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Title:	PEPPERBOX -  ALLEN & THURBER PEPPERBOX 6-BARREL BAR HAMMER PERCUSSION .31
Maker/Manufacturer:	ALLEN & THURBER
Date of Manufacture:	1847-1854
Eminent Figure:
Catalog Number:	SPAR 7468
Measurements:	OL: 19CM 7 1/2" BL: 7.6CM 3 1/2" 23 oz.

Object Description:

ALLEN & THURBER PEPPERBOX 6-BARREL BAR HAMMER PERCUSSION .31
Manufactured by Allen & Thurber, Worcester, Ma. - Small pocket size 6-shot Allen & Thurber pepperbox, six-shot with fluted barrels approximately 3 1/2" long, 7 1/2" overall. Double action with bar hammer. Muzzle velocity 400 fps. Weapon weighs approximately 23 oz. Nipple shield is separately affixed and is not integral. Scroll engraving on frame and nipple shield.

Markings:
Flute between barrels: ALLEN THURBER & CO. WORCESTER.
Hammer: ALLEN'S PATENT/1845.

Weapon donated to the Springfield Armory NHS by Tufts University (Victor A. Friend Collection) on 3 August 1979.

Friend's # 18-41 & 42 - "Pair of Allen & Thurber Pepper Boxes. Somewhat different design than No. 40 but has same action. Six shot. Mark Twain, in his book, 'Roughing It,' mentions the Allen pistol as a gun that would 'hit everything else except what you shot at.' In the same book the episode of the wounded buffalo climbing the tree after the hunter, is most amazing, with hunter finally shooting the buffalo in the face with his 'Allen.'"

Notes: "Allen, Ethan. Born in Bellingham, Mass., September 2, 1806, established in Grafton in 1835. He patented his pepperbox pistol November 11, 1837, patent reissued January 15, 1844 (#60) and August 3, 1844 (#64). 'What I desire to protect by letters patent is a mechanism for elevating the cock from the nipple, by a simple pull of the trigger, in combination with a mechanism which so separates certain parts during and by the said pull of the trigger, as to permit the cock to be thrown down upon the nipple by the reaction of the main spring, all as set forth; and a mechanism that, but the said pull of trigger, has a power generated within, which, on the release of the retractile force, or finger, from the trigger, shall immediately reconnect the disconnected parts, or restore them to their requisite positions for the accomplishment of another discharge by another pull of the trigger.'
Allen, who headed the firm of E. Allen & Co., and his brother-in-law began the production in Grafton as Allen & Thurber (Charles T. Thurber), but quit that town for Norwich, Conn., in 1842, thence to Worcester, Mass., in 1847, where the firm became known as Allen, Thurber, & Co. in 1856. Thurber retired in 1855 and was succeeded by Thomas P. Wheelock, who likewise was a brother-in-law of Allen. The firm name was accordingly changed to Allen & Wheelock. Wheelock died in 1863, and Allen's two sons-in-law, Sullivan Forehand and Henry C. Wadsworth, became associated with the firm in 1865. Ethan Allen died in 1871 and the firm became Forehand & Wadsworth the following year. Later the Forehand Arms Co. continued operations until 1902.
The Government purchased 198 Allen revolvers from Wm. Read & Son of Boston on December 31, 1861." - Colonel Robert E. Gardner

"June of 1827 saw Charles Thurber graduated from Brown University. Possessing two academic degrees, an A.B. and an A.M., besides an important Phi Beta Kappa key on his watch chain, he must also have possessed the full courage of the times, for he immediately married Ethan's sister, Lucinda, and settled down to a teaching job at Milford Academy. Probably Charles Thurber was the first gentleman of culture and polish to have allied with the Allen family to that date. Typically the average American of this era lacked these characteristics, instead, he was a hard-working man of boisterous language and humor. He was ruggedly independent, excited and delighted with both local and national politics, which, for the most part had previously been the exclusive business of the large landowners and statesmen." - Mouillesseaux

Allen secured the following patents:
1843 - (#2919) - Mode of engraving on flat, round, or cylindrical surfaces.
1845 - (#3998) - Improved pistol (pepperbox).
1855 - (#13157) - Projectiles
1856 - (#15454) - Moulds for hollow projectiles.
1857 - (#16367, 18836) - Revolver
1858 - (#21400, 22005) - Revolver
1860 - (#28951) - Revolver
1860 - (#27415) - Method of constructing firearms.
1860 - (#31860- (#30109) - Metallic cartridges.

References:
Gardner, Colonel Robert E. SMALL ARMS MAKERS. Crown Publishers, Inc. N.Y., N.Y.
1963.
Mouillesseaux, Harold R. ETHAN ALLEN, GUNMAKER: HIS PARTNERS, PATENTS & FIREARMS. Museum Restoration Service. Ottawa, Canada. 1973.