The Galleries
- Robert E. Petersen Collection
- Ancient Firearms
- The Road to American Liberty
- Seeds of Greatness
- The Prospering New Republic
- A Nation Asunder
- The American West
- Innovation, Oddities and Competition
- Theodore Roosevelt, Elegant Arms
- World War I and Firearms Innovation
- WWII, Korea, Vietnam and Beyond
- For the Fun of It
- Firearms Traditions for Today
- William B. Ruger Special Exhibits
- Freedom's Doorway
E G Lamson and Co Ball Repeating Carbine
Although the Federal government issued a contract for these arms in 1864, they were not delivered until May, 1865, after the war had ended. Approximately 1,000 of these seven-shot breechloaders were produced. Like the better-known Spencer carbine, they were operated through the use of a lever-action trigger guard.
This carbine was patented by Albert Ball of Worcester,
Massachusetts, in 1864, and manufactured by E. G. Lamson &
Company, Windsor, Vermont. Approximately 1,000 were delivered in
May, 1865, after the close of the Civil War. This seven-shot .50
caliber carbine, which was chambered for the .56-50 Spencer rimfire
cartridge, operated on the same principle as the later Winchester
repeating rifle. To load, cartridges are fed through an opening in
the right side of the receiver frame and into a tubular magazine
located under the barrel. Lowering the trigger guard lever opens
the receiver and feeds a cartridge from the magazine into the
chamber. As in the Palmer carbine, the hammer features a projecting
lip that strikes the cartridge rim. The 20-inch barrel was blued,
while other metallic parts were casehardened. It has a two-piece
walnut stock, and total length is 37 inches.
Mr. Garner D. Hook, the donor of the Lamson Carbine displayed
here, furnished the following background:
"A sketchy chronological history of the above firearm as told to
me by Mrs. Emmy Mae Binns Beal. Circa 1910: Fred Beal, then a 6
year old son of homesteaders in Shoshone County Wyoming, found the
arm lying out on the prairie. From its condition, it had been there
a long time. Young Beal took it home and played "Cowboys and
Indians" with it. At some indeterminate time he placed the arm in a
crotch of an apple tree. Subsequently, the homestead was abandoned
and the family moved on. Circa 1940: Fred Beal, now a logger and
timber owner, revisited the old homestead. There he found the arm
still in the apple tree. Beal cut it out of the tree and took it
home to Washington state. Fred tried to put the butt stock back
together (with nails). He also tried to remove the barrel rings
with a hammer. These operations being unsuccessful, the arm was
stored away and forgotten. Circa 1988: Emmy Mae Beal, now a widow,
brought the pieces to me hoping I could restore it to some
semblance of its original condition. I dismantled it, drawfiled the
barrel to remove the hammer nicks, cleaned, polished and reblued it
the best I could. I carved a new buttstock from a piece of black
walnut left over from some other project."
Nicanor Kendall was born in Windsor, Vermont in 1807. The son of a
blacksmith, Kendall served an apprenticeship under gunsmith Asa
Story. Kendall had received a patent for his underhammer percussion
lock, which was both safer and more reliable than other types. In
addition, his design was much simpler than other percussion designs
and therefore easier to produce, and his guns featured
interchangeable parts that could be produced by a combination of
skilled and unskilled workers.
After his c. 1835 marriage, he began to manufacture underhammer
pistols and rifles at a pump manufactory operated by his
father-in-law, Asahel Hubbard, which was located at the state
prison in Windsor. Kendall produced his arms using Hubbard's
machinery and unskilled prison labor for which he paid compensation
to the state, and hiring skilled workers to perform fine work. His
arms became quite popular, both in the local area and in other
parts of the growing nation and surrounding territories. One of the
first large orders for Kendall's products came in 1836 from the
citizens of Texas, who were seeking their independence from
Mexico.
By 1843, Kendall had entered into a partnership with Richard Smith
Lawrence, a young man who was born in Connecticut but raised on a
farm in neighboring New York. As a youth, he worked in his uncle's
carpentry tool-making shop, and spent his free time learning the
gunsmithing trade at a gun shop that was located downstairs from
his uncle's business. After working at several jobs and serving a
three-month hitch in the army on the frontier, Lawrence relocated
to Windsor, where his skills came to Kendall's attention. The two
opened a custom rifle shop on Mill Brook in Windsor, taking
advantage of the water power produced by a local dam. Here, they
manufactured both underhammer and side-hammer percussion rifles and
shotguns.
