This story is part of a midsummer series about lesser-known inventions, ideas and innovations that originated in Northeast Ohio. If you have suggestions for future stories, please email us your ideas.

The notorious "Tommy Gun" of Roaring '20s gangster fame, also renowned as the Thompson submachine gun used by GIs on nearly every battlefield of World War II, was born nearly a century ago in a small workshop in Cleveland.

From its inception in 1918, the gun quickly developed a reputation for reliability and firepower, becoming a prominent symbol in the lore of both 20th century crime and warfare.

The weapon is most popularly known for its namesake and originator, Gen. John Thompson, who served during the Spanish-American War in the Army's Ordnance Department and helped develop the Springfield M1903 rifle and .45-caliber Colt AS M1911 pistol.

Prior to World War I, he got the idea for creating the equivalent of a lightweight, hand-held machine gun -- a "trench broom" as he called it, that could "sweep" enemy lines in a fusillade of bullets.

After retiring from the service, Thompson formed the Auto-Ordnance Co. in 1916 to produce his "automatic shoulder rifle," and tapped the talents of engineer Theodore Eickhoff, a Purdue University graduate from Indiana who had worked in the Army with Thompson on the .45-caliber pistol.

Eickhoff was sent to Cleveland to develop the gun here because the Warner & Swasey Co., a manufacturer of instruments and machine tools, would produce parts for the weapon.

He was joined by designer/draftsman Oscar Payne in a small machine shop on Euclid Avenue, working out the details of creating a gun capable of firing 1,000 rounds per minute. It was the first weapon to be called a submachine gun.

They succeeded just in time to see the interest of their primary intended customer, the U.S. military, wane with the end of World War I.

"Then the Great Depression hit, so the military had no money, police departments had no money, and the only people who did have money in large quantities were those in the criminal element," said Tracie Hill, author of the book "Thompson: The American Legend," and originator of the American Thompson Association, a collector's group.

The gun was nicknamed the "chopper" or "Chicago piano" as it was wielded by some of the most colorful and dangerous Prohibition-era gangsters including John Dillinger, "Machine Gun" Kelly, "Pretty Boy" Floyd and "Baby Face" Nelson (who used a Thompson to murder two FBI agents).

Hill also noted, "the laws had not caught up with the technology," so even hardware stores in Chicago could sell or rent Tommy guns, no questions asked.

Eickhoff, the man who engineered the gun, was no fan of its sudden popularity among hoodlums, according to his daughter, Betsy Hanak, of Concord Township.

She recalled that her father rarely talked about the gun, but he did say "they were working on it for the sake of their country. They wanted the United States to have a good gun like this, especially during World War I.

"So they did it for patriotic purposes," she added. "And then the gangsters got hold of it . . . and he felt very bad about that, so that was one of the reasons he never talked about it."

Her father, who suffered lasting hearing damage from test-firing the Thompson prototypes, left Auto-Ordnance in 1925. But he remained in Cleveland to work for local engineering firms and raise a family of two sons and two daughters in Cleveland Heights, with his wife, Clara Strasen.

The advent of World War II proved to be a boon for Auto-Ordnance as orders for Thompsons poured in from the U.S. military and Allied forces overseas. Ultimately about 2 million Thompsons were manufactured, but the weapon's namesake died (in 1940) before he could see the success of his gun.

As for Eickhofff, "He never said, 'Oh, that's my gun,' " Hanak said of her father. But "I'm sure he must've been pleased that it was finally being used for what it was intended."

Eickhoff once autographed the opening pages of a book about the Thompson, writing: "The gun was developed as a patriotic service in time of war; and we accomplished our mission."

He returned to duty with the Army Ordnance Department during the war, working with the local manufacturers of war materiel, and remained in the service until he retired in 1955. He died in 1971 at age 85.

The Thompson's military popularity declined after the war, replaced by the less costly M3 "Grease Gun."

Yet according to Hill, the Thompson continues to be used in some South American and Southwest Asian countries, and by a few police SWAT teams in the U.S. "It's a pretty good way to remove a door," he quipped.

Thompsons, in semi-automatic versions only, are still made by the Auto-Ordnance Corp., now a division of Kahr Arms in Worcester, Mass.

And each year collectors from across the country come to the American Thompson Association shoot in Newark, Ohio, to admire and fire the old Tommy Guns that are now worth $11,000 and up.

"The Thompson is considered the Cadillac of submachine guns," Hill said. "It's got that cool image, and it's a very forgiving gun when you shoot it."

Hanak has --once, at one of the shoots in Newark. "It's as if the gun takes control," she recalled with a smile. "It's like a horse. The minute you approach a horse and you're afraid of it, that horse knows. Well, this gun knew."

Still, it would have been nice if her father was still around the see his enduring legacy, according to Hanak.

"The Thompson has become an icon. I wish my dad could have known that," she said. "He was a very quiet man. My dad never really was looking for fame."

And how would he react now? She grinned, and said, "He would puff on his pipe and get a little smile and be pleased."

The quiet man and his legendary gun.

VIDEO: A vintage Tommy gun being fired at full speed and slow-motion: