#693-694 The Rise of Smith and Wesson

 Fun Fact #693

The Needler

While forgotten today, The Needle Gun is where the base of a cartridge is pierced by a needle in place of a firing pin, which ignites the primer setting off the round. While known for wearing down faster than other systems, they were reliable until that point making the later (1857) Chassepot rifle famous for its use of them. As such they became a common weapon in eastern Europe to the point they were often referred to as “Chassepots” or “Needlers” until their maintenance issues finally pushed them out of service in WW1. Sadly most needlers were destroyed either for parts, or lost afterwards leaving few examples left (only 1 is on display in the world, currently out in Cody, Wyoming’s Firearms Museum).

Also for those of you who love Halo Games, this obscure detail from WW1 inspired the Sci-fi Needler that you know and love. For those of you who are afraid of needles however, I apologize for contributing to the problem (particularly since this makes the Needle issue long range).

As Always thanks for reading and please have a wonderful day.

Chassepot Needle Gun with its Waxpaper Cartridge. This cartridge would burn up and be expelled out the front of the gun, meaning no removal of the old shell before reloading was necessary. 

Fun Fact #694

A Volcanic start.
On May 26th, 1847, Daniel B. Wesson married Cynthia Hawes against her father’s wishes because he was “A mere gunsmith” with no future since he was only an apprentice at that time. 6 Years later you might have agreed with him since he was still making target rifles as an apprentice, when in walked the most unlikely Duo. Horace Smith –A former member of the US Armory service credited with inventing the Exploding Bullet (artillery Shell) -- and Courtlandt Palmer –The man who profited from (his brother) William Palmer’s invention of the metallic Cartridge. Most interestingly, however, was the fact that they were looking specifically for Daniel Wesson.

You see they had heard of him and more importantly had seen his attempt to illegally improve upon the Jennings rifle before his Master shut it down. Not only had they heard of it, but Cortlandt thought it was promising enough to buy the patent to the Jennings rifle and were now offering to pay for him to continue his work till he either made a functional improvement or exceeded 5 years. Wesson took them up on their offer and so began the impactful career of “Volcanic Firearms.” 

Fun Fact #695

Taking Charge

Now with his new Master (Horace Smith) and Funding from Mr. Palmer, Daniel Wesson continued his apprenticeship with one goal: To Improve upon the Jennings rifle to make the world’s first true repeating Rifle. 

Then things took a rather unexpected –and long winded– detour since Wesson didn't start with the firearm, but rather the ammunition. This was done because he surmised that the firearm he designed would live or die by the reliability of the ammo it shot. Thus, he actually started by modifying Walter Hunt’s “Rocket Ball” design by making the depression in the back of the bullet into a cull cavity so more propellant could be added, while the base was given a metallic percussion cap (of the type invented by William Palmer) which was fired by a centrally located, firing needle. It cannot be stated how impactful this was as the Jennings rifle still needed the shooter to manually add a percussion cap each time they wanted to fire –despite the fact the lever action fed the next cartridge into the chamber. This invention of a Self-contained cartridge changed the industry, and many techniques pioneered for the “Volcanic Charge” are still used in modern manufacturing today.

Fun Fact # 696

The Lever Action Pistol

Having invented the world’s first self-contained Cartridge (which we still use many design elements from today) the actual job to build a firearm around it actually became much easier. Put simply it took him 1 year 7 months to design and refine the Volcanic Charge, but only 5 months for him and Horace Smith to invent two repeating firearms which used it: The Volcanic Rifle and The Lever Action Pistol. 

However, the reason why actually makes a lot of sense. The ability to feed the next round into the chamber by lever action had already been invented with the Jennings rifle, now all they had to do was adapt the design to use Volcanic Cartridges. Thanks to their success, Volcanic Repeating Firearms grew fast, with a new investor (Oliver Winchester), and to meet demand they opened up a factory overseen by their new plant superintendent B. Tyler Henry. Truly things were looking up. So much so in fact that Wesson –now a full-fledged Gunsmith– saw Colt’s Patent on the revolver expire and decided now was the time to go start his own company. A company whose designs he could control directly, and he took Horace Smith with him to found “Smith and Wesson.”

Fun Fact #697

The Eruption of Volcanic

Suffice it today the loss of both Smith and Wesson shortly proved to be a major blow to Volcanic. Shortly after they left, internal innovations ceased, and they never figured out how to make Volcanic cartridges cost less leading to plummeting sales. B. Tyler Henry actually did try to improve Volcanics’ firearms by testing with the newly developed rim fired cartridges, but this was shut down by the investors led by Courtland Palmer. Thus, Tyler began to tinker on his own time at home, and when he made a version which functioned well off his custom but easily produced ammunition (“.44 Henry Rimfire”) he left Volcanic and started selling them through “The New Haven Arms Company” (owned by Winchester). 

After yet another of their brightest minds –and the last one innovating– left, Oliver Winchester pushed the issue of Volcanics’ insolvency and removed Palmer, and the other investors Now in sole control, Oliver reorganized what remained Volcanic into “The Winchester Repeating Arms Company”  

So why is there a company called Henry Repeating Arms company today? In 1996 Anthony Imperato and his son secured the trademark to Henry’s name and began reproducing several of Henry’s patents updated for modern use. They are Headquartered in Rice Lake Wisconsin which I find exceptionally cool. That said they have no direct connection to the historical B. Tyler Henry.