Eley Limited is a British manufacturer of firearms cartridges. Historically the company has produced a broad variety of ammunition, but today specialises in .22 Long Rifle cartridges for competitive target shooting. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, six of the twelve medals for cartridge rifle and pistol were won using Eley ammunition.[1]
Founded as Eley Brothers by Charles and William Eley in London in the 1820s, the company purchased the patent rights to the "wire cartridge" in the spring or early summer of 1828. The patent for "wire cartridge" was issued by the English Patent Office on 28 November 1827 to Joshua Jenour under Patent No. 5570. Jenour had been born in Fleet Street, London in 1755 and had previously been the owner and manager of the Daily Advertiser, a London newspaper. The 'wire cartridge' consisted of a wire cage which held the shot together during the first stages of its flight.
In 1828, Charles and William Eley established a factory in Charlotte Street (London), later moving to Bond Street (London). Initially, Charles Eley had been the primary owner of the concern and the original wire cartridges had only the name of Charles Eley on them. The initial attempts to sell the Eley Wire Cartridge went poorly and Charles Eley withdrew from the business. During the mid-1830s, William Eley reinvigorated the company and began selling the "Improved Patent Wire Cartridges".
In 1837, the company added percussion caps to their range and though William was killed in an explosion in 1841, his three sons helped carry on the business. His eldest son William Thomas forged an alliance with Samuel Colt, the two patenting a skin cartridge for use in the latter's revolvers.
By 1860, they were making pinfire shotshells and first listed them for sale in The Ironmonger & Metal Trades Advertiser. On 13 April 1861 William Thomas Eley took out a patent for an improvement to the pinfire shotshell.[2][3] The key aspect to this patent was to better fix the cap into the case and prevent the pin from flying out of the case on detonation.
Eley 1861 Pinfire Shotshells
Box of 12mm Eley Pinfire Cartridges
The growth of business accompanied by moves to the Grays Inn Road in 1864, and by the development of the Boxer cartridge designed by Colonel Boxer - Chief Superintendent of the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich - and adopted by the government in 1866.
In 1874, they went public to fuel expansion, but lost momentum after 1881 when William Thomas died. His brothers remained in control until 1901 but shareholders accused them of running it as a private company. Nevertheless, innovations included smokeless powder, and in the 1890s, 400 types of cartridges were produced. They had established a factory at Tile Kiln Lane, Edmonton, London by 1865.
Eley 20 Gauge Pinfire Shotshell Box
In 1894, the company transferred production to enlarged premises at Angel Road which included a tramway to its wharf on the nearby River Lee. Twice the War Office removed the company from their Approved List of suppliers due to poor quality .303 British ammunition, much of it returned from abroad as unusable. Moreover, poor facilities meant the company had to buy in components, unlike their competitors.
In 1895 an explosion killed three female workers.[4][5]
Another explosion occurred in 1900 killing two workmen and the works manager.[6] The directors squabbled amongst themselves, and in 1906 the mostly female workforce went on strike when their wages were cut, with the Board of Trade appointing an arbitrator.[7] A leading ballistics expert F.W. Jones, was brought in to improve matters and built a 107ft (32.6m) shot tower in 1907. The factory was ill-adapted to mass production - it produced 209million .303 cartridges in World War I compared with 2,373million at Kynochs, Birmingham factory - but its specialised skills made it ideal for innovation, such as the preparations of munitions for aircraft.
After the war, Eley, along with other firms, became part of Explosive Trades Ltd, soon part of Nobel Industries. Many Belgians had been billeted in Edmonton as refugees and many, as elsewhere, worked in the armaments industry. This led to natural links between the two countries, and in the 1920s Eley went into partnership with Fabrique Nationale (FN), buying out the Belgian firm of Cartoucherie Russo - Belge. However, the need for ammunition had slumped, and the Angel Road factory closed in 1921, all production being transferred to Nobel's factory in Waltham Abbey.[8]
In 1926 the Eley business was bought from Nobel by IMI industries.[9]
In 1951 Eley released the "Tenex" .22 cartridg for Olympic target competition.[10]
Recent history
The shot tower at the former Edmonton site was demolished in the late 20th century. The area today is known as the Eley Industrial Estate.
