Christian Sharps (January 2, 1810 – March 12, 1874) was the inventor of the

Sharps rifle Sharps rifles are a series of large-bore, single-shot, falling-block, breech-loading rifles, beginning with a design by Christian Sharps in 1848 and ceasing production in 1881. They were renowned for long-range accuracy. By 1874 the rifle wa ...

, the first commercially successful

breech-loading rifle A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition ( cartridge or shell) via the rear (breech) end of its barrel, as opposed to a muzzleloader, which loads ammunition via the front ( muzzle). Modern firearms are generally bre ...

and the Sharps Four Barrel Pistol, and ‘’’Sharps Breech-Loading Pistol’’’.

Life, death and legacy

Born in

Washington, New Jersey Washington is a borough in Warren County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 6,461, Satella's daughter, also named Satella Waterstone, became an author and composer. Sharps was hired as an apprentice gunsmith at the Harpers Ferry Arsenal in the 1830s. While at Harpers Ferry, he was introduced to the Hall rifle, an early breech-loader, and worked for its inventor, Captain John H. Hall. Sharps also became versed in the manufacture of weapons with fully interchangeable parts. Sharps 1852 Verschluss offen

Sharps' first rifle was

patented A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

September 12, 1848, a breech loading design it featured "slanting breech action" and used paper cartridges. It was manufactured by "A. S. Nippes" at Mill Creek, (Philadelphia) Pennsylvania, in 1850. In 1851, Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company (later renamed "Sharps Rifle Co") was organized as a holding company with $1,000 in capital and with John C. Palmer as president, Christian Sharps as engineer, and Richard S. Lawrence as master armorer and superintendent of manufacturing. Sharps was to be paid a royalty of $1 per firearm and the factory was built on R&L's property in

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

. Christian Sharps left the company in 1855 to form his own manufacturing company called "C. Sharps & Co." which produced four-barrel pepperboxes, and later renamed "Sharps & Hankins", in partnership with William Hankins, in 1862. Both firms were located in Philadelphia. Sharps & Hankins not only produced four-barrel pistols, but also the single-shot Model 1861 Navy Rifles and the Model 1862 Carbines, both of which featured forward "sliding breech actions" and fired the .56-52 Spencer rimfire metallic cartridge. The Sharps and Hankins partnership ended in 1867, and Sharps resumed the manufacturing of firearms under the C. Sharps and Co. name. In 1870, Sharps and his family moved to

Vernon, Connecticut Vernon is the most populous town in Tolland County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 30,215 at the 2020 census. Vernon contains the smaller villages of Talcottville and Dobsonville. Vernon contains the former City of Rockville. ...

, where he continued working on firearm designs and started a large trout farming business. Succumbing to

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

, Sharps died in Vernon, on March 12, 1874. In all, he was awarded a total of fifteen firearms-related patents. "C. Sharps & Co." was shuttered after his death and firearms production came to an end. Although, "Sharps Rifle Co" continued to produce his namesake rifles until 1881, when it too closed its doors. In 1983,

Shiloh Rifle Manufacturing Company Shiloh Rifle Manufacturing Company is a firearms manufacturer located in Big Timber, Montana, United States. The company produces a line of reproductions of various historical black-powder rifles, including the legendary 1874 Sharps Rifle, featu ...

began to produce a line of modern reproductions of the legendary 1874 Sharps Rifle, featured in the 1990 Western film

Quigley Down Under ''Quigley Down Under'' is a 1990 western film directed by Simon Wincer and starring Tom Selleck, Alan Rickman, and Laura San Giacomo. Plot Matthew Quigley is an American cowboy with a specially modified rifle with which he can shoot accurately ...

, starring

Tom Selleck Thomas William Selleck (; born January 29, 1945) is an American actor. His breakout role was playing private investigator Thomas Magnum in the television series '' Magnum, P.I.'' (1980–1988), for which he received five Emmy Award nominations ...

. Previously, the Sharps rifle reproductions were manufactured by "Shiloh Products Inc." founded by Len Mulé (pronounce Mull-A) in partnership with Wolfgang Droge. Len Mulé is considered the second founder of Sharps and responsible for its re-introduction into the modern era.

The Sharps Rifle

Sharps was issued a patent for his design of a breech-loading rifle on September 12, 1848. The deficiencies of the Hall rifle may have caused Sharps to adopt his new design. The Sharps rifle was designed with a vertical dropping block action, operated by a lever which also served as a trigger guard. The action was not only strong but limited the release of gases when the gun was discharged. Sharps' first rifle, the Model 1849, was manufactured by A.S. Nippes & Co. at Mill Creek, Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Despite not being the first breech-loading rifle, Sharps' was the first to be accepted widely and, with the onset of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, the first to be produced in large quantities. The Sharps, in a carbine version, was the most widely used cavalry carbine by the Union Army. It was so successful that it was copied and manufactured by the Confederate government to arm its mounted troops. Sharps-designed firearms later saw extensive use in the American West as military and hunting weapons. They were highly regarded as target rifles and were used extensively in international shooting competitions through the late 19th century.

The Sharps & Hankins 4-Shot Pepperbox Pistols

One of the more common pocket pistols found in the "Old West" were the Sharps Pepperboxes. They are four-barrel, single-action pistols with a revolving firing pin. They come in

.22 .22 caliber, or 5.6 mm caliber, refers to a common firearms bore diameter of 0.22 inch (5.6 mm). Cartridges in this caliber include the very widely used .22 Long Rifle and .223 Remington / 5.56×45mm NATO. .22 inch is also a popular ...

, .30 and

.32 rimfire The term .32 rimfire refers to a family of cartridges which were chambered in revolvers and rifles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These rounds were made primarily in short and long lengths, but extra short, long rifle and extra long ...

, and their four barrels slide forward to load and unload. First patented in 1849, they were not made until 1859, when Sharps patented a practical pocket pistol design. These first model pistols had brass frames and fired the recently introduced .22 Rimfire metallic cartridges. The second model came in .30 rimfire. These pistols were made by "C. Sharps and Co", and are sometimes classified by modern collectors as a

pepperbox The pepper-box revolver or simply pepperbox (also "pepper-pot", from its resemblance to the household pepper shakers) is a multiple-barrel firearm, mostly in the form of a handgun, that has three or more gun barrels in a coaxially revolving m ...

.Guns of the Old West
/ref> In 1862 William Hankins partnered with Sharps, bringing much needed funding and the company was renamed "Sharps & Hankins". They introduced the third model deringer in .32 Rimfire, with an iron frame, and the barrel release was moved from under the frame to the left side of the frame. These were discontinued when the partnership ended in 1867. In the same year, the newly renamed "C. Sharps and Co" introduced a fourth model with a new "birdshead" grip and 2 1/2" barrels, otherwise it was virtually identical to the third model. Production of these little pistols came to an end with the death of Christian Sharps in 1874. Approximately 100,000 of these Four Barrel Pistols were made between 1859 and 1874.

Life, death and legacy

The Sharps Rifle

The Sharps & Hankins 4-Shot Pepperbox Pistols

See also

References

Further reading