Henry's baby was improved by Browning (his first credit for a repeater) in 1886.  


Winchester's lever guns.
The TOGGLE LINK dates back to the First Repeating Firearm invented in America. Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson were the first to use the toggle link in a repeater with a single lever controlling the complete action. It was used in all Volcanic firearms, the Henry rifle, the Winchester Model 1866, the Winchester Model 1873 and the Winchester Model 1876.

Smith and Wesson's patent number 10,535, dated Feb. 14, 1875, illustrates the function of the toggle link in a large frame Volcanic pistol. B. Tyler Henry's patent number 30,446, dated Oct. 16, 1860, illustrates the function of the toggle link in his famous Henry rifle. Nelson King's patent no. 55,012 dated May 22, 1866, also shows the use of the toggle link, without modification, in the Winchester Model 1866, even though the loading mechanism on the firearm was changed completely.

With the financial difficulties of Smith and Wesson, Oliver Winchester obtained all patents of the Volcanic Firearms as well as the Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson's agreement concerning rights on future firearms and ammunition inventions and improvements. In 1866, the Connecticut legislature granted him a charter to incorporate under the name of The Winchester Repeating Arms Company.

With the assistance of Benjamin Tyler Henry and Nelson King, Oliver Winchester made many modifications to the New Winchester Rifle. Thousands of these repeaters were made and used through the Winchester Model 1876, but the toggle link virtually remained the same throughout the manufacture of these firearms.

The Dallas Arms Collectors Association, Inc.
P.O. Box 704
DeSoto, Texas 75123
(972) 223-3066
[url]http://www.dallasarms.com/64stor7.htm[/url]

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John Moses Browning, the most famous and competent gunmaker the world has ever known, was the son of Jonathan Browning (himself also a competent gunsmith) and Elizabeth Clark.

John Moses was born on January 23, 1855, in a little town called Ogden in Utah U.S.A., where his father had settled after the Mormon Exodus, of 1847. It was in his father's shop, that John Moses first learned the art and secrets of gunsmithing.

John Moses however, was much more than a gunsmith, in the sense that he was much more interested in designing and building new, innovative firearms, instead of repairing broken ones. The first gun he made by himself, was a single shot rifle built for his brother Matt, at the age of 14.

When Jonathan Browning died (June 21st, 1879), John Moses and his brothers, started their own shop, in which for the first time, they used steam powered tools (in reality, they were old, foot-powered tools converted by John Moses to get power from a steam engine). It was in that same year that John Moses Browning got married to Rachel Teresa Child and he patented his first gun, the Breech-Loading Single Shot Rifle (patent No 220.271).

John and his brothers began producing this rifle, in their shop in Ogden, and they quickly sell more guns that they could produce. However, the "Browning Gun Factory", as John's shop was called, was not easy to flourish, since John lacked the capital for expansion and did not have any sort of distribution channel to market his products. It was in 1883, when Andrew McAusland, a salesman for the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, happened to see one of John's Single

BROWNING_______hey black, ever heard of HISTORY CHANNEL? u should take a look over there.
:)