Articles about Books and Documents
Discover the wealth of knowledge preserved in books and documents related to firearm history and technology. This collection of articles offers an in-depth look at various publications, manuscripts, and other resources that have captured the essence of early firearm development, ammunition, and the inventors who pushed the boundaries of innovation in their time.
The last issue in September of The Ironmonger and Metal Trades Advertiser was often the most important issue of the year. It was the biggest and contained the most ads. This issue each year also had this fancy colored cover.
This September 26, 1896 issue of The Ironmonger lists Arms and Ammunition trade marks, brands or special names for the following companies:
Lane Bros., Ammunition for Air Guns
Hay, Merricks & Co., Limited, Gunpowder
F. Joyce & Co. Ltd., Manufacturers of Sporting Ammunition; Percussion Caps, Cartridges and Gun Wads
Eley Bros., Lim., Sporting, Military, and Revolver Cartridges, Percussion Caps and Gunwads
G. Kynoch & Co. Limited, Sporting and Military Ammunition
The King’s Norton Metal Co., Limited, Rolled Metals, Ammunition for Small Arms, Quick Firing and other Guns
The Ironmonger & Metal Trades Advertiser was the first trade newspaper. It was first published as Morgan’s Monthly Circular & Metal Trades Advertiser on May 31, 1859 and soon changed its name to The Ironmonger & Metal Trades Advertiser.
It began as a monthly journal and by 1878 it was switched to being published weekly, every Saturday. They also published the yearly volumes capturing the 52 weekly issues in 2-4 large volumes per year. I recently acquired a set of these yearly volumes that cover the years of 1879 – 1903.
There is a wealth of information in these related to the hardware and metal trade across the United Kingdom. They had weekly stock performance, tabulated results on UK exports to the US, foreign news and intelligence, reviews of agricultural shows and other exhibitions, articles about guns and ammunition, listing of patents and trademarks applied for, information on liquidations and bankruptcies and advertisements; many many advertisements.
We have examined this cartridge previously in our exploration of the relationship of pinfire cartridges and The United States. You can read about it here:
The August, 31 1861 issue of The Scientific American reviewed this new cartridge and gun made by Casper D. Schubarth in detail. I found an original copy and transcribed it here to preserve for the future.
Journal Des Armes Spéciales was an important French technical journal about arms and armament that was published monthly on the 25th of the month from 1834 – 1870. It was an offshoot of Journal Des Sicences Militaires which started in 1825 and ran through 1914.
In 1834, Journal Des Sicences Militaires ran this article introducing Journal Des Armes Spéciales. The article is amazingly intense, aggressive, rooted in French military pride and filled with the glories of warmongering.
À PROPOS DE MOI
Bonjour, je m'appelle Aaron Newcomer. Je suis collectionneur et chercheur sur les systèmes d'armes à feu à chargement par la culasse du début du 19e siècle, avec un intérêt particulier pour les travaux de Jean Samuel Pauly et Casimir Lefaucheux. Je collectionne les cartouches et les documents liés à ces types d'armes à feu et je mène des recherches sur ces sujets, approfondissant ma compréhension et ma connaissance de ces armes historiques et leur place dans l'évolution de la technologie des armes à feu. Ma collection et mes recherches reflètent mon engagement à préserver et à comprendre l'histoire et les innovations techniques de ces systèmes d'armes à feu anciens.
Pour en savoir plus sur moi et où mes travaux ont été publiés.
