Samuel Bristow was the first person in America to mass produce a boomerang and to make boomerang throwing a popular activity in America. Samuel obtained his patent on 4 February 1902 and his factory in Topeka, Kansas manufactured about a million cross sticks in 15+ different models over the decade leading up to World War I. All of the Brist boomerangs had advanced airfoiling features, such as a bevel on the underside of the leading edge to enhance turning torque and camber on the underside of the narrow blades to increase lift and reduce drag. Both of these features were eventually used on Fast Catch boomerangs years later with many top boomerang designers claiming that they had originated these advanced undercutting features. All were unaware that this had been done 75+ years before by Samuel Bristow. Some of the Brist boomerangs were also weighted on the tips. Again, many manufacturers of longer range boomerangs in the 1970s claimed that they were the first to add weights to increase distance, and again this technique had been invented by Samuel Bristow and incorporated onto many Brist boomerang models. At one time, Brist boomerang throwing was more popular than croquet. The Brist game was very similar to Australian Round. The throwers had a target with concentric circles on the ground and points were awarded for how close you were to the center when the boomerang was caught. Catching was done with a large net, called the "Rakah". A world boomerang championship was even held in the city of St. Louis during the mid 1900s. Samuel Bristow sold the factory around 1910 and the new owner's daughter painted most of the boomerangs that were made after that date. The daughter because a famous model many years later and when magazines displayed her picture, she always had a Brist boomerang in one of her hands and this was long after the company had ceased manufacturing the product. Sadly, the beginning of World War I started a decline in America's preoccupation with games and the Brist boomerang slowly disappeared from store shelves.

This Brist cross stick is a weighted model with a rivet holding the two sticks together and a small lead weight at the end of each blade. The blades all have camber and beveling as expected. There are three bands of red on each blade. This boomerang is in used condition. The paint is old and flaking off in several locations. There is pitting and wear on the edges, especially near the tips from use. The paint around the rivet is flaked off leaving the rivet slightly loose because of a loss in clearance. If you plan to throw this, you should lightly tap the rivet with a hammer to tighten it or wrap a cord around the elbow to keep the blades from closing when the boomerang is thrown. The owner of this boomerang lived in Topeka, Kansas a decade ago and went to the local museums to research the history of the Brist boomerang. He was able to locate the second owner's daughter living in a nursing home and was able to interview her. She said that she had lost all of her Brist memorabilia in a tornado several years prior and had nothing left other than warm memories of the years that she painted and test threw thousands of these boomerangs as a child.