Click here to download the catalog as a PDF file. To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. ™ • HOLT BODINSON • THE REVOLUTIONARY HALL Let me count the ways … TheHallwastheearliestpercussionrifleadoptedbyanynation. Itwasalsooneofthemostsuccessfulearlybreechloaders. t was the first military breechloader and first percussion firearm I adopted for general issue by any country. It was the first military rifle that featured truly interchangeable parts manufactured entirely by machine tools at both government and private armories. Patented by John Hancock Hall of Maine in 1811, Hall’s flintlock and percussion rifles and percussion carbines soldiered on successfully for decades, at least until the end of the Civil War. And by chance, the Hall was also to be the center of one of the great “surplus arms” scandals of the period. In short, the Hall story is simply remarkable. Apparently, like a Samuel Colt, a Charles Newton or an Arthur Savage, John Hall invented his successful breechloader without having any prior gunmaking experience. Persistence was his forte. After obtaining his patent in 1811, he tapped into his own bank account, his inheritance, his wife’s family finances and those of his friends for the next eight years just to keep his invention alive, hopefully until the government would grant him a sizable military contract. In 1819, he got his big government contract. It called for an initial order of 1,000 rifles and also stipulated the production would be carried out at the government arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, where Hall would work as a contract supervisor. Harper’s Ferry was not exactly a comfortable fit for Hall. The administration and labor force viewed his breechloader (they were making muzzleloaders) as a threat and his interchangeable parts that took little skill to assemble or repair as an additional threat. Outsider or not, Hall persisted and within the next 5-year period designed and built all the machinery, cutters, fixtures, dies and gauges required to guarantee the total interchangeability of Hall parts. That accomplishment alone should have insured John Hall a prominent place in the history of industrial development. ‘Twas not to be, but Hall’s mass production innovations soon became the standard of all US arsenals and his concept of the tilting breechblock action appears later in designs like the popular Burnside. The first 1,000 Hall rifles were delivered in the winter of 1824-25. The contract was immediately extended for an additional 1,000 rifles completed in the winter of 1826-27. The military liked what it received and an additional expansion of the contract included 3,000 rifles to be made at Harper’s Ferry and another 5,000 to be built by the private armory of Simeon North at Middletown, Connecticut. According to Schmidt’s Hall’s Military Breechloaders, before the production of Hall models ended in 1853, approximately 53,255 rifles and carbines had been made, 22,257 of which were issued to the Army and Navy and the remainder to state militias. Hall’s are not uncommon in collector circles. The rifles being built were designated the Hall Model 1819 and are similar to the rifle illustrated in the article with the exception that the M1819’s were manufactured originally as flintlocks and only later converted into percussions. The Hall Model 1819 is a surprisingly advanced design. In fact, it’s ingenious. The Model 1819 is a 52-caliber rifle, taking a .525" diameter ball and 78 grains of black powder. The barrel is micro-rifled with 16 shallow, narrow, lands and grooves to minimize the deformation of the ball Another“hallmark”oftheHallwasit broughttheconceptofinterchangeable partstothemilitaryarsenals. 32 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • DECEMBER 2009