Aaron Burr Jr. was an American politician, businessman, lawyer, and Founding Father who served as the third vice president of the United States from 1801 to 1805 during Thomas Jefferson's first presidential term. He founded the Manhattan Company on September 1, 1799. Burr is remembered for his famous personal and political conflict with Alexander Hamilton, which culminated in the Burr–Hamilton duel in Weehawken, New Jersey, on July 11, 1804. Burr mortally wounded Hamilton, who died from his wounds the following day.
The percussion cap, percussion primer, or caplock, introduced in the early 1820s, is a type of single-use percussion ignition device for muzzle loader firearm locks enabling them to fire reliably in any weather condition. Its invention gave rise to the caplock mechanism or percussion lock system which used percussion caps struck by the hammer to set off the gunpowder charge in rifles and cap and ball firearms. Any firearm using a caplock mechanism is a percussion gun. Any long gun with a cap-lock mechanism and rifled barrel is a percussion rifle. Cap and ball describes cap-lock firearms discharging a single bore-diameter spherical bullet with each shot.
Flintlock is a general term for any firearm that uses a flint-striking ignition mechanism, the first of which appeared in Western Europe in the early 16th century. The term may also apply to a particular form of the mechanism itself, also known as the true flintlock, that was introduced in the early 17th century, and gradually replaced earlier firearm-ignition technologies, such as the matchlock, the wheellock, and the earlier flintlock mechanisms such as the snaplock and snaphaunce.
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people with matched weapons.
The long rifle, also known as the Kentucky rifle, Pennsylvania rifle, or American long rifle, is a muzzle-loading firearm used for hunting and warfare. It was one of the first commonly-used rifles. The American rifle was characterized by a very long barrel of relatively small caliber, uncommon in European rifles of the period.
A duelling pistol is a type of pistol that was manufactured in matching pairs to be used in a duel, when duels were customary. Duelling pistols are often single-shot flintlock or percussion black-powder pistols which fire a lead ball. Not all fine, antique pairs of pistols are duelling pistols, though they may be called so.
Miquelet lock is a modern term used by collectors and curators for a type of firing mechanism used in muskets and pistols. It is a distinctive form of snaplock, originally as a flint-against-steel ignition form, once prevalent in the Spanish, Portuguese, and Ottoman empires, Italy, Greece, Russia, Ukraine, North Africa, and the Balkans from the late 16th to the mid-19th century.
William Tranter was a British gunmaker and gun designer famous for inventing the Tranter revolver.
The Burr–Hamilton duel took place in Weehawken, New Jersey, between Aaron Burr, the third U.S. vice president at the time, and Alexander Hamilton, the first and former Secretary of the Treasury, at dawn on July 11, 1804. The duel was the culmination of a bitter rivalry that had developed over years between both men, who were high-profile politicians in the newly-established United States, founded following the victorious American Revolution and its associated Revolutionary War.
Joseph Manton was a British gunsmith. He innovated sport shooting, improved weapon quality and paved the way for the modern artillery shell. Manton was a sport shooter and a friend of Colonel Peter Hawker.
James Purdey & Sons, or simply Purdey, is a British gunmaker based in London, England specialising in high-end bespoke sporting shotguns and rifles. Purdey holds three Royal Warrants of appointment as gun and rifle makers to the British and other European royal families.
Delope is the practice of deliberately wasting one's first shot in a pistol duel, an attempt to abort the conflict. The Irish code duello forbids the practice.
Durs Egg (1745–1822) was a Swiss-born British gunmaker, noted for his flintlock pistols and for his company's production of the Ferguson rifle.
The Kalthoff repeater was a type of repeating firearm that was designed by members of the Kalthoff family around 1630, and became the first repeating firearm to be brought into military service. At least nineteen gunsmiths are known to have made weapons following the Kalthoff design. Some early Kalthoff guns were wheellocks, but the rest were flintlocks. The capacity varied between 5 and 30 rounds, depending on the style of the magazines. A single forward and back movement of the trigger guard, which could be done in 1–2 seconds, readied the weapon for firing. The caliber of Kalthoff guns generally varied between 0.4–0.8 in (10–20 mm), though 0.3 in (7.6 mm) caliber examples also exist.
John Barker Church, a.k.a.John Carter,, was an English born businessman and supplier of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
Henry Nock (1741–1804) was a British inventor and engineer of the Napoleonic period, best known as a gunmaker. Nock produced many innovative weapons including the screwless lock and the seven-barrelled volley gun, although he did not invent the latter despite it commonly being known as the Nock gun. He was a major supplier to the military during the Napoleonic wars. His high quality duelling pistols and double-barrelled shotguns were much sought after and it is largely through Nock that the latter became the weapon of choice for hunters.
William Keith Neal was an English writer, collector and enthusiast who amassed what is considered to be one of the greatest private collections of antique firearms ever assembled. During his lifetime he was regarded as the leading authority on antique firearms in Britain and co-authored "the standard reference work" on the history of British gunmaking between the 16th and late 19th centuries. A Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers, his collection of around 2,000 firearms included six items "from the gun cabinet of Louis XIII" and two miniature, gold-inlaid pistols that were reportedly "the last gift Napoléon Bonaparte gave to his three-year-old son before military defeat and subsequent exile."
George I. Eacker was a New York lawyer. He is best known for having fatally shot Philip Hamilton, the eldest son of Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, in a duel on November 23, 1801, in Weehawken, New Jersey.
Philip Hamilton was the eldest child of Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton. He died at age 19, fatally shot in a duel with George Eacker.
Layston is a former village and parish located about a kilometre north-east of Buntingford in Hertfordshire, England, at 51°57′50″N 0°00′45″E.
