Bessemer/Decarbonized steel was used for rifle barrels prior to 1850
William Deakin and John Bagnall Johnson were granted British Patent 647 March 3rd, 1866 and established the Patent Punched Steel Tube Company, Albion Works in West Bromwich. “Punched” describes the manufacturing process, and the composition of the steel is unknown, possibly Siemens-Martin.
Metallurgy of Steel, 1905
http://books.google.com/books?id=RaF9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA512&lpg As early as 1866, Messrs Deakin & Johnson, of Bilston, were making weldless rifle barrels from a steel block about 1 inches diameter and 8 inches long, by punching a hole from each end under a steam hammer, and then rolling the blank presumably in the same way as weldless tubes are now rolled in the process of ‘rolling off’.
William Wellington Greener,
The Gun, Third Edition, 1881
http://books.google.com/books?id=LAsAAAAAQAAJ The cold-drawn steel barrels made in 1865 and the few following years were far superior to the plain iron and decarbonised steel barrels generally used. These barrels were drawn out, whilst cold, from blocks of steel, by pressing them with punches through orifices. They could only be drawn out an inch or two at a time, and required annealing each time before placing in the machine. Owing to the slowness of the process, and the heavy expenses incurred by the great wear upon the tools and machinery, the company were unable to manufacture at remunerative prices, and consequently closed after a few years.
William Siemens established the “Sample Steelworks” to develop the Siemens-Martin “Open Hearth” process in 1865, and his steel was in general industrial use 1870 - 1875. P. Webley & Son began using Siemens steel barrels about 1880
Wm. Powell & Son used Whitworth steel for barrels in 1875. The first Purdey Pair Nos. 10614 & 10615 were delivered January 1, 1880 with the “New Whitworth Fluid Pressed Steel”.
