American Rifle - Alexander Rose [241]
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52. R. G. Jinks, History of Smith & Wesson: No Thing of Importance Will Come Without Effort (North Hollywood, Calif.: Beinfeld, 1977), pp. 1–3. Jinks notes (p. 8) that in June 1846, the Wesson company corresponded with Allen & Thurber of Norwich, Connecticut, where Smith was at the time employed. It’s possible the two men first made contact there.
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53. On Wesson’s background, see Jinks, Smith & Wesson, pp. 5–13.
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54. “Improvement in breech-loading fire arms,” Patent no. 8,317, August 26, 1851.
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55. Bilby, Revolution in Arms, pp. 55–56; Westwood, Rifles, p. 30; Williamson, Winchester, p. 10. Edwards, Civil War Guns, p. 164, points out the dueling aspect.
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56. “Improvement in firearms,” Patent no. 10,535, February 14, 1854.
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57. “Improvement in cartridges,” Patent no. 11,496, August 8, 1854.
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58. See “Stockholders of Volcanic Repeating Arms Company,” in Williamson, Winchester, p. 462.
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59. Williamson, Winchester, pp. 11–12.
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60. Bilby, Revolution in Arms, pp. 57–58.
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61. See “Making shirts,” Patent no. 5,421, February 1, 1848.
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62. Technically speaking, the first official Peacemaker was made in 1872 after Colt’s death, but the colonel referred to his revolvers as “peacemakers” and endowed them with divine powers. In 1861, when his local minister’s house was burgled, Colt sent him a letter (with a copy to the newspapers, of course): “I take the liberty of sending you a copy of my latest work on ‘Moral Reform,’ trusting that, in the event of further depredations being attempted, the perpetrators may experience a feeling effect of the moral influence of my work.” In the accompanying package, there was a Peacemaker. (M. A. Bellesiles, Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture [New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000], p. 430.) Colt, however, had not invented the term. In 1841 Cochran, a gun-maker, had described one of his products as “an American peacemaker,” and three years later the twelve-inch iron cannon mounted on USS Princeton exploded, killing the secretaries of state and navy—its nickname was the Peacemaker. See Dizard, Muth, and Andrews, Guns in America, p. 52.
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63. Bellesiles, Arming America, p. 354.
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64. On Colt’s background, see his entry in American National Biography; Sharpe, Rifle in America, pp. 184–85. The basic idea of having a movable or removable chamber was not entirely new. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, heavy and light artillery pieces sometimes employed them, though it’s doubtful Colt was aware of this. See K. DeVries and R. D. Smith, “Breech-loading guns with Removable Powder Chambers: A Long-lived Military Technology,” in B. J. Buchanan, ed., Gunpowder, Explosives and the State: A Technological History (Aldershot [U.K.]/Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2006).
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65. “Improvement in fire-arms,” Patent no. 9,430X, February 25, 1836.
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66. On Colt’s line about government patronage, see Dizard, Muth, and Andrews, Guns in America, p. 61.
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67. Ibid., p. 62.
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68. Garavaglia and Worman, Firearms of the American West, p. 1:141.
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69. Dizard, Muth, and Andrews, Guns in America, pp. 64–65; Garavaglia and Worman, Firearms of the American West, p. 1:142.
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70. Quoted in Sharpe, Rifle in America, p. 186.
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71. Quoted in Garavaglia and Worman, Firearms of the American West, p. 1:145.
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72. H. G. Houze, Winchester Repeating Arms Company: Its History and Development from 1865 to 1981 (Iola, Wis.: Krause, 2004), p. 14; Williamson, Winchester, pp. 22–23. For a detailed look at Henry’s background, see Edwards, Civil War Guns, p. 171.
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73. “Improvement