles, the John P. Lovell Arms Co. manufactured coshes and clubs – including the punishingly brutal ‘paralyzer’ – ball and chains, cuffs, hooks, leg irons, chains, hand-cuffs with neck-band accessory, holsters, revolvers, police badges, and shiny buttons. For the uniformed hard of learning, the book also details how to use the items.

John P. Lovell Arms Co. was established by John P. Lovell in Boston in 1840. Around 1895, Lovell Cycle & Ether Motor Co. was organized in South Portland, Maine, by Lovell’s sons, Col. B.S. Lovell and H.L. Lovell to manufacture motorized bicycles, vehicles and launches.

Edward D Bean (1838–1908) was born in Hollis, Maine. He rose to the rank of Captain in the 2nd New Hampshire Infantry. And with a military bent, Bean created goods for turning the streets into war zones. And neither citizens nor police will win…

Bean’s guides featured not only the means and method of attack but also the repairs. Bean’s “Hints to Criminal Officers” guides officers on how to treat acid burns, bites rom a mad dog, sprains, dislocations, fractures, how to place a person on a stretcher (perhaps one you’ve e just questioned with the paralyser), and how to kill humanely.