Australian 1944 Rankin Style Leg irons Info needed

Does anyone have any information about the manufacturer of these leg irons or seen them before?
Hopefully Photobucket works.
These are fully functioning irons, not pull apart props as some have seen before. They are marked D arrow D and NPN 1944. The arrow being the Commonwealth Government Broad Arrow or Crows Foot. Irons numbered 122, key numbered 61.

They have a Rankin Style mechanism which Ian McColl has seen says "they are fully working and have been thru some production to get them resigned and machined and not just a flight of fancy."

Thanks
Paul

Try bigger pictures here.

Does anyone have any information about the manufacturer of these leg irons or seen them before?
Hopefully Photobucket works.
These are fully functioning irons, not pull apart props as some have seen before. They are marked D arrow D and NPN 1944. The arrow being the Commonwealth Government Broad Arrow or Crows Foot. Irons numbered 122, key numbered 61.

They have a Rankin Style mechanism which Ian McColl has seen says "they are fully working and have been thru some production to get them resigned and machined and not just a flight of fancy."

Thanks
Paul

Click to expand...

How did you make my pics bigger?
PS The ant in pic 3 is for scale purposes only.

Does anyone have any information about the manufacturer of these leg irons or seen them before?
Hopefully Photobucket works.
These are fully functioning irons, not pull apart props as some have seen before. They are marked D arrow D and NPN 1944. The arrow being the Commonwealth Government Broad Arrow or Crows Foot. Irons numbered 122, key numbered 61.

They have a Rankin Style mechanism which Ian McColl has seen says "they are fully working and have been thru some production to get them resigned and machined and not just a flight of fancy."

Thanks
Paul

Click to expand...

Paul

Very interesting cuff. Do you know the meaning of the various markings?

Joe

Does anyone have any information about the manufacturer of these leg irons or seen them before?
Hopefully Photobucket works.
These are fully functioning irons, not pull apart props as some have seen before. They are marked D arrow D and NPN 1944. The arrow being the Commonwealth Government Broad Arrow or Crows Foot. Irons numbered 122, key numbered 61.

They have a Rankin Style mechanism which Ian McColl has seen says "they are fully working and have been thru some production to get them resigned and machined and not just a flight of fancy."

Thanks
Paul

Click to expand...

The ant was a nice touch.

Very cool cuffs. No idea about the markings.
Nils

Does anyone have any information about the manufacturer of these leg irons or seen them before?
Hopefully Photobucket works.
These are fully functioning irons, not pull apart props as some have seen before. They are marked D arrow D and NPN 1944. The arrow being the Commonwealth Government Broad Arrow or Crows Foot. Irons numbered 122, key numbered 61.

They have a Rankin Style mechanism which Ian McColl has seen says "they are fully working and have been thru some production to get them resigned and machined and not just a flight of fancy."

Thanks
Paul

Click to expand...

D < D is Department of Defence.<br>Not sure what NPN stands for, or the C with arrow through it. Maybe some British or Aussie war veterans can help me out.

Does anyone have any information about the manufacturer of these leg irons or seen them before?
Hopefully Photobucket works.
These are fully functioning irons, not pull apart props as some have seen before. They are marked D arrow D and NPN 1944. The arrow being the Commonwealth Government Broad Arrow or Crows Foot. Irons numbered 122, key numbered 61.

They have a Rankin Style mechanism which Ian McColl has seen says "they are fully working and have been thru some production to get them resigned and machined and not just a flight of fancy."

Thanks
Paul

Click to expand...

It's easy to make these pictures bigger. Just remove the "th_", e.g.
IMG_3477.jpg
instead of
th_IMG_3477.jpg
(with this path:http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv111/bigdeals/)


Best regards,
Guenter
http://www.atame.info/

Does anyone have any information about the manufacturer of these leg irons or seen them before?
Hopefully Photobucket works.
These are fully functioning irons, not pull apart props as some have seen before. They are marked D arrow D and NPN 1944. The arrow being the Commonwealth Government Broad Arrow or Crows Foot. Irons numbered 122, key numbered 61.

They have a Rankin Style mechanism which Ian McColl has seen says "they are fully working and have been thru some production to get them resigned and machined and not just a flight of fancy."

Thanks
Paul

Click to expand...

Paul,

Very nice set of cuffs I think, And worthy of some big pictures..

Yes, I made the pictures bigger.

Can you post some pictures of the key without being in the cuffs?

Does anyone have any information about the manufacturer of these leg irons or seen them before?
Hopefully Photobucket works.
These are fully functioning irons, not pull apart props as some have seen before. They are marked D arrow D and NPN 1944. The arrow being the Commonwealth Government Broad Arrow or Crows Foot. Irons numbered 122, key numbered 61.

