For the next few years, Anthony kept busy vying for military contracts both at home and abroad. Peabody sold his patent to the Providence Tool Company of Rhode Island that was run by an unsung master industrialist named John Anthony. Almost as an afterthought, Peabody designed a hammerless variation but did not bother to patent it in Europe. It was strong, simple, reliable and eminently adaptable to mass production. This was at the very beginning of the metallic-cartridge era, but Peabody had struck upon a principle that accommodated all the early problems of breechloading, yet was readily adaptable to everything that came later. He received royalty payments for many years and became a wealthy man. Henry Peabody patented his basic action in 1862 and sold the patent to the Providence Tool Company.
It was operated by an underlever that doubled as a trigger guard. The block was hinged at the rear and tipped down at the front, providing both a ramp for easy loading and a strong and simple mechanism to work the extractor. To start at the beginning, in 1862, in the midst of the American Civil War, Henry Peabody of Massachusetts patented a breech-loading rifle with a “tipping” block and external hammer. If the British Army had not adopted the Peabody- Martini rifle in 1872 and had not insisted on Henry rifling, and then shortened Peabody-Martini-Henry to simply Martini-Henry, it’s likely Henry Peabody’s reputation would be intact – such is life. Since 1774, Americans have been blaming the British for every injustice, but in this case, well, they have a case. Henry Peabody invented the rifle action that went on to be the most widely used, longest-lived, and in some ways the best of all the great American single shots, known to all the world as the Martini. Peabody to the stature to which he is entitled as an American rifle designer, but every generation or so some writer has tried: Ned Roberts in the 1920s, Phil Sharpe in the ’30s, James Grant in the ’50s, Frank de Haas in the ’60s, and now here. The Peabody-Martini action found lasting favor everywhere but in America, its native land.It’s at least a century too late to restore Henry O.
#Bsa martini cadet .22 rimfire extractor free#
22 Long Rifle free pistol made in Switzerland. Shown (top to bottom): is a German Schützen rifle (circa 1885) based on the Martini action, an Australian cadet rifle by Westley Richards (originally.