The business later moved to a new purpose-built factory in Sutton Coldfield. The shotgun cartridge business was separated out as "Eley Hawk" and sold to Spanish firm Maxam Explosives. Although a separate company, Eley Hawk continues to operate from the same site as a tenant in Eley Limited's factory.
In 2014, Eley became independent as a result of a management buyout backed by private equity firm LDC (part of Lloyds TSB). [11][12][13][14]
In 2017, via their US subsidiary Eley Inc, the company acquired their US importer and batch-testing partner Killough Shooting Sports.[15] This gave the company more direct control over distribution in the US and brings the batch-testing facility provided by Killough "in house". KSS also owned the American Rimfire Association, which Eley also took control of as part of the acquisition.[16]
In December 2022, LDC divested Eley to Lunele Limited.[17]
An Edmonton Boy. Terry Webb. ISBN1-903981-00-X. 2000 Published by Biograph. Page 68: "One of the most famous factories on that estate was Eleys which used to make shotgun cartridges. It had a massive great tower and hot lead was dropped from the top of the tower through the water and it turned into little lead balls. I never saw it but that's how they made lead shot; they would drop from the height of this specially constructed tower"
'Eley Cartridges - a history of the silversmiths and ammunition manufacturers' by CW Harding. ISBN1-904057-91-8. Published in 2006 by Quiller Press. Eley Cartridges traces the history of the Eley name from its agricultural roots, through its rise to the major role it played in the silver manufacturing trade of London and its production of ammunition both in London and Birmingham. Eley Cartridges
Related Research Articles
Handloading, or reloading, is the practice of making firearm cartridges by manually assembling the individual components, rather than purchasing mass-assembled, factory-loaded commercial ammunition.
A cartridge, also known as a round, is a type of pre-assembled firearm ammunition packaging a projectile, a propellant substance and an ignition device (primer) within a metallic, paper, or plastic case that is precisely made to fit within the barrel chamber of a breechloading gun, for convenient transportation and handling during shooting. Although in popular usage the term "bullet" is often used to refer to a complete cartridge, the correct usage only refers to the projectile.
A centre-fire is a type of metallic cartridge used in firearms, where the primer is located at the center of the base of its casing. Unlike rimfire cartridges, the centerfire primer is typically a separate component seated into a recessed cavity in the case head and is replaceable by reloading the cartridge.
A rim-fire is a type of metallic cartridge used in firearms where the primer is located within a hollow circumferential rim protruding from the base of its casing. When fired, the gun's firing pin will strike and crush the rim against the edge of the barrel breech, sparking the primer compound within the rim, and in turn ignite the propellant within the case. Invented in 1845 by Louis-Nicolas Flobert, the first rimfire metallic cartridge was the .22 BB Cap cartridge, which consisted of a percussion cap with a bullet attached to the top. While many other different cartridge priming methods have been tried since the early 19th century, such as teat-fire and pinfire, only small caliber rimfire cartridges have survived to the present day with regular use. The .22Long Rifle rimfire cartridge, introduced in 1887, is by far the most common ammunition found in the world today in terms of units manufactured and sold.
A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition from the breech end of the barrel, as opposed to a muzzleloader, in which the user loads the ammunition from the (muzzle) end of the barrel.
Ethan Allen was a major American arms maker from Massachusetts. He is unrelated to the revolutionary Ethan Allen. His first firearm, the "Pocket rifle" was developed in 1836, and his first patent was granted in 1837.
The pin-fire is an obsolete type of metallic cartridge used in firearms, where the priming compound is ignited by striking a small pin that protrudes radially from above the base of the cartridge. Invented by Frenchman Casimir Lefaucheux in 1832, but not patented until 1835, it was one of the earliest practical designs of a metallic cartridge to hasten the loading and firing process of a firearm. Its history is closely associated with the development of the breechloader, which would eventually replace all muzzle-loading firearms.
The .410 bore (10.4 mm) is one of the smallest caliber of shotgun shell commonly available. A .410 bore shotgun loaded with shot shells is well suited for small game hunting and pest control. The .410 started off in the United Kingdom as a garden gun along with the .360 and the No. 3 bore (9 mm) rimfire, No. 2 bore (7 mm) rimfire, and No. 1 bore (6 mm) rimfire. .410 shells have similar base dimensions to the .45 Colt cartridge, allowing many single-shot firearms, as well as derringers and revolvers chambered in that caliber, to fire .410 shot shells without any modifications.
The Winchester Repeating Arms Company was a prominent American manufacturer of repeating firearms and ammunition. The firm was established in 1866 by Oliver Winchester and was located in New Haven, Connecticut. The firm went into receivership in 1931 and was bought by the Western Cartridge Company, a forerunner of the Olin Corporation. The Winchester brand name is still owned by the Olin Corporation, which makes ammunition under that name. The Winchester name is also used under license for firearms produced by two subsidiaries of the Herstal Group – FN Herstal of Belgium and the Browning Arms Company of Ogden, Utah.
A headstamp is the markings on the bottom of a cartridge case designed for a firearm. It usually tells who manufactured the case. If it is a civilian case it often also tells the caliber: if it is military, the year of manufacture is often added.
Kynoch was a manufacturer of ammunition that was later incorporated into ICI, but remained as a brand name for sporting cartridges.
IMI plc, formerly Imperial Metal Industries, is a British-based engineering company headquartered in Birmingham, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
WOLF Performance Ammunition is a trademark associated with Sporting Supplies International (SSI), a corporation founded in the United States in 2005. Most of their ammunition is primarily being manufactured by the Tula Cartridge Plant in Tula, Tula District, Russia, from 2005 to 2009. Some of their 22-caliber rimfire ammunition are also made by Eley Limited in England.
Federal Premium Ammunition is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vista Outdoor, located in Anoka, Minnesota. With a workforce of nearly 1,500, Federal manufactures shotshell, centerfire, and rimfire ammunition and components.
Fiocchi Munizioni is one of Italy's largest and oldest manufacturers of ammunition. The company's headquarters and main production plant are in Via Santa Barbara in Lecco, Italy.
John Rigby & Company is a gunmaking firm founded by John Rigby in 1775 in Dublin. The company was established by the first John Rigby in Dublin, Ireland, apparently in 1775; his grandson, also John, opened a London branch in 1865; and Dublin operations had ceased by February 1897. The company is now owned by Lüke & Ortmeier Gruppe and is based in Vauxhall, central London, under the supervision of managing director, Marc Newton.
Barwick, Great Barwick, and Little Barwick are hamlets in the civil parish of Standon in Hertfordshire, England. They are near the A10 road and the village of Much Hadham and the hamlet of Latchford. The River Rib flows behind Barwick and through Great Barwick. There is a ford crossing at Great Barwick.
The .475 No 2 Nitro Express is a British rifle cartridge developed by Eley Brothers in the early 20th century.
In firearms and artillery, the primer is the chemical and/or device responsible for initiating the propellant combustion that will propel the projectiles out of the gun barrel.
The .38 rimfire / 9.5x22mmRF refers to a family of cartridges that have been in service in the United States since the mid-19th century. The cartridges are produced in short, long, and extra long variants.
↑ "FATAL EXPLOSION IN A CARTRIDGE FACTORY". Shields Daily Gazette. 25 July 1895. p.3. Three deaths have resulted from the explosion which occurred yesterdey Eley brother's Cartridge Factory. Edmonton, the victims being all women.
↑ "Anotehr Death". Shields Daily News. 11 September 1900. p.3. Retrieved 12 September 2024. The deaths by the explosion at Eley Cartridge Factory, in London, yesterday, number three, Thomas Stokoo, works manager, having died last night. The two injured in the hospital are going on fairly well.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