They have a Rankin Style mechanism which Ian McColl has seen says "they are fully working and have been thru some production to get them resigned and machined and not just a flight of fancy."

Thanks
Paul

Click to expand...

The bolts appear to have a brass ring or sheath around them.

Does anyone have any information about the manufacturer of these leg irons or seen them before?
Hopefully Photobucket works.
These are fully functioning irons, not pull apart props as some have seen before. They are marked D arrow D and NPN 1944. The arrow being the Commonwealth Government Broad Arrow or Crows Foot. Irons numbered 122, key numbered 61.

They have a Rankin Style mechanism which Ian McColl has seen says "they are fully working and have been thru some production to get them resigned and machined and not just a flight of fancy."

Thanks
Paul

Click to expand...

Hi Paul,

Congratulations on your purchase.

These are some non-working examples of your leg irons that I have in my collection.
They share a lot of similarities to your pair, the main difference is that they have no locking mechanism at all.
The finish can be decieving in the photos, but mine are made out of cast iron.

Mine would appear to be made simply for decorational purposes, but I too would be very interested to hear more information on them.

Justin

Does anyone have any information about the manufacturer of these leg irons or seen them before?
Hopefully Photobucket works.
These are fully functioning irons, not pull apart props as some have seen before. They are marked D arrow D and NPN 1944. The arrow being the Commonwealth Government Broad Arrow or Crows Foot. Irons numbered 122, key numbered 61.

They have a Rankin Style mechanism which Ian McColl has seen says "they are fully working and have been thru some production to get them resigned and machined and not just a flight of fancy."

Thanks
Paul

Click to expand...

I also have a pair of cast iron Rankins? like Justin's. Solid cast,non functioning leg irons bought for $25.00 at a junk store. The locking bolt is bent to catch within the small cavity provided for it. Theatrically use?

Ian

Does anyone have any information about the manufacturer of these leg irons or seen them before?
Hopefully Photobucket works.
These are fully functioning irons, not pull apart props as some have seen before. They are marked D arrow D and NPN 1944. The arrow being the Commonwealth Government Broad Arrow or Crows Foot. Irons numbered 122, key numbered 61.

They have a Rankin Style mechanism which Ian McColl has seen says "they are fully working and have been thru some production to get them resigned and machined and not just a flight of fancy."

Thanks
Paul

Click to expand...

I also have a pair like Justin's with the same markings and no key locking mechanism. I was told that they were used to secure camels during WWII by the Australian Army...who knows, but they are nicely made.

Ron

Does anyone have any information about the manufacturer of these leg irons or seen them before?
Hopefully Photobucket works.
These are fully functioning irons, not pull apart props as some have seen before. They are marked D arrow D and NPN 1944. The arrow being the Commonwealth Government Broad Arrow or Crows Foot. Irons numbered 122, key numbered 61.

They have a Rankin Style mechanism which Ian McColl has seen says "they are fully working and have been thru some production to get them resigned and machined and not just a flight of fancy."

Thanks
Paul

Click to expand...

The Australian War Memorial has informed me that NPN is the manufacturers name - Norlin Products Pty Ltd - a business once based in Bankstown, Sydney, Australia. Research continues but my guess, due to the limited numbers, is that they only made them during WW2. During the 1950s Norlin were making metal pedals of some sort. The business no longer exists.
Paul

Does anyone have any information about the manufacturer of these leg irons or seen them before?
Hopefully Photobucket works.
These are fully functioning irons, not pull apart props as some have seen before. They are marked D arrow D and NPN 1944. The arrow being the Commonwealth Government Broad Arrow or Crows Foot. Irons numbered 122, key numbered 61.

They have a Rankin Style mechanism which Ian McColl has seen says "they are fully working and have been thru some production to get them resigned and machined and not just a flight of fancy."

Thanks
Paul

Click to expand...

The large broad arrow is meant to denote the Royal Prison Service, or, Her Majesty's Prison Service.

The same arrow design used to appear on Australian convict uniforms and also was seen on the sails of the ancient "transportation" convict ship, "The Success".

Steve Santini

Does anyone have any information about the manufacturer of these leg irons or seen them before?
Hopefully Photobucket works.
These are fully functioning irons, not pull apart props as some have seen before. They are marked D arrow D and NPN 1944. The arrow being the Commonwealth Government Broad Arrow or Crows Foot. Irons numbered 122, key numbered 61.