In late 1844, Samuel E. Robbins, a retired lumber dealer,
suggested a partnership between himself, Kendall, and Lawrence to
bid on a government contract for production of 10,000 military long
arms patterned after the U.S./Harpers Ferry Armory Model 1841
Rifle. Their bid of $11.90 per rifle was ten cents lower than those
of competing companies, and the three found themselves in the
business of manufacturing military arms for use in the event of war
with Mexico. The trio began to expand operations, both recruiting
skilled workers from the shops of Eli Whitney, Amoskeag,
Springfield Armory, and others, and building additional
manufacturing facilities and lodging for the growing
workforce.
The expanding Industrial Revolution made this period a watershed
in American industrial history. The age of hand-made arms produced
by skilled craftsmen was rapidly yielding to mass-produced rifles
with interchangeable parts. Machinery was either purchased or
designed and built by the partners. All gun parts were made with
precision gauges, jigs, tools, milling machines, drill presses, and
tapping/threading machines to ensure interchangeability, and water
power was harnessed to run boring and rifling machines via an
overhead drive shaft and belt system. The system of mass production
introduced at this factory also proved to be extremely efficient.
The firm was able to complete their order eighteen months ahead of
schedule, and they were awarded a second contract for an additional
15,000 arms. Nicanor Kendall sold his interest in the company and
moved to Iowa, while his former partners expanded the
business.
Aside from an unsuccessful venture into railroad car production,
Robbins & Lawrence continued to concentrate on firearms
manufacturing. Richard S. Lawrence and Tyler Henry, a gunsmith and
foreman at Robbins & Lawrence, worked together on the Jennings
Repeating Rifle, a project that combined their talents with those
of Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson, later to become famous both for
their revolver designs and for the Volcanic lever-action pistol and
carbine. Lawrence invented a lubricated bullet which improved the
function of breech-loading repeaters, and Henry would build on his
experience with both the Jennings rifle and Volcanic arms to
develop the Henry lever-action repeating rifle, a forerunner to the
famous Winchester Model 66 rifle and carbine. Lawrence also
developed the "Lawrence Pellet Primer System," which was
successfully used with Christian Sharps' breech-loading carbines
and rifles of the Civil War period. Lawrence would later become
Master Armorer for the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company at that
company's Hartford factory.
During the 1851 Crystal Palace Exposition in London, Robbins &
Lawrence demonstrated their system of interchangeability to
participants and spectators, earning an award for their efforts.
The British government armory at Enfield purchased machinery from
Robbins & Lawrence, making them the first U.S. firm to export
the new technology in a significant way. The Windsor company also
received a contract to produce 25,000 rifles for the British
military in their Connecticut arms factory. Robbins & Lawrence
defaulted on the terms of the contract, and were forced into
bankruptcy. The firm and its assets became the property of the
British Crown, and these facilities were leased back to Samuel
Robbins and others for the purpose of completing the outstanding
order.
In 1858, the buildings and machinery of the former Robbins &
Lawrence company were purchased by E. G. Lamson and his business
partners, who then manufactured sewing machines in the former rifle
shops. When Civil War erupted in 1861, this firm turned their
efforts to arms production as well. They received a government
contract for 50,000 longarms patterned on the U.S./Springfield
Armory Model 1861 Rifle-Musket. In 1864, E. G. Lamson received a
government contract to produce 1,000 breech-loading repeating
carbines designed by Albert Ball of Worcester, Massachusetts, as
well as a second contract for 1,000 Palmer breech-loading carbines.
These arms, which were delivered in mid-1865, came too late to see
service with the Union Army.
After the war, Lamson changed the name of his firm to the Windsor
Manufacturing Company, and by 1870, he had sold his arms making
tools and machinery to Winchester and Smith & Wesson. He
continued in business as a manufacturer of machine tools for a
number of years, later under the banner of Jones & Lamson
Machine Company of Springfield, Vermont. What became known as "The
American System of Manufacture" had its roots in firearms
production, both in New England and at John Hall's rifle shop in
Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Robbins & Lawrence and their
successors played an important role in this era, as did several
other rifle works in the Connecticut River valley.
Although the company founded by Nicanor Kendall, Samuel E.
Robbins, and Richard Smith Lawrence is long gone, their influence
continued for many years through the products of Smith & Wesson
and Winchester Repeating Arms Company.