Seeing as we are now well off topic the question of when factories appeared has arisen. The factory as we know it was effectively a Birmingham invention, the brainchild of Mathew Bolton. Together with Watt they set out to mass produce reciprocation beam engines starting firstly (1781)with a 2 storey Engine shop to manufacture smaller ( think 8' connecting rod) engine parts. In 1795 he purchased land to set up an assembly plant and foundry. He refferred to it as a "manufactory" which contracted to become factory (ironically manu = hand, fact= to make). British parliamentary delegations were despatched to the US to study machine manufacture of firearms under the interchangeable system 1853 & 1854. On June 7th 1861 11 of Birminghams leading gunmakers met at The Stork Hotel and subscribed capital towards the building of a factory to make rifles with machine tools called the Birmingham Small Arms Co. (BSA) I will give their names as some still show up on sporting guns we see today:-
Joseph Bourne, Joseph Bentley, John Cook, Joseph Cooper, John Goodman, Isaac Hollis, Charles Playfair, Pryse & Redman. Joseph Smith, John Swinburn, Thos Lawden, William Tranter, Thomas Tuner
As a group they probably reflected more bias towards the military end of the market. Of the Birmingham Sporting gun makers I can think of the following who would typically be considered as factory makers, Greeners, Scott, Webley,Bonehill,
BSA, The Midland Gun Co. The Sporting Gun Co. C.S.Wright, Westley Richards (1875-@ 1895)
If anyone is interested I suggest reading:-
The Birmingham gun trade, David Williams ( Gunnerman Books)
A History of Birmingham, Chris Upton (I got mine in the UK)
Well back to the bench.
http://www.hglomasgunmakers.com
