Weapons and firms. If we open the book by V. E. Markevich "Hand Firearms" (that is, the "Bible" of everyone who is interested in the history of weapons), we can read there that in the 1850s the gunsmith Wesson in the USA patented a repeating pistol of the magazine system of the most original device called " Volcanic "(patent February 14, 1854). And then in the same year, he also released a carbine of the same device, and for exactly the same extremely specific ammunition. And that with this weapon the history of the well-known carbine and Winchester rifle began just then.
But, delving into history, we can also find out what Markevich for some reason did not write about, but which is directly related to Volcanik. Namely, what served as its basis. And it turns out that the whole story of the lever action rifle began much earlier, and in addition not with Mr. Wesson, but with a man from New York named Walter Hunt.
And he, having conceived to create a rifle, which had not yet seen the world, decided that (before he could make it) he would need a cartridge for it. And so it was in 1848 that he proposed the world's first bullet-cartridge called "Rocket Ball". Its cavity was filled with gunpowder, which was held inside by a cardboard disc with a wax hole for ignition.
Yes, yes, Hunt's bullet did not have its own primer! But his rifle, which had a very strange name - "Desire", was for the first time in the world equipped with an under-barrel tube magazine, in which one after another could fit as many as 12 bullets.
By the way, Walter Hunt himself made many wonderful inventions in addition to this rifle. Moreover, they have largely determined the appearance of our modern world. Because among them we have a shuttle sewing machine, a safety pin, a snow plow and much more.
The "Desire" rifle, as noted above, had a tubular magazine mounted under the barrel, and it used a lever mechanism to move cartridges from it to its breech. But the cartridges she fired did not have primers that the shooter had to set manually for each shot, as was the case with the muzzle-loading rifle. Thus, although the Hunt rifle was a step forward on the path to a magazine rifle, its design still needed significant improvement.
Lewis Jennings also decided to work on improving the Hunt rifle to automate the charge initiation system and make it a real magazine rifle. It was then that Horace Smith joined him, who later became one of the founders of the Smith & Wesson company. Jennings and Smith were at the time at Robbins & Lawrence. And at the same time they were joined by another legendary person - Benjamin Tyler Henry, who at that time worked at Robbins & Lawrence as a shop foreman.
This rifle has two magazines.
One for Rocket Ball cartridges without primer. And in the upper part there is a store for primers. When you switch the lever, a new cartridge from the tubular magazine under the barrel will be inserted into the chamber, and at the same time the primer will be fed into the hole at the top of the breech.
An improved version soon appeared, which became known as the Smith-Jennings rifle. But, nevertheless, it did not become a "cult weapon".
Daniel Wesson came to Robbins & Lawrence in 1850. The whole team began to think about how to improve Hunt's Rocket Ball and his Desire rifle.
The following year, 1851, the Robbins & Lawrence Company decided to send Horace Smith to the Great British Exhibition, which was held in London's Crystal Palace in modern Hyde Park. At the exhibition, Smith met Louis Flaubert, the inventor of the rimfire cartridge, which later became the first truly practical unitary cartridge, which was then successfully used in precisely rifles with a lever mechanism.
Upon their return to the United States, Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson came up with a new cartridge that was very different from Flaubert's rimfire cartridge, so as not to infringe on his patents.
In the design of the Smith and Wesson cartridge, the initiating compound was located between two metal discs, and the impact of the striker on them could cause its ignition. In fact, they came up with the world's first caseless cartridge, and then created a pistol and carbine for it.
Smith and Wesson patented their cartridge and lever action rifle designs in 1854, but the first examples of these cartridges were made by hand.
It turned out that at that time there was simply no technology for the mass production of cartridges of this design, so their production was very expensive. Despite this, Smith and Wesson released several models of pistols with a lever mechanism and an underbarrel magazine for this ammunition, and Tyler Henry, who worked with them, used them for his rifles, with a bolt controlled by a lever bracket, which ended up as a "Henry's bracket" and named.
However, "Volcanics" neither in the version of the pistol, nor in the version of the carbine, as they say, did not go.
There were several reasons. This is the weak impact force of a 10-mm rocket bullet, and the need to operate with the left hand when reloading, which was not very convenient. And besides, this weapon turned out to be simply dangerous for the shooter, since there was a danger of impaling the primer with the tip of the previous bullet in it. In this case, the store just exploded. And if in the case of a pistol it was somehow possible to survive, then such an explosion in the magazine of the carbine (especially when holding it with the left hand) would have fatal consequences, both for the weapon itself and for the shooter.
