Ethan Allen (armsmaker)
He gained knowledge of metalworking and manufacturing processes by producing knives and shoemaking tools before moving his business to Grafton.
In addition to arms making, they built prototypes of Thurber's typewriter designed for the blind, disabled, and those “nervous” about writing by hand.
In 1847, the company moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, and in 1854 Wheelock became an equal partner with the firm's name changing to Allen Thurber & Co.
Though most of this period was during the Thurber partnership, markings show exclusively 'Ethan Allen', and evidence from an accounting ledger indicates that supply and distribution orders were processed separately from other models of firearms.
Retaining the double action, single shot, screw-barrel design of the tube-hammer, the Model 9 was a success and was produced well into the Allen and Wheelock era.
Often referred to as 'the gun that won the east', the Allen and Thurber pepperbox was a favorite of '49ers' and other early immigrants to the western United States.
[4] Holding several patents, Allen and Thurber pepperboxes were the most popular multi-shot pistols of the 1830s and 1840s, slowly losing market share in the 1850s to Colt's 1849 Pocket and 1851 Navy revolvers.
With the shortage of pistols in the American Civil War, many soldiers on both sides carried an Allen & Thurber pepperbox as a backup arm.
Harley Van Cleve and his son Phillip collected and categorized 22 distinct models/variations of the Allen pepperbox, and were an invaluable early 20th century resource for these interesting pistols.
Patent dates of 1837 and 1845 help to demarcate sub-models to a limited extent, but many improvements were incorporated on the fly to reduce manufacturing costs and/or create a more reliable product.
Due to the number produced, smaller pepperbox pistols are common on the secondary market in a wide spectrum of condition.
A patent dated 1857 shows that the four-shot barrel assembly attached to the frame in a different manner than the six-shot and five-shot pepperboxes.
The five-barrel is relatively rare compared to the six-barrel models 6-barrel pepperbox pistols[3][page needed] Only six-barrel pepperbox pistols were produced during the Grafton and Norwich periods (1837–1847), and all had smooth barrel external contours until the later Worcester and Allen and Wheelock period, when fluted barrels became the norm.
Because demand from the Civil War was consuming just about any arm produced, it would have made sense to cease production of the less advanced models.
Considering all of the evidence that Allen was a thoughtful and frugal businessman, it may simply demonstrate that using common parts was less expensive than designing new ones.
A catch is tripped, and the trigger guard and attached arm swing down to push a rammer into the bottom cylinder, thus seating the ball fully into the chamber.
Ethan Allen showed much evidence of being astute and frugal, and the design likely evolved as a way to share between a percussion series and the new lipfire weapons.
The oft-referenced patent lawsuit may have caused Allen to 'hedge his bets' in case he lost and would have to cease production of cartridge revolvers (as happened in 1863).
A conservative market, as epitomized by the US Army Ordnance Department, was buying the established technology percussion weapons by the thousand.
A fine 'custom' nickel Army with extensive engraving by Gustav Young and hand-carved ivory grips is thought to have been the personal weapon of Ethan Allen.
There are records indicating purchase by the Providence Rhode Island police department, hence the name commonly attributed to this model.
His sons-in-law Forehand and Wadsworth may have deemed an obsolescent percussion pistol unworthy of bringing into the inventory of the company now sporting their names, and discontinued the model after that initial run.
Like many other arms makers, Ethan Allen saw the bored-through cylinder allowing for the rear loading of self-contained metallic cartridges as the wave of the future.
Unfortunately, the patent holder Rollin White, had sold exclusive rights to this innovation to Smith and Wesson, preventing other companies from making firearms leveraging the bored-through cylinder.
This legal constraint proved no barrier to Ethan Allen, who made two different rimfire revolvers that hit the market possibly as early as 1857—simultaneous to the Smith and Wesson model 1.
By 1863, Rollin White finally won his patent infringement lawsuit, and production of all Allen and Wheelock cartridge revolvers ceased.
The first through fourth models have engraved cylinders, with crossed rifles, a horse and rider, military articles, an Indian with a bow, and a sailing ship.
Lastly, it ditches the trigger guard ejector/plunger for a weaker left-mounted plunger with rack and pinion gears to the top and left of the chamber.
Similar in appearance to the center-hammer percussion revolver, the rack and pinion mechanism of the loading level is hijacked to provide a cartridge case removal plunger.
The standard barrel length was a massive 8 inches long, with the breadth and heft of the Army model center hammer percussion pistols.
