Firearm Factory of the Month: Taughonic Falls Gun Mill

This one goes way back, back to the War of 1812. 

In the State of New York, just north of Ithaca there is a creek (river?) that runs down through a gorge on its way to Cayuga Lake.

Anyone that knows old gun factory history will now that before electricity factories needed waterpower to run their equipment and creeks and rivers with natural falls are a perfect place to get that waterpower.

In 1814 a gun factory was built along Taughannock Creek, upstream from the 3 falls. It was in a bend in the creek where the water cascades over the shale.

Taughannock Creek has three falls (not including the shale cascades shown above) the tallest of which falls 215 feet, the smallest a series of small falls with 15 feet of elevation loss.

The name of the factory was Taughonic Falls Gun Mill, the spelling was different then. There is some debate where the name came from and how it was supposed to be spelled. Some say the name means "great fall in the woods" from a combination of Iroquois and Algonquin languages or could be the name of a chief of the Lenni Lenapi tribe who supposedly died near the falls after a battle.

The factory was built to supply rifles, under contract, to the U.S. government during the war of 1812 (1812-1815).

Built in 1814 and used for a year or so, the remaining gun parts were shipped to an arsenal in Connecticut. It is unknown if the old gun mill was used for anything after it closed.

Many of the pictures of the mill were taken in the latter part of the 19th century as that is when camera use started to take off.

The factory was destroyed in the flood of 1935. It was the evening of July 7th, heavy rains caused the creek to overflow its banks taking out the old gun mill, a bridge and some park buildings. The gun mill's remains went over all three of the falls and I assume ended up in lake Cayuga.

More pictures of the gun mill:

The former location of the old gun mill is easy enough to find, there is a bend in the river where Jacksonville Road, Taughannock Park Road and Falls Road meet.

Sources:

File:The Old Gun Factory of 1812, Taughannock, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.png - Wikimedia Commons

Taughannock Falls State Park - American Byways

History | Taughannock Falls State Park

Taughannock Falls State Park - Wikipedia

Interesting Firearm Photos #77

 

We'll kick this off with an axiom from Glenda the good witch of the east.

The Gun Jesus pretending to be Finnish.

this looks like an interesting project..

a contrast, new Tommy Gun with an old car

The venerable M1911

Rest in Pieces ol' S&W model 629 

early attempt at a metallic cartridge revolver.

I have this exact set-up an unfired S&W 25-5 with presentation case, normal box and serial numbered cardboard carton.

Featured Gun: Colt New Service

 While reading some of my old posts I realized that even though I restored a Colt New Service revolver, I never did a Featured Gun article on it.

The Colt New Service is a large frame, six round double action revolver.

In the early days of revolvers, the name Colt was synonymous with the term revolver. I think it is important to remind everyone that Samuel Colt did not invent the revolver, they existed before he started building guns, what Colt invented was the mechanism that automated the revolver. Colt's first revolver was patented in 1836, a little more than 20 years later he was working on a more automated revolver, that would cock and release the hammer with a pull of the trigger, what we now call a double action revolver.

Colt's first double action revolver appeared in 1877, that design evolved into what became the model of 1892, which in turn was upsized and strengthened into the New Service in 1898.

Just looking at the gun you can guess it was not designed with target use in mind, it was made to work, specifically as a tool of law enforcement and military. The gun is large, about on par with a S&W N Frame revolver.

When Timothy Mullins wrote the book on the gun he subtitled his work "A Particularly Strong, Heavy Weapon".

Original calibers included 45 Colt, 44-40, 38-40 and 44 Russian, later the 38 Special, 44 Special and 357 Magnum were added. 

In 1899 Canada ordered the New Service, chambered in .45 Colt as a supplement to their Colt M1878 revolvers for use in the Boer War.

In 1904 The Canadian NW Mounted Police adopted the New Service revolver.

In 1909 the US Military adopted the New Service as the M1909. The M 1909 had a 5.5" barrel and was chambered in 45 Colt.

During the Great War the New Service was ordered in large numbers by the United Kingdom, chambered in .455 Eley (.455 Webley).

With the US entering WWI, the government adopted a revolver as standard issue, mostly due to the M1911 production being unable to keep up. The guns were chambered in .45 ACP and used moon clips to headspace the cartridges. The designation was M1917 and were built by both Colt (New Service) and Smith & Wesson (.44 Hand Ejector 2nd model).

By 1941 the New Service was discontinued. Colt would not make another large frame revolver until the Anaconda was introduced in 1990.

During the 43-year production run the New Service was available in barrel lengths of 4", 4.5", 5", 5.5", 6" & 7.5". More than 350,000 New Service revolvers were built, they served in every war during its production run. 

I first came in to contact with a New Service revolver when a friend brought me one to restore.

Here are the before and after pictures:

Link to the work

Sources:

The Colt New Service: A Look Back | An Official Journal Of The NRA (americanrifleman.org)

Colt New Service - Wikipedia