Bellmore-Johnson

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The Bellmore-Johnson Tool Company is a former American manufacturer of production tools and developer of experimental firearms. Bellmore-Johnson designed and constructed weapons for the military, as commissioned work for mostly well-known brands such as Winchester and Mossberg , or for their own production. The company was originally located in Hamden , Connecticut .

Bellmore-Johnson has been producing the Winchester Model 1898 salute cannon under license since 1976 . After two changes of ownership, the now Bellmore-Johnson Company , now located in North Branford , specializes purely in the manufacture of this cannon.

history

The Bellmore-Johnson Tool Company was founded in 1951 by Howard Johnson (1920-2015) and was listed in their early years as a manufacturer of devices , grips and weapons parts.

After the Korean War , Bellmore-Johnson developed a further development of the Browning M1919 machine gun for the United States Army . Here, the company acted as a subcontractor to the weapons manufacturer High Standard , whose own prototypes T151 and T152 did not meet the Army’s specifications. The Bellmore-Johnson T153 design was rated the best version of the Browning rifle. The ammunition feed of this version could be switched from left to right. Under the designation M37 , it was used as a coaxial weapon for the M48 Patton and M60 tanks from 1955 until the late 1960s and served as the basis for further developments.

In 1954, weapons technician Robert Hillberg from High Standard joined Bellmore-Johnson because he saw the freedom necessary to develop a new type of semi-automatic pistol. The pistol was the first to be made from a one-piece cast aluminum and had a futuristic design reminiscent of the weapons used in science fiction comics such as Flash Gordon . It set a new standard in the rate of fire compared to machine guns. For production purposes, Hillberg and Johnson founded a subsidiary called Whitney, named after Eli Whitney (1765–1825), who, as the inventor of interchangeability, was a pioneer not only in the firearms industry. The new pistol was marketed as the Whitney Wolverine , but cost problems and disputes with sales and marketing partner Jacques Galef led to commercial failure. After a good 13,000 copies, production was stopped.

In the years 1959–1963 Bellmore-Johnson constructed the prototype of an inexpensive double-action revolver for Winchester . The series production that had already started was given up due to the unfavorable mood for Winchester after the assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy - he was killed with a Western cartridge by Winchester- Olin .

At the beginning of the 1970s Bellmore-Johnson developed the self-loading shotgun Winchester Super-X , introduced in 1974 , the further developments of which are still in production today. Bellmore-Johnson also designed and developed new patterns on commission from other well-known brands, for example the lever action rifle shotgun from Mossberg .

The Winchester Model 1898 salu cannon

In 1975 or 1976, Bellmore-Johnson, at that time a company with around 40 employees, received a license to replicate the Winchester salute cannon Model 1898 . Winchester had discontinued production in 1958, which was not very profitable because of the relatively small number of units, but demand for the cannon remained unbroken. Bellmore-Johnson started production in 1976 and also offered a brass version in a mahogany box.

In the mid-1980s, Bellmore-Johnson developed a new type of Deringer pistol in .38 caliber and sold it under its own BJT brand . In 1985 Bellmore-Johnson was registered as an industrial research laboratory.

In 1986, Bellmore-Johnson was drawn into a fraud scandal. The businessman Marshall A. Zolp had founded a pure front company called Laser Arms , an alleged manufacturer of high-tech weapons and a self-cooling beverage can. Zolp suggested an interest in a Bellmore-Johnson acquisition, which never closed. However, he subsequently included photos of Bellmore-Johnson guns as alleged Laser Arms products in his shareholder report to deceive investors and sell stocks. In early 1989, Zolp was sentenced to 12 years in prison on a total of $ 2.4 million in fraud.

Acquisitions

At the end of 1989, the entrepreneur Robert J. Adley took over the company, including the manufacture of the Winchester gun salute, which is used in particular as a starting gun in American yachting. Adley incorporated Bellmore-Johnson into his other North Branford operations , primarily the manufacture of nautical accessories. In 2001, Bellmore-Johnson added the Naval Edition of the cannon, marketed as such, with a polished brass barrel on a black steel frame, which became the second most popular model after the standard black version.

