In 1852 Horace Smith & Daniel B Wesson formed a partnership for the purpose of building a pistol. This wat the "Volcanic", a lever-action magazine-fed repeater. Very shortly they adapted the BB cap to work in it, providing for extraction. By 1855 they had sold their interest to the New Haven Arms Co & devoted their attention to a revolver, armed with the exclusive rights to a Bored Through Cylinder via Rollin White's patent of 1855. By 1857 they had developed the .22 short rimfire & began production of the model 1, 1st issue, a tip-up 7 shot revolver. Very soon a model 2 was introduced in caliber .32 short rimfire, 6 shot. Neither were powerful enough for military use, but both models sold well to individual soldiers on "both sides" during the "War of Northern Aggression" for hide-out use. Following the war sales dropped off sharply, so by 1867 D B Wesson decided a side-line was needed to pay the bills until sales picked back up.
He set up a separate entity to protect the interests of the major Corporation & named it the Wesson Firearms Co. Their only production was a Double-barreled Hammer breech-loading shotgun. It was a high-quality gun & priced in the range of many of the top make British imports & simply could not meet the competition of these already well known makers so soon faded from the line with the company being closed.
Their next deviation from revolvers came in 1880. At this time another side company was formed with $50,000 in capital named the Wesson Sewing Machine Co. This company lasted for 21 Days & was sold to Farmer & Gardener Manufacturing Co for $52,200. Charles K Farmer was S&W's bookkeeper & Henry L Gardener was a local inventor. Both had been a part of the Wesson Sewing Machine Co.
