Developed in the early 20th century by William John Whiting, a second generation factory employee and member of the Webley Board of Directors, the 1904 Prototype was an early attempt at a semi-automatic pistol capable of delivering the large caliber firepower that would attract military contracts in Great Britain and possibly beyond. This example, marked for "38 AUTOMATIC", was likely intended as a civilian counterpart to the 455 Automatic Model 1904 which was being prepared with an eye to displace the 455 double action revolver in the hands of British troopers and compete against the 44 Russian and 45 Long Colt revolvers shipping out from the United States on the export market. Overall, the 1904 is clearly a forerunner of Webley's later semi-automatic pistols, especially the 1913 Mark I in overall shape, sight arrangement, and hammer configuration. The 1904 is mechanically a very different animal as well as being ahead of its time in a number of ways, showing features that re-occur in later firearms development. At the core is a short-recoil action, with the barrel and bolt assembly nearly completely enclosed by the frame as opposed to the slide arrangement of the later pistols. The bolt, which runs the full length of the frame and was made heavy to help absorb recoil forces, is fitted with a long extractor, a windage adjustable rear sight and several milled grooves on the sides; these grooves, similar to the ones found on later SMG and automatic rifle bolts and receivers, would give any debris or firing residue trapped between the frame and block somewhere to go, and reduce the chance of the action jamming or binding up. Additionally, as the bolt extends beneath the barrel and beyond the breech, it is also a very early example of the "telescoping bolt" concept that would become a de-facto standard for semi-automatic pistols with the rise of Colt and Fabrique Nationale manufactured John Browning designed automatics as well as a number of successful submachine gun designs. The frame is hand engraved on the left side with the legend "WEBLEY & SCOTT/.38 AUTOMATIC PISTOL" next to the Webley "winged bullet" logo, and "28" on the opposite side and Birmingham proofs on the barrel, frame and bolt. The "28" is repeated on a number of components, including the slide and magazine. Controls consist of a checkered hammer, a takedown knob hand engraved "LOCKED/OPEN" that controls an internal locking block, a checkered manual slide catch, and a smooth ring hammer with concentric circle designs on the sides. The knob deserves a moment of discussion, as many early automatic pistols designs were very unfriendly to the man in the field who would need to be able to maintain the weapon in less than ideal conditions. Takedown is executed by merely pulling back the bolt and turning the knob, which frees the bolt and barrel and opens up the entire weapon. A broad slot is cut in the knob, permitting the use of improvised tools to open the pistol in event of fouling, and the locking block projects from the bottom of the trigger guard when open, providing immediate tactile feedback to the soldier about which position the block is in, a great boon if forced to perform maintenance in inadequate lighting. The grips are checkered, and very similar in contour and checkering to Webley's later production, while the magazine has an on-board spring loaded catch built into the floorplate instead of the frame mounted buttons of later editions.