The "Little Tom" gets it name from its designer's last name, Tomiška. It took him eight years to complete the design of this pistol and obtain both the British and Austrian patent for it. He started his own company to manufacture the pistols and called it
Wiener Waffenfabrik which translates as Vienna Firearms Works in partnership with a man named Camillo Frank and began production of pistols in both
.25 ACP and
.32 ACP around 1909. Sales were quite slow but Tomiška continued to work on refining his designs and obtaining additional patents, finally selling his business in 1919 and moving back to his native Czechoslovakia where he worked for Jihočeská Zbrojovka (South Czech Weapon Works) which later became a part of
Česká zbrojovka (CZ). At Jihočeská Zbrojovka he worked on the designs for the vz 22, 24 and 27 pistols and also made his own licensed versions of his “Little Tom”. ==Features==