Paintball Markers and Their Invention

Paintball is a competitive team shooting sport in which players eliminate opponents from play by hitting them with spherical dye-filled gelatin capsules ("paintballs") that break upon impact. Paintballs are usually shot using a low-energy air weapon called a paintball marker that is powered by compressed air (nitrogen) or carbon dioxide.

The game of paintball is not a very old one. It was only around 30 years back that this game took birth.  It was first played in the year 1981. It was played in Sutton, near New Hemisphere and had 12 players in total. The idea of shooting a paintball from a gun was first brought up in the mid-1960 by Charles Nelson, the co-founder of the Nelson Paint Company. In those times, Charles Nelson patented a number of devices that were used in those times to mark timber for removal. The Nelson Paint Company came up with the invention of a paintball. This invention was a result of the requirement of the US Forestry Services of an effective way to mark trees from a distance. This invention was extremely important because the trees that were to be marked were at a distance, mainly located across streams. One of the other uses of the paintball was for marking stray cattle from a distance. Nelson came with a solution for this as well. He invented a pellet that could be shot from a gun, commonly known as a marker. The pellet (paintball) was created by injecting paint into a gelatin capsule that was used at the time to encapsulate medicine for horses (a horse pill). Later, Nelson felt the need and approached the Crossman Company, to produce a marker gun that could effectively shoot his paintball. Resultantly, the Crossman Company came up with Crosman 707. Although the invention of Crosman 707 was indeed a good one despite that it could be very successful. It could not generate enough sales, resultantly the company stopped its production. Nelson then entered into negotiations with Daisy, the airgun manufacturer, to produce a paintball pistol marker. Daisy created the Daisy Splotchmarker in 1972, which eventually became known as the famous Nel-Spot 007. This invention was a huge success. The Daisy Nel-spot 007 marker is presently a famous marker, since it was used in the very first paintball game ever played (June 1981). The first paintball game played was "capture the flag" and played on an 80-acre cross-country ski area, which was filled with second growth forest.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: https://nicolpawn.ca/paintball-blog.php/2011/05/27/history-of-paintball-markers