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
Robbins & Lawrence Pepperbox Pistol
Robbins & Lawrence produced a variety of pepperbox pistols that were extremely popular, but competition from Colt proved to be a factor in limiting sales of these arms. These Pepperboxes were produced from 1851 to 1854.
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.