The Ball Repeating Carbine
Although the Federal government issued a contract for these arms in 1864, they were not delivered until May, 1865, after the war had ended. Approximately 1,000 of these seven-shot breechloaders were produced. Like the better-known Spencer carbine, they were operated through the use of a lever-action trigger guard. This carbine was patented by Albert Ball of Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1864, and manufactured by E. G. Lamson & Company, Windsor, Vermont. Approximately 1,000 were delivered in May, 1865, after the close of the Civil War. This seven-shot .50 caliber carbine, which was chambered for the .5650 Spencer rimfire cartridge, operated on the same principle as the later Winchester repeating rifle. To load, cartridges are fed through an opening in the right side of the receiver frame and into a tubular magazine located under the barrel. Lowering the trigger guard lever opens the receiver and feeds a cartridge from the magazine into the chamber. As in the Palmer carbine, the hammer features a projecting lip that strikes the cartridge rim. The 20-inch barrel was blued, while other metallic parts were casehardened. It has a two-piece walnut stock, and total length is 37 inches. Mr. Garner D. Hook, the donor of the Lamson Carbine displayed here, furnished the following background: "A sketchy chronological history of the above firearm as told to me by Mrs. Emmy Mae Binns Beal. Circa 1910: Fred Beal, then a 6 year old son of homesteaders in Shoshone County Wyoming, found the arm lying out on the prairie. From its condition, it had been there a long time. Young Beal took it
home and played "Cowboys and Indians" with it. At some indeterminate time he placed the arm in a crotch of an apple tree. Subsequently, the homestead was abandoned and the family moved on. Circa 1940: Fred Beal, now a logger and timber owner, revisited the old homestead. There he found the arm still in the apple tree. Beal cut it out of the tree and took it home to Washington state. Fred tried to put the butt stock back together (with nails). He also tried to remove the barrel rings with a hammer. These operations being unsuccessful, the arm was stored away and forgotten. Circa 1988: Emmy Mae Beal, now a widow, brought the pieces to me hoping I could restore it to some semblance of its original condition. I dismantled it, drawfiled the barrel to remove the hammer nicks, cleaned, polished and reblued it the best I could. I carved a new buttstock from a piece of black walnut left over from some other project." Nicanor Kendall was born in Windsor, Vermont in 1807. The son of a blacksmith, Kendall served an apprenticeship under gunsmith Asa Story. Kendall had received a patent for his underhammer percussion lock, which was both safer and more reliable than other types. In addition, his design was much simpler than other percussion designs and therefore easier to produce, and his guns featured interchangeable parts that could be produced by a combination of skilled and unskilled workers. After his c. 1835 marriage, he began to manufacture underhammer pistols and rifles at a pump manufactory operated by his father-in-law, Asahel Hubbard, which was located at the state prison in Windsor. Kendall produced his arms using Hubbard's machinery and unskilled prison labor for which he paid compensation to the state, and hiring skilled workers to perform fine work. His arms became quite popular, both in the local area and in other parts of the growing nation and surrounding territories. One of the first large orders for Kendall's products came in 1836 from the citizens of Texas, who were seeking their independence from Mexico. By 1843, Kendall had entered into a partnership with Richard Smith Lawrence, a young man who was born in Connecticut but raised on a farm in neighboring New York. As a youth, he worked in his uncle's carpentry tool-making shop, and spent his free time learning the gunsmithing trade at a gun shop that was located downstairs from his uncle's business. After working at several jobs and serving a three-month hitch in the army on the frontier, Lawrence relocated to Windsor, where his skills came to Kendall's attention. The two opened a custom rifle shop on Mill Brook in Windsor, taking advantage of the water power produced by a local dam. Here, they manufactured both underhammer and sidehammer percussion rifles and shotguns. In late 1844, Samuel E. Robbins, a retired lumber dealer, suggested a partnership between himself, Kendall, and Lawrence to bid on a government contract for production of 10,000 military long arms patterned after the U.S./Harpers Ferry Armory Model 1841 Rifle. Their bid of $11.90 per rifle was ten cents lower than those of competing companies, and the three found themselves in the business of manufacturing military arms for use in the event of war with Mexico. The trio began to expand operations, both recruiting skilled workers from the shops of Eli Whitney, Amoskeag, Springfield Armory, and others, and building additional manufacturing facilities and lodging for the growing workforce. The expanding Industrial Revolution made this period a watershed in American industrial history. The age of hand-made arms produced by skilled craftsmen was rapidly yielding to mass-produced rifles with interchangeable parts. Machinery was either purchased or designed and built by the partners. All
gun parts were made with precision gauges, jigs, tools, milling machines, drill presses, and tapping/threading machines to ensure interchangeability, and water power was harnessed to run boring and rifling machines via an overhead drive shaft and belt system. The system of mass production introduced at this factory also proved to be extremely efficient. The firm was able to complete their order eighteen months ahead of schedule, and they were awarded a second contract for an additional 15,000 arms. Nicanor Kendall sold his interest in the company and moved to Iowa, while his former partners expanded the business. Aside from an unsuccessful venture into railroad car production, Robbins & Lawrence continued to concentrate on firearms manufacturing. Richard S. Lawrence and Tyler Henry, a gunsmith and foreman at Robbins & Lawrence, worked together on the Jennings Repeating Rifle, a project that combined their talents with those of Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson, later to become famous both for their revolver designs and for the Volcanic lever-action pistol and carbine. Lawrence invented a lubricated bullet which improved the function of breech-loading repeaters, and Henry would build on his experience with both the Jennings rifle and Volcanic arms to develop the Henry lever-action repeating rifle, a forerunner to the famous Winchester Model 66 rifle and carbine. Lawrence also developed the "Lawrence Pellet Primer System," which was successfully used with Christian Sharps' breech-loading carbines and rifles of the Civil War period. Lawrence would later become Master Armorer for the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company at that company's Hartford factory. During the 1851 Crystal Palace Exposition in London, Robbins & Lawrence demonstrated their system of interchangeability to participants and spectators, earning an award for their efforts. The British government armory at Enfield purchased machinery from Robbins & Lawrence, making them the first U.S. firm to export the new technology in a significant way. The Windsor company also received a contract to produce 25,000 rifles for the British military in their Connecticut arms factory. Robbins & Lawrence defaulted on the terms of the contract, and were forced into bankruptcy. The firm and its assets became the property of the British Crown, and these facilities were leased back to Samuel Robbins and others for the purpose of completing the outstanding order. In 1858, the buildings and machinery of the former Robbins & Lawrence company were purchased by E. G. Lamson and his business partners, who then manufactured sewing machines in the former rifle shops. When Civil War erupted in 1861, this firm turned their efforts to arms production as well. They received a government contract for 50,000 longarms patterned on the U.S./Springfield Armory Model 1861 Rifle-Musket. In 1864, E. G. Lamson received a government contract to produce 1,000 breechloading repeating carbines designed by Albert Ball of Worcester, Massachusetts, as well as a second contract for 1,000 Palmer breech-loading carbines. These arms, which were delivered in mid-1865, came too late to see service with the Union Army. After the war, Lamson changed the name of his firm to the Windsor Manufacturing Company, and by 1870, he had sold his arms making tools and machinery to Winchester and Smith & Wesson. He continued in business as a manufacturer of machine tools for a number of years, later under the banner of Jones & Lamson Machine Company of Springfield, Vermont. What became known as "The American System of Manufacture" had its roots in firearms production, both in New England and at John Hall's rifle shop in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Robbins & Lawrence and their successors played an important role in this era, as did several other rifle works in the Connecticut River valley.
Although the company founded by Nicanor Kendall, Samuel E. Robbins, and Richard Smith Lawrence is long gone, their influence continued for many years through the products of Smith & Wesson and Winchester Repeating Arms Company.
