Winchester 1873

In 1848, Walter Hunt of New York patented his “Volition Repeating Rifle” incorporating a tubular magazine, which was operated by two levers and complex linkages. The Hunt rifle fired what he called the “Rocket Ball”, an early form of caseless ammunition in which the powder charge was contained in the bullet’s hollow base.

Hunt’s design was fragile and unworkable, but in 1849, Lewis Jennings purchased the Hunt patents and developed a functioning, if still complex rifle. This version was produced in small numbers by Robbins & Lawrence of Windsor, Vermont until 1852.

Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson of Norwich, Connecticut, acquired the Jennings patent from Robbins & Lawrence, as well as shop foreman Benjamin Tyler Henry. Smith made several improvements to the Jennings design, and in 1855 Smith and Wesson together with several investors formed a corporation, the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company, to manufacture Smith’s modification of the Hunt-Jennings, the Volcanic lever-action pistol and rifle.

Volcanic Repeating Arms moves to New Haven, CT

For the Volcanic rifle, Smith added a primer charge to Hunt’s “Rocket Ball” and thus created one of the first fixed metallic cartridges which incorporated bullet, primer and powder in one self-contained unit. While still with the company, Smith went a step further and added a cylindrical copper case to hold the bullet and powder with the primer in the case rim, thus creating one of the most significant inventions in firearms history: the metallic rimfire cartridge. Smith’s cartridge, the .22 Short, would be introduced commercially in 1857 with the landmark Smith & Wesson Model 1 revolver and is still manufactured today.

Oliver Winchester purchases the bankrupt Volcanic assets from the remaining stockholders and reorganized it as the New Haven Arms Company

Benjamin Henry continued to work with Smith’s cartridge concept and perfected the much larger, more powerful .44 Henry cartridge. Henry also supervised the redesign of the rifle to use the new ammunition, retaining only the general form of the breech mechanism and the tubular magazine. This became the Henry rifle of 1860, which was manufactured by the New Haven Arms Company, and used in considerable numbers by certain Union army units in the American Civil War.