Massachusetts Arms Company
| Private | |
| Industry | firearms |
| Fate | Bankruptcy |
| Founded | Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, United States (1849) |
| Founder | Joshua Stevens |
| Defunct | ~1930 |
| Headquarters | Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, United States |
|
Key people
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Christian Sharps, Horace Smith, Daniel Wesson |
| Products | Firearms |
|
Footnotes / references Trade name once used by J. Stevens Arms and Tool Company |
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The Massachusetts Arms Company, of Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts was a manufacturer of firearms and firearm-related products from about 1849 into the early 20th century.
The Massachusetts Arms Company was incorporated March 5, 1850 and was founded by Joshua Stevens along with Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson, who later founded Smith & Wesson. It was an outgrowth of the Wesson Rifle Company.
Christian Sharps, who later founded the Sharps Rifle Company, transferred the manufacture of his first rifle to the company in 1849 or 1850.
The company also manufactured Wesson & Leavitt revolvers between 1850 and 1851. These were said to be the first revolvers patented after Colt's.
In 1851, Samuel Colt filed and won a historic patent infringement lawsuit against the Massachusetts Arms Company. The company then limited its revolver production to relatively unpopular designs by Edward Maynard until 1857, when Colt's patent expired.
Maynard patented his revolutionary breechloading rifle in 1851. It was actually manufactured by Massachusetts Arms, which had been using Maynard's system under contract for several years. In 1855 they produced 2,000 Greene Carbines, a Maynard system firearm, for a British government contract. These carbines were used in the Crimean War.
Maynard's rifle was operated by a lever which when depressed raised the barrel to open the breech for loading. A brass cartridge, also developed by Maynard, was then inserted and the lever raised to close the breech. Once cocked the loaded rifle could then be primed by either placing a percussion cap directly on its nipple or by using Maynard's patented priming system to advance a primer to the nipple.
Also in 1857 the company received a contract to manufacture Adams revolvers under license for the U.S. government. Some 500 or so were produced and used in the U.S. Civil War.
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Wikipedia