Horace Smith was an American inventor and manufacturer, who produced the first revolvers.
Background
He was born on October 28, 1808 in Cheshire, Massachussets, United States, and was the son of Silas and Phoebe Smith. When he was four years old his father, who was a carpenter by trade, moved with his family to Springfield, Massachussets, where he found work in the United States armory.
Education
Upon completing the public school curriculum in Springfield young Smith, then sixteen years old, entered the armory as a gunsmith's apprentice and spent eighteen years there becoming an expert gun maker.
Career
He went to Norwich, Connecticut, and worked for a year with Charles Thurber, the noted manufacturer of small arms. After spending a number of months in the armory of Eli Whitney at New Haven, Connecticut, making tools for the manufacture of rifles, he returned to Norwich and worked three years, 1843-46, in the pistol factory of Allen and Thurber. For three years he was in business for himself, manufacturing guns, but in 1849 gave it up to work for Oliver Allen in Norwich manufacturing whaling guns.
About 1849 he turned his attention to invention, particularly to the improvement of the breech-loading rifle, and obtained his first patent, No. 8317, August 26, 1851. Before undertaking its manufacture, however, he took a position with Allen, Brown & Luther, manufacturers of rifle barrels in Worcester, Massachussets.
About 1852, he met Daniel Baird Wesson, a gunsmith like himself, with whom he worked successfully, in spare time, on perfecting a repeating rifle. In 1853 they entered into partnership to manufacture the rifle in Norwich, and secured a patent on it, February 14, 1854. In 1855 they were induced to sell out to the Volcanic (later the Winchester Repeating) Arms Company of New Haven. Smith returned to Springfield and for two years operated a livery stable with his brother-in-law.
Wesson worked on the construction of a revolver to use a central-fire metallic cartridge he and Smith had devised and patented August 8, 1854, which contained not only the requisite charge of powder but also a lubricant placed within the case between the powder and ball.
In 1857 the two men reestablished their partnership to make the new firearm and cartridge in Springfield, applying the principle of interchangeable parts in the manufacture. They produced their first revolvers late in 1857, before receiving their patents, which were issued July 5, 1859, and December 18, 1860, respectively. From the beginning the demand for their revolver in the United States was very great, for it was adopted by the Federal military authorities; to meet it the partners were compelled to build a new plant in 1860, which had to be further enlarged periodically thereafter as the business grew.
After 1867, when they exhibited their products at the international exposition at Paris, they secured large contracts with Japan, China, England, Russia, Spain, France, and most of the South American countries.
Smith continued as executive head of the business for upwards of sixteen years. In July 1873 he sold his interest to Wesson and retired. He served two terms as an alderman of Springfield and was a director of a number of industrial enterprises; at the time of his death he was president of the Chicopee National Bank.
Achievements
Connections
He was married three times: first, to Eliza Foster, who died in 1836; second, to Mrs. Eliza Hebbard Jepson, who died in 1872; and third, to Mary Lucretia Hebbard, of Norwich, Connecticut, who died in 1887. He died leaving no direct descendants.