They have a Rankin Style mechanism which Ian McColl has seen says "they are fully working and have been thru some production to get them resigned and machined and not just a flight of fancy."

Thanks
Paul

Click to expand...

Hello dear Handcuff Forum,

I would like to give some suggestions.

During WW II, raw materials were primarily used to produce weapons. In Germany for example, they produced e.g. most medals from brass as base metal first. Later, as war advanced, many of them were produced out of Kriegsmetall ("war-metal", a kind of pot metal or alloy of bad qualitiy). They needed brass for shell-production. There was an increasing demand for nearly everything, as well for restraints (POWs). Regrattably in Germany, also for the Concentration Camps. So they used even old restraints and also reproduced them, as many of them were much easier to produce.

I know of artefakts of that kind, and as a weapon collector, I have seen several (in real and on fotos) and I have been told of many, but was not as interested in, as I am today. Unfortunately there are existing no or only few historical researches, as one comes very close to the Genocide subject.

Most Germans like to avoid researches on that subject of that time, as there is still a shame with the Genocide. But one should stay even to this background in stead of denying it. When you visit Germany one day (and you have visited e.g. the great Rothenburg Criminal Museum), you sould visit the Gestapo Prison in Koeln. It is mentionend in only few tourist guides. They wanted to destroy it after war - as they did with most of these infamous prisons. But fortunately, a special "Prison - Society" established, which fought many many years for preservation. First in 1987 the prison was accepted as a "NS-Dokumentationszentrum" (a special memorial) by the city council of Köln and is protected from demolishing now.

Best wishes

Rainer

Does anyone have any information about the manufacturer of these leg irons or seen them before?
Hopefully Photobucket works.
These are fully functioning irons, not pull apart props as some have seen before. They are marked D arrow D and NPN 1944. The arrow being the Commonwealth Government Broad Arrow or Crows Foot. Irons numbered 122, key numbered 61.

They have a Rankin Style mechanism which Ian McColl has seen says "they are fully working and have been thru some production to get them resigned and machined and not just a flight of fancy."

Thanks
Paul

Click to expand...

I don't know whether Australian practice is different from Britain's, but the Broad Arrow is used more generally, as a mark of HM Property. It was commonly used on military equipment, so much so that it is often, and erroneously, considered to be a strictly military marking.

Does anyone have any information about the manufacturer of these leg irons or seen them before?
Hopefully Photobucket works.
These are fully functioning irons, not pull apart props as some have seen before. They are marked D arrow D and NPN 1944. The arrow being the Commonwealth Government Broad Arrow or Crows Foot. Irons numbered 122, key numbered 61.

They have a Rankin Style mechanism which Ian McColl has seen says "they are fully working and have been thru some production to get them resigned and machined and not just a flight of fancy."

Thanks
Paul

Click to expand...

The pics below are of a convict's uniform in the Austrailian Government's Archives and also the infamous convict transportation ship "Success".

Note the broad arrows denoting Prison Service.





Steve Santini

Does anyone have any information about the manufacturer of these leg irons or seen them before?
Hopefully Photobucket works.
These are fully functioning irons, not pull apart props as some have seen before. They are marked D arrow D and NPN 1944. The arrow being the Commonwealth Government Broad Arrow or Crows Foot. Irons numbered 122, key numbered 61.

They have a Rankin Style mechanism which Ian McColl has seen says "they are fully working and have been thru some production to get them resigned and machined and not just a flight of fancy."

Thanks
Paul

Click to expand...

Thanks guys for the additional comments. As mentioned in the very first post the broad arrow is a Government mark, and I must agree with Dennis that it is not a just a Convict "symbol".

Incidentally the "Convict Ship" never carried convicts to Australia but was used for a time as a prison hulk at Melbourne. It traveled the world as a gruesome "circus" with a collection of restraints and torture devices.

What I wouldn't give for a set of authentic convict clothes, (recycled leather Napoleonic war) cap and leg irons!!! Some say Slave irons were used because they were the same period.

But back to the leg irons. The manufacturer has now been identified.

Does anyone have any information about the manufacturer of these leg irons or seen them before?
Hopefully Photobucket works.
These are fully functioning irons, not pull apart props as some have seen before. They are marked D arrow D and NPN 1944. The arrow being the Commonwealth Government Broad Arrow or Crows Foot. Irons numbered 122, key numbered 61.

They have a Rankin Style mechanism which Ian McColl has seen says "they are fully working and have been thru some production to get them resigned and machined and not just a flight of fancy."

Thanks
Paul

Click to expand...

Hi Paul,

Thats very interesting information, thanks for doing the research.


Regards,

Justin