Merwin, Hulbert & Co.
Merwin, Hulbert & Co. was an American arms manufacturer with headquarters in New York City, which existed from 1874 to 1891 and was the fourth largest US revolver brand after Smith & Wesson , Colt and Remington at the end of the 19th century .
history
In 1856, Joseph Merwin began selling revolvers and rifles for various companies in New York . After the founding of Merwin & Bray in the late 1850s he won in 1874 the brothers William and Milan Hulbert as partners, they that now as Merwin, Hulbert & Co. firmierten.
Merwin was the technical director of the company until his death in 1888 and was instrumental in developing the weapons and revolvers sold. The Hulbert brothers also financed the business through their father, one of the directors of New York Life . After 1888, Merwin, Hulbert & Co. only produced the models that had already been developed and finally went bankrupt in 1891. The successor company was the Hulbert Brothers , which was however wound up a few years later. Then the former subsidiary Hopkins & Allen Mfg. ( Merwin, Hulbert & Co. held a 50 percent stake) - also patent owners as a result of bankruptcies - until it was bought by Rockwell in 1917 . In 2007 Michael H. Blank re-founded Merwin, Hulbert & Co. with the aim of producing true-to-original replicas of the original company's revolvers.
Products
Merwin, Hulbert & Co. mainly manufactured revolvers, but also ammunition , fishing, baseball, boxing, tennis and fencing equipment.
revolver
The revolvers from Merwin, Hulbert & Co. were basically available in two versions:
- Frontier , with a square handle end
- Pocket Army with " skull cracker " hook at the end of the handle
The ornaments of the revolvers were not engraved , as with most of those manufactured in the USA at the time , but punched or chased . The cartridge ejection system was also unique for American revolvers: after pressing a button, the barrel and barrel were pulled forward and the empty and therefore shorter cartridges fell out by themselves.
The evolution of the revolvers from Merwin, Hulbert & Co. can be divided into four generations:
1st and 2nd generation
The first generation was only produced in a Frontier version, the second was also available as a Pocket Army version. The weapons of the first two generations were made exclusively with single-action trigger . A special feature was the open frame above the drum of the revolvers of the first and second generation.
As the " First Model Army " with .44 caliber, over 10,000 second generation copies were sold to the Russian army around 1880.
3rd and 4th generation
The third generation revolvers were the first to be sold by the company with a double-action trigger and a single-action trigger.
In these later revolvers, the barrel was interchangeable according to a patent from Merwin in 1882. For example, the 3.5 inch barrel can be removed by simply pulling it off after pressing two buttons and replaced by attaching a 7 inch barrel.
Known customers
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Merwin, Hulbert & Co, official website ( Memento from March 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Company history Merwin, Hulbert & Co. ( Memento from March 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Overview of revolvers from Merwin, Hulbert & Co. at a dealer (accessed on August 4, 2010) ( Memento of July 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive )