Lee Arms Co. 1879 (pre-Lee-Enfield) (US)

Lee Arms Co. 1879 (pre-Lee-Enfield) (US) 15 pages, about 8 1/2″ x 6″ glossy soft-cover in full color. New re-print restored and digitally enhanced from a nice original. Printed on high quality 20# 97 bright acid free paper. Fully Illustrated. This is the rifle that grew into the venerable Lee-Enfield Rifle that served most of the armies of the west for almost a hundred years. We are not affiliated with any arms or gun manufacturer. PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR THE CONTENTS LIST Delivery: We print to order every two or three days and that way we can offer the entire 5500+ inventory at a reasonable price. Each item is printed, collated, bound, packaged and shipped as soon as we can but it takes a little time so please be patient. Quality: Our mission is to preserve old firearms catalogs at a reasonable price before they are all gone, but our reprints are NOT forgeries of originals, they are exact copies of the originals but not necessarily the exact size or on the original paper or with the original binding. This stinks! During the last 15 years we have had over 50,000 happy customers from all over the world, but we cannot please everyone all the time, nevertheless we can put things right, even if the post office destroys your package. Just let us know if you are disappointed. CONTENTS INCLUDE: Lee Arms Company Catalog 1879 Bridgeport Connecticut Good Illustrations, Crisp Why a Magazine Rifle The Lee Magazine System Component Parts System Now having purchased the Sharps Factory in Bridgeport and other facilities Lee is ready to mass produce fine guns James Paris Lee (August 9, 1831 – February 24, 1904) was a Scottish-Canadian and later American inventor and arms designer, best known for inventing the bolt action that led to the Lee-Metford and Lee-Enfield series of rifles. Born in Hawick, Scotland Lee emigrated with his family to Galt, Ontario in Canada c.1835 at the age of 4 He built his first gun at the age of 12, using an old horse-pistol barrel, a newly carved walnut stock, and a priming pan made from a halfpenny. The gun failed to function effectively when first fired, but started Lee’s interest in gunsmithing and invention. In 1858, James Lee and his wife Caroline Lee (née Chrysler, of the later automotive family) moved to Wisconsin, where they had two sons- William (born in 1859) and George (1860). In 1861, Lee successfully developed a breechloading cartridge conversion for the Springfield Model 1861 Rifled Musket, managing to acquire a contract for 1,000 rifles from the US Army during the American Civil War. The Lee civil War carbine was manufactured in Milwaukee, Wi. 200 were delivered, but due to a bore diameter error, these were rejected by the army and the weapon did not see use in the Civil War. These guns are rare and highly collectible. The Lee Model 1879 rifle was his first successful magazine-fed rifle, which was adopted by China and the US Navy, and two later designs – the Remington-Lee M1885 and the Winchester-Lee or Lee Navy M1895 – were also adopted militarily and sold commercially. Commemorative Plaque, Civic Park, James Street, Wallaceburg James Lee square at Enfield Island Village formerly the Royal Small Arms Factory It is a portion of the Model 1879 that earned Lee his place in the pantheon of arms designers. Lee designed the first practical detachable box magazine – an item that would become an absolute requirement for military arms of the future. His bolt and magazine design was investigated by the British and in 1889, after extensive trials and tests, the British Army decided to adopt the Rifle, Magazine, Lee-Metford as a standard issue arm. This in turn developed into the Rifle, Short, Magazine, Lee-Enfield (or SMLE), the British service arm for many decades. James Paris Lee died in New York on February 24, 1904, having lived to see his rifles in service throughout several Colonial conflicts and the Boer War- yet no doubt completely unaware that his contribution would still be in official service 100 years later. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Paris_Lee CORNELL PUBLICATIONS We ship worldwide within 5-8 days of payment and will cheerfully combine shipping charges for multiple purchases. Please see all our listings by following the links above or below. Also, you may search the text of all our listings by entering a word(s) in ‘Search Store’ above. Please see thousands of firearms and sporting goods – books, manuals and catalogs from 1850s on for sale in our Ebay Store. Cornell Publications , all rights reserved.