Dieudonné Saive

Who was Dieudonné Saive?

Dieudonné Joseph Saive 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. He is also known for modifying several of John Browning's firearms designs, including the 1931 Baby Browning and Hi Power pistol as well as the Browning .30 cal machine gun.

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 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 9mm pistol designs alternately using locked and unlocked breaches. Browning and Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Co. submitted a U.S. patent application for the locked-breach 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 Liege, Belgium. Colt's elected to concentrate on manufacturing its hugely successful Model 1911 instead of either of Browning's new 9mm 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.