Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! The Armstrong & Taylor carbine was a unique single-shot breechloader patented in 1862 by the Kentucky partnership of James W. Armstrong and John Taylor. Its defining feature was a rotating barrel assembly that opened for loading via a button on the top tang. As the barrel rotated around a pin, an integral cam-operated extractor ejected the spent casing. Hoping to secure a military contract, the inventors submitted their carbine to the 1866 U.S. Army breechloading rifle trials. There it managed to fire 100 rounds of .41 rimfire at 14 rounds per minute. However, it was eliminated in the first round along with 21 other designs, deemed unsuitable compared to the eventually selected Allin “Trapdoor” Springfield conversion.
“Armstrong & Taylor of Augusta, Kentucky, was a partnership of James W. Armstrong and John Taylor, co-patentees of a firearm protected by US Patent 37025 of November 1862. One gun was submitted to the US Army trials of 1865, although rejected by the government. The barrel rotated on a longitudinal pin to expose the chamber; a cam track cut in the barrel pin operated the extractor automatically as the breech was opened.”
LOT #1416: (A) VERY RARE ARMSTRONG & TAYLOR SWIVEL BREECH SINGLE SHOT CIVIL WAR PERIOD CARBINE. (n.d.). Morphy Auctions. photograph. Retrieved May 2, 2024, from https://auctions.morphyauctions.com/_a__very_rare_armstrong___taylor_swivel_breech_sin-lot459300.aspx.
