Emil Flues patented a single trigger for Ithaca in 1910 but the first single triggers installed on Ithaca doubles seem to have been the Infallible triggers in 1915 and 1916. By 1926 (maybe earlier) they are offering the Miller trigger and by 1931 the Howland triggers. I've been able to find the Howland non-selective single trigger patent -
https://patents.google.com/patent/US1818852A/en - but not the selective one. Like so many things that you think you know, the more you learn the less sure you are. In this case, Harry Howland's personal notes are the cause for my questioning. I have long thought that the non-selective trigger was used on the Lefever and Western Arms doubles and the selective one on the NID. Now I'm not so sure.
Howland was the factory/plant manager from 1923 until his retirement in 1959 and in his notes he writes that during the depths of the depression when Ithaca was running on a skeleton crew he "...personally designed and built a model of the new Ithaca double selection single trigger which we put on the Lefever double and the Western double-barrel guns."
But then later in his "designed, developed and built by Ithaca Gun Co. under my supervision" notes he lists:
"New Ithaca Double Selecting single trigger - 1931"
"Lefever & Western non-sel single trigger - 1931"
I'm wondering if he took the NID selective trigger (which I can't find a patent for) and redesigned it as a non-selective trigger for the Lefever and Western Arms guns.
Does anyone know if this is a correct?
And did Ithaca offer both these single triggers across their three lines of guns or was the selective trigger for the NID and the non-selective one for the Lefever and Western Arms guns?
BTW the above information is collated and condensed from Walt Synder's research with all credit to him.
