Patent attorney Joe V. Meigs invented an improved metallic cartridge for the company; and oversaw production beginning in 1869.

[3] A 29 July 1903 powder magazine explosion in Tewksbury, Massachusetts destroyed or damaged seventy homes killing 22 employees and residents and injuring 70 more.

New brick magazines and factories replaced early wooden structures prior to World War I.

[3] The company employed 1,200 when British purchasing agents arrived in September 1914 to request expanded production.

As employment swelled to 15,000, a labor strike in the autumn of 1915 was resolved within a month to sustain ammunition production.