Today, only three carbines are known for such "caseless cartridges". One is in the Bill Cody Firearms Museum, and the other two are in private hands. One of them was put up for sale at the Rock Island Auction, May 22-24, 2020.
What then is Tyler Henry? What role did he play in all this and what exactly did he do? Let's start with his biography.
Benjamin Tyler Henry (March 22, 1821 - June 8, 1898) was born in Claremont, New Hampshire in 1821. As a young man, he studied with a gunsmith and worked his way up to master at the Robins & Lawrence Arms Company in Windsor, Vermont, where he worked with Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson to improve the rifle known as the Wish.
In 1854, Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson, together with Cortland Palmer, founded a new company and improved the working mechanism of this rifle and developed the Volcanic pistol on its basis.
Its production was established in the workshop of Horace Smith in Norwich (Connecticut). The original name Smith & Wesson Company was changed to Volcanic Repeating Arms Company in 1855. Simultaneously with the attraction of new investors, one of which was Oliver Winchester.
The Volcanic Repeating Arms Company received all rights to the Volcanic design (by that time both pistol and carbine versions were produced), as well as ammunition from Smith & Wesson. Wesson himself remained the manager of the plant for eight months, after which he again took part in Smith, and they created the new company "Smith & Wesson Revolver Company".
Perhaps this was the most original part of this rifle.
The octagonal barrel was round at the end. And on this part, a clutch was put on, which was in engagement with the under-barrel magazine. It was necessary to move the spring into it using a lever on the cartridge pusher, which moved along the groove throughout the store, and then turn it to the side. The magazine tube thus opened and cartridges could be inserted into it: one by one, bullets forward. Then the clutch returned to its place, the spring with the pusher was released, the pusher pressed on the cartridges. When working with the underbarrel lever, they were fed to the tray, raised to the level of ramming and then pushed into the chamber with the bolt, after which it was possible to shoot from the rifle.
The bad thing was that the pusher lever, when firing, often rested against the shooter's hand, which led (if he did not notice this in the heat of the battle) to delays in firing due to the failure to supply the next cartridge.
Only now they began to produce already revolvers, having bought from Rollin White his patent for a through drum.
But Winchester at the end of 1856 bankrupted the Volcanic Arms company, and then bought it himself, but transferred production to New Haven (Connecticut), where in April 1857 he created his own company, New Haven Arms Company. He hired Tyler Henry to manage the business and gave him a good salary.
On October 16, 1860, Henry received a patent for a.44 caliber magazine rifle, which no longer fired caseless ammunition for the Volcanic, but sidefire cartridges. Moreover, the first Henry's rifles were then very expensive - $ 50 a piece (a three-month soldier's salary!), So they were not produced for use in the army until the middle of 1862.
In 1864, Henry became angry with Winchester (due to insufficient compensation for his labor) and tried to get the Connecticut legislature to transfer ownership of the New Haven Arms to him.
Oliver Winchester, hastily returned from Europe, preempted the move and reorganized New Haven Arms into the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. And then Winchester completely modified and improved the basic design of the Henry rifle.
Transformed it into Winchester's first rifle, the Model 1866, which fired the same rimfire.44 caliber rounds as Henry's rifle, but had an improved magazine. And, most importantly, it received a "hatch" on the right side of the receiver for loading cartridges into it. Moreover, it is clear that this innovation was not invented by Winchester himself. And he took advantage of the development of his employee Nelson King. (Because of what, by the way, this detail was nicknamed "the royal innovation"). Also in this model, a wooden forend was used for the first time, which made this weapon truly comfortable.
As a result, Henry was offended.
He left the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. And then he worked in his private workshop as a gunsmith until his death in 1898.
So, as you can see, he did not do that much. He just envied how much of his simple improvement was squeezed out by his cunning boss!
Nevertheless, his 15-round rifle made history in the US Civil War.
The 7th Illinois Volunteer Regiment was armed with it and compared to other units (still firing from muzzle-loading primer rifles) was considered almost the most "killer" unit of the Northern army.
Southerners called her
"Damn rifle"
and the advertisement claimed that
you can load it on Monday and then shoot it all week until Sunday.
Of course, this was an exaggeration.
But there is no doubt that 15 shots in 30 seconds could be fired from it. Whereas primer rifles gave a maximum of two rounds per minute.
