Of all the firearms companies that I've researched, this one has to be the most interesting. As you will find out this company has had probably more influnce on the firearms industry than any other single company, and had associations with several other important firearms inventors, most notably Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson. In 1848 the Hunt's patent Repeating Rifle was the earliest "Winchester," in 1849 it was improved by Lewis Jennings and manufactured in the shops of Robbins & Lawrence in Wiondsor, Vermont, under the watchful eye of B. Tyler Henry. Although contracts called for a much larger production less than a thousand of the rifles was ever produced, with production stopping in 1852 after heavy losses. The real significance of this rifle was that it brought together B. Tyler Henry, Horace Smith, and Daniel Wesson. In 1854 Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson began production of their lever action repeating pistol (Iron Framed Volcanic) in their Norwich, Connecticut plant, with B. Tyler Henery being instermental in its production. In 1855 their company was re-incorporated as the "Volcanic Repeating Arms Company, and Oliver F. Winchester became a stockholder. By early 1856 the Volcanic Company had aquired all rights and patents to the Volcanic Repeater and both Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson had stepped out of the picture and production had begun on the Brass Framed Volcanic Repeater in the New Haven plant. The Volcanic Reapeter itself was a stroke of genius but the Volcanic round was much less than hoped and by 1857 the company had fallen again on hard times and all assets were sold to Oliver F Winchester and in April the company was reorganize as the New Haven Arms Company and continued production adding a scaled-up rifle version to the line. After some experimentation B. Tyler Henry redesigned the Volcanic round, whitch was a bullet with powder inside it and a primer in the end without any brass case, into, what was probably the first true brass rimfire cartridge, thuis eliminating the jamming problems experienced by the Volcanics. Along with this he introduced the "Henry Lever Action Repeating Rifle" and it was produced from 1860 through 1866. The Henry rifle was much sought after during the Civil War, in some cases with whole units raising the money to equip themselves, when it was employed, it seemed top win the day with its great accuracy and tremenous firepower advantage over the single shot percussion muzzle-loaders of the day. In 1866 two significant things happened. One was the name change of the company to the "Winchester Repeating Arms Company" and two was the introduction of "Yellow Boy 1866 Winchester," the first in a long line of weapons to carry the "Winchester" name. The very next model to be produce was arguably the most famous rifle ever produced, the "Model 1873," the only rifle to ever have a movie made around it as the, main suject, and also enjoyed one of the longest production runs in Winchester history of about 50 years. In addition was on of the most produced rifles in company history with a production run of about 720,000 rifles, carbines, and muskets. I will stop here in detailing individual models, as a whole web site could be devoted to such an endevor, but suffice it to say that Oliver F. Winchester, although not a firearms inventor himself was an excellent businessman, and employed the best, and the company went on to produce many famous models that distinguished themselves thoughout the history of this country. Along with the "Colt Single Action Army" there probably isn't a more well known weapon on the planet than the lever action "Winchester," due in part to hundreds of "Cowboy" movies, noteably the large rounded lever carbine carried by "The Duke" himself, that span vitually the entire history of film making. Publicity like that can't be bought, but was earned during the western expansition, when a dependable firearm was quite often the only thing that stood between its owner and death. President Theodore Roosevelt swore by his Model 1895, which was designed by none other than John M. Browning, and was the first sucessful box magazine lever action rifle ever produce and was capable of handling the new high-powered smokeless ammunition and could be employed to hunt the big game thoughout the world. The company continues today to manufacture both ammunition and firearms of the best production quality, and I might add at reasonable prices in comparison to the rest of the field. With collector prices overall being quite good with some whole collections being based around the Winchester line. One side note, a German named Hugo Borchardt(June 6,1844-May 8, 1924), worked for a short while at Winchester, Marlin, Sharps, co-designing the Sharps-Borchardt Model 1878 rifle, and Singer Sewing Machines before returning to Germany and going to work for Ludwig Loewe & Company(see DWM on the Manufaturers Page on this site), designing a pistol, the Borchardt C-93, the weapon had some design flaws but did incorporate many features that would later be seen on the Luger pistol.