Oliver Winchester
| Oliver Fisher Winchester | |
|---|---|
Winchester c. 1847
|
|
| Born |
November 30, 1810 Boston, Massachusetts |
| Died |
December 11, 1880 (age 70) New Haven, Connecticut |
| Occupation | Winchester Repeating Arms Company |
| Spouse(s) | Jane Ellen Hope |
| Children | Ann Rebecca Winchester (1835–1864) William Wirt Winchester (1837–1881) Hannah Jane Winchester |
| Parent(s) | Samuel Winchester Hannah Bates |
Oliver Fisher Winchester (November 30, 1810 – December 11, 1880) was an American businessman and politician.
He was the son of Samuel Winchester and Hannah Bates and was born in Boston on November 30, 1810. He married Jane Ellen Hope in Boston on February 20, 1834. Their children were:
Winchester was known for manufacturing and marketing the Winchester repeating rifle, which was a much re-designed descendant of the Volcanic rifle of some years earlier. Winchester started as a clothing manufacturer in New York City and New Haven, Connecticut. During this period he discovered that a division of Smith & Wesson firearms was failing financially with one of their newly patented arms. Having an eye for opportunity, Winchester assembled venture capital together with other stockholders and acquired the S&W division, better known as the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company, in 1850. By 1857, Winchester had positioned himself as the principal stockholder in the company and relocated to New Haven, changing the name to New Haven Arms Company.
Initially, the company was plagued by sluggish returns, which was in part attributed to the design and poor performance of the Volcanic cartridge: a hollow conical ball filled with black powder and sealed by a cork primer. Although the Volcanic's repeater design far outpaced the rival technology, the poor performance and reliability of the .25 and .32 caliber cartridges used in the pistol and rifle models respectively, was little match for the competitors' larger calibers.
Fortunately for Winchester, he inherited a brilliant engineer, Benjamin Tyler Henry, who proved to be an invaluable asset. Henry sought to improve on the Volcanic repeating rifle by enlarging the frame and magazine to accommodate seventeen of his newly redesigned, all-brass cased .44 caliber rimfire cartridges. This new cartridge put the new company on the map, and Henry's ingenuity was rewarded with a patent in his name October 16, 1860, for what became the famous Henry rifle.
The Henry rifle was manufactured for almost six years with a total production of approximately 12,000 rifles, both iron and brass frame models. Following the success of the Henry rifle, the company was reorganized once more and renamed the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. In 1866, employee Nelson King's new improved patent remedied flaws in the Henry rifle by incorporating a loading gate on the side of the frame and integrating a round sealed magazine which was covered by a fore stock. The first Winchester rifle was the Model 1866, the Yellow Boy.
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