History of merwin hulbert firearms

Answer 1

Try this link for the full story www.merwinhulbertco.com/history.php Here is some "cut & paste" info "The guns were made by a 50%-owned subsidiary in Norwich, CT, Hopkins & Allen Mfg. that both predated Merwin and survived until 1916 so the guns list both Merwin Hulbert AND Hopkins & Allen on their barrels. The Hopkins & Allen factory burned down in 1900 destroying the records. Merwin Hulbert was based in New York City and went bankrupt in 1891 so it's sales records were lost, but Hopkins & Allen marketed some of it's guns under the Merwin brand for 25 more years as well as using many other brand names." "Merwin's innovative new revolver debuts in 1876, within a year or two of each of it's primary competitors' models (the Colt 1873, the Smith & Wesson 1870-1875 models, and Remington 1875) that would battle for the next 25 years during which the functional advantages and better fit of the Merwin gradually won over hundreds of thousands of customers experienced with the competing revolvers. The Merwin Hulbert team continually out-innovated the competition with at least 14 patented advances in just the 1870's alone, continually and quickly improving it's primary models. Only Smith & Wesson with their Russian and Schofield revolvers tried to keep up while Harrington & Richardson, Forehand & Wadsworth, and Iver Johnson designs are obviously quite influenced by Merwin. The innovations fade in both significance and frequency with the death of Joseph Merwin in 1888 and departure of his nephew as the company's sales manager in 1896, a not uncommon shift as innovation is expensive, risky, and exhausting so the convenience and complacency of making just the familiar products overwhelms most manufacturers, often to their demise.