In 2002 Bellmore-Johnson changed hands for the second time, relocated to a new address in North Branford and kept the website that still exists today. Bellmore-Johnson is now a sole proprietorship specializing in the production of cannons, whose owner Richard Care assembles 250-300 cannons by hand annually; the parts come from several partner manufacturers in New England . An engraving machine from the 1940s is used to label the barrels . After the main Winchester factory in New Haven was closed in 2006, the salute cannon is also the last Winchester rifle to be manufactured in the region. The Cannon Store connected to the workshop also sells salute cannons from other manufacturers, some of which are detailed replicas of historic ship cannons.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ * John J. Sweeney: Connecticut Law Journal, Volume 17. Connecticut Law Journal Publishing Company, 1950 [but also contains later entries] ( limited preview in Google Book Search)
  2. ↑ Howard Johnson. legacy.com, March 4, 2015, accessed May 14, 2020 .
  3. ↑ * United States. National Production Authority: Press Releases, Volume 2856, Part 1. 1953 ( limited preview in Google Book Search)
  4. ^ * Gordon L. Rottman: Browning .30-caliber Machine Guns. Bloomsbury Publishing, New York 2014, ISBN 9-781-472-808-042 ( limited preview in Google Book Search)
  5. ^ Joel R Kolander: Rise and Fall of the Whitney Wolverine. rockislandauction.com, November 28, 2017, accessed May 11, 2020 .
  6. ^ William B. Edwards: The oldest name in Guns comes back. (PDF) Guns Magazine, August 1956, pp. 24-27, 66-69 , accessed May 16, 2020 .
  7. ^ The Round That Killed JFK. https://www.thefirearmblog.com/ , December 18, 2017, accessed March 29, 2020 .
  8. ^ Winchester Prototype Pistol Parts for the Proposed Model 1959-63 double action revolver. www.morphyauctions.com, accessed March 29, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Henshaw, p. 172 ( preview in Google Book Search)
  10. ↑ a b Wildey Moore: Wildey's Here: The Survivor , 2019, by AuthorHouse, 2019, page 172 ( preview in Google Book Search)
  11. ^ Super X4 - Current Products. winchesterguns.com, accessed March 29, 2020 .
  12. ^ A b History of Winchester Cannons: The Bellmore Johnson Years (1975-Present). Bellmore-Johnson, accessed March 21, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Thomas Henshaw: The History of Winchester Firearms 1866-1992 , 6th Edition, 1993, by Academic Learning Company LLC, USA, ISBN 0-83290-503-8 . Pages 56–57 ( preview in Google Book search).
  14. ↑ The Doubletap Derringer. gunsmagazine.com, May 2014, accessed May 9, 2020 .
  15. ^ * RR Bowker LLC: Industrial Research Laboratories of the United States. University of Michigan, 1985, ISBN 9-780-835-220-705 , p. 66. ( limited preview in Google Book Search)
  16. ↑ * United States. Securities and Exchange Commission: Decisions and Reports, Volume 50 US Government Printing Office, 1994, p. 496. ( limited preview in Google Book Search)
  17. ↑ Self-Chilling Can Fraud. New York Times , January 12, 1919, accessed May 15, 2020 .
  18. ^ Bellmore-Johnson Tool Company. opencorporates.com, accessed May 9, 2020 .
  19. ↑ CCDO Notes. toolworks.com, 1998, accessed May 9, 2020 .
  20. ^ A b History of Winchester Cannons: The Bellmore Johnson Years (1975-Present) ( Memento of October 2, 2003 in the Internet Archive )
  21. ^ A b Jim Shelton: Last of the locally made Winchesters. nhregister.com, July 2, 2009, accessed March 22, 2020 .
  22. ↑ Jim Shelton: Still on the Job: An ode to sturdy old machines that keep on cranking. nhregister.com, September 13, 2009, accessed May 9, 2020 .
  23. ^ US Repeating Arms Company closed its New Haven facility in 2006 ( Memento of May 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive )