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Company type | Private |
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Industry | Weapons |
Founded | 1869 |
Founder | Benjamin Butler |
Headquarters | , |
Products | Ammunition |
The United States Cartridge Company was an early manufacturer of cartridge ammunition for small arms. The company was founded in 1869 by American Civil War general Benjamin Butler. Company startup was during the most rapid evolution of cartridge design to date. [1] Lowell, Massachusetts emerged as one of the most successful cartridge producers in the United States while Butler served as a congressman from Massachusetts from 1867 to 1879 and as governor from 1883 to 1884. After supplying 65 percent of American small arms ammunition production for World War I, [2] the company was acquired by the owner of Winchester Repeating Arms; and the Lowell factory closed as manufacturing shifted to New Haven, Connecticut. [3]
Benjamin Butler, a lawyer who grew up on Lowell, became a major shareholder of Middlesex Mills in the 1850s; because of his successful law practice he was one of Lowell's wealthiest residents at the end of the Civil War. With other local capitalists, he formed the Wamesit Power Company, the United States Bunting Company, and the United States Cartridge Company. Patent attorney Joe V. Meigs invented an improved metallic cartridge for the company; and oversaw production beginning in 1869. Meigs was replaced in the mid-1870s by Charles Dimon, who had been an officer under Butler's command during the Civil War. By the early 1880s, the company employed 250 workers producing cartridges, paper-shot-shells, and primers. Paul Butler assumed control of the company when his father died in 1893. Benjamin Butler's grandson, Butler Ames, replaced Charles Dimon in 1902. [3]
A 29 July 1903 powder magazine explosion in Tewksbury, Massachusetts destroyed or damaged seventy homes killing 22 employees and residents and injuring 70 more. New brick magazines and factories replaced early wooden structures prior to World War I. [3]
The company employed 1,200 when British purchasing agents arrived in September 1914 to request expanded production. Bigelow-Hartford Carpet Company which emerged months earlier [4] from a merger and was moving its production to Connecticut (the process finished in 1916) was happy to lease space in a carpet factory in Lowell, built by the Lowell Manufacturing Co., [5] and a new ammunition factory was built in South Lowell. As employment swelled to 15,000, a labor strike in the autumn of 1915 was resolved within a month to sustain ammunition production. A total of 2,262,671,000 military cartridges were manufactured for the United Kingdom, Russia, the Netherlands, Italy, France, and the United States. [6]
National Lead Company purchased a controlling stock interest after Paul Butler died in 1918. Cartridge manufacturing machinery was moved from Lowell to New Haven in 1926 where manufacturing continued under the Winchester name after the Lowell plants closed on 1 January 1927. [3]
Winchester was purchased by Olin Corporation on 22 December 1931. Olin used their subsidiary United States Cartridge Company to build and operate the Saint Louis Ordnance Plant manufacturing military small arms ammunition in St. Louis through World War II. [7]
This is a table of selected pistol/submachine gun and rifle/machine gun cartridges by common name. Data values are the highest found for the cartridge, and might not occur in the same load.
Winchester rifle is a comprehensive term describing a series of lever action repeating rifles manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Developed from the 1860 Henry rifle, Winchester rifles were among the earliest repeaters. The Model 1873 was particularly successful, being marketed by the manufacturer as "The Gun That Won the West".
The .45 Colt (11.43×33mmR), often called the .45 Long Colt, is a rimmed, straight-walled, handgun cartridge dating to 1872. It was originally a black-powder revolver round developed for the Colt Single Action Army revolver. This cartridge was adopted by the U.S. Army in 1873 and served as an official US military handgun cartridge for 19 years, before being replaced by the .38 Long Colt in 1892. Although there has never been a ".45 Short Colt" cartridge, the .45 Colt is frequently called the ".45 Long Colt" to better distinguish it from the shorter .45 Schofield cartridge, which was also in use around the time the .45 Colt was introduced.
The U.S. Repeating Arms Company (USRAC) was an American manufacturer of firearms. It was established in 1981 and operated as an independent company until 1989, when it went bankrupt and was taken over by Fabrique Nationale Herstal. The company traced its origins to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, which was famous for making Winchester rifles.
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.
The Henry repeating rifle is a lever-action tubular magazine rifle. It is famous for having been used at the Battle of the Little Bighorn and having been the basis for the iconic Winchester rifle of the American Wild West.
Olin Corporation is an American manufacturer of ammunition, chlorine, and sodium hydroxide. The company traces its roots to two companies, both founded in 1892: Franklin W. Olin's Equitable Powder Company and the Mathieson Alkali Works. Accidents at Olin chemical plants have exposed employees and nearby residents to health hazards.
The 243 Winchester Super Short Magnum or 243 WSSM is a rifle cartridge introduced in 2003. It uses a .300 WSM case shortened and necked down to accept a .243in/6mm diameter bullet, and is a high velocity round based on ballistics design philosophies that are intended to produce a high level of efficiency. The correct name for the cartridge, as listed by the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (SAAMI), is 243 WSSM, without a decimal point. Winchester has discontinued the manufacture of 243 WSSM ammunition. As of the first half of 2016, Winchester/Olin did manufacture and release for sale some WSSM ammunition. The product is only manufactured periodically, often at inconsistent intervals.
The Winchester Model 1894 rifle is a lever-action repeating rifle that became one of the most famous and popular hunting rifles of all time. It was designed by John Browning in 1894 and originally chambered to fire two metallic black powder cartridges, the .32-40 Winchester and .38-55 Winchester. It was the first rifle to chamber the smokeless powder round, the .30 WCF in 1895. In 1901, Winchester created the new .32 Winchester Special caliber with production of rifles starting in 1902.
The Western Cartridge Company was an American manufacturer of small arms and ammunition formerly based in East Alton, Illinois. Founded in 1898, it was the forerunner of the Olin Corporation, formed in 1944, of which Western was absorbed into. Prior to that, Western acquired the Winchester Repeating Arms Company after Winchester went into receivership in 1931. The two would merge in 1935 to form Winchester-Western.
The 5 mm Remington Rimfire Magnum or 5 mm RFM is a bottlenecked rimfire cartridge introduced by Remington Arms Company in 1969. Remington chambered it in a pair of bolt-action rifles, the Model 591 and Model 592, but this ammunition never became very popular, and the rifles were discontinued in 1974. About 52,000 rifles and 30,000 barrels for the T/C Contender pistol were sold during its brief production run. Remington discontinued the cartridge itself in 1982, leaving owners with no source of ammunition.
Lake City Army Ammunition Plant (LCAAP) is a 3,935-acre (15.92 km2) U.S. government-owned, contractor-operated facility in northeastern Independence, Missouri. It produces ammunition for military and personal rifles.
The Hodgdon Powder Company began in 1952 as B.E. Hodgdon, Inc., and has become a major distributor of smokeless powder for the ammunition industry, as well as for individuals who load their own ammunition by hand. The company's corporate office and manufacturing facilities are located in Kansas, United States. Hodgdon acquired IMR Powder Company in 2003. Winchester branded reloading powders have been distributed in the United States by Hodgdon since March 2006.
The Union Metallic Cartridge Company (UMC) was an early manufacturer of cartridge ammunition for small arms. The company was founded in 1867 during the most rapid evolution of cartridge design to date. Following merger with Remington Arms in 1912, the company manufacturing complex in Bridgeport, Connecticut became a major arms supplier during World War I. The factory was Remington headquarters until 1984 and the source of sporting and police ammunition headstamped REM-UMC until 1970.
Charles Augustus Ropes Dimon was a volunteer soldier in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Beginning his service as a private in the 8th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Dimon rose through the ranks to become a colonel of a US Volunteer Infantry Regiment and was awarded the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general United States Volunteers, by appointment of President Andrew Johnson on January 13, 1866, to rank from March 13, 1865, and confirmation by the U.S. Senate on March 12, 1866. His success was due in part to the sponsorship of Major General Benjamin F. Butler.
Christopher Miner Spencer was an American inventor, from Manchester, Connecticut, who invented the Spencer repeating rifle, one of the earliest models of lever-action rifle, a steam powered "horseless carriage", and several other inventions. He developed the first fully automatic turret lathe, which in its small- to medium-sized form is also known as a screw machine.
The Small Arms Ammunition Factories (SAAF) were ammunition manufacturing plants run by the Australian government. Nearly all of their production was for domestic use by their military, the police forces, and government-appointed agents.
Ball propellant is a form of nitrocellulose used in small arms cartridges. Ball propellant can be manufactured more rapidly with greater safety and less expense than extruded propellants.