Karl May, the
first-person-narrator, is at the
beginning of his Winnetou-cycle not yet
Old Shatterhand but a private
teacher in St. Louis who arrived as an
immigrant from Europe. Later he will
become a surveyor in the Wild West,
surveying the land for the construction
of railways. The land he surveys belongs
to the Indians. He is instrumental to
force on them the results of industrial
revolution that is slapping across from
Europe. When he comes to know Winnetou
and through him Indian life his
Henry-rifle, being part of industrial
inventiveness as well, is becoming an
instrument to free the way for justice.
This modern gun is able to do this only
because its inventor is under the
obligation not to produce it in serial.
18 Its unique
existence and with it Old Shatterhands
capability to masterly exercise with it
scaring effects avoids in prairie (and
desert as well) the feared bloodshed.
Every attempt of the heros
opponents to misuse the rifle for their
own benefit cannot work; they dont
grasp the know-how to handle it thanks to
the complicated mechanism understood by
only one person in the story: Old
Shatterhand.
That much about Karl Mays
virtual contribution to the Indians
struggle for survival; the contribution
of Karl Marx would have been somehow
different, but in his works there are no
Indians
Sorry! That old joke was
just fitting
.
Mr. Henry would you please narrate how
the story of your invention worked in the
real world?
At my time guns were still
muzzle-loaders, you had to push the
ammunition down the barrel, a troublesome
and sometimes dangerous procedure.
Serial hunting of bison in the way we
have seen it would not have been
possible, I agree. But your Mr. Mays
warning of serial-production of my gun
must have been, for sure, an
after-thought.
At my time I became aware
of first trials with muzzle-loaders and
metal-cartridges. That was the basis for
the idea to build a repetition-gun. I
constructed a lock which used the bent
metal-hand protector as a handle that
could be moved forward and backward. Each
move would span and release a hammer or
cock whereby the empty cartridge would be
thrown out. I choose a self-made
cartridge of the calibre 44. The magazine
was integrated in the barrel; it would
hold fifteen cartridges. Thus, your Mr.
May would never, as he claimed, have been
able to shoot twenty-five times without
re-loading.
When the weapon hit the market it was
Civil War in America. Between 1860 and
1866 we produced some fourteen thousand
Henry-rifles.
That called for a partnership because I
was an inventor and constructor and no
businessman. In 1861 I accepted
partnership with Oliver Winchester who
had made his money with the production of
shirts and trousers for workers. Now he
added the rifle under his brand-name.
Both, the use of my name and his
production of shirts and trousers, slowly
waned. In 1866 his company was
re-organized and re-named as Winchester
Repeating Arms Company.
I improved the type of the gun
permanently and this gained us good
profit. The first Winchester-gun was
called Model 66, a thorough re-modelling
of my original invention. Models 1866 and
1873 brought the break-through although
the commissions we had hoped to get from
the U.S.-army after the end of the Civil
War did not materialize. Thus, we had to
export. From 1870 onwards we delivered
some fifty thousand modell-1866-guns to
Turkey.
Here, in the New World, it was rare that
a private person could afford such a gun.
In 1878 the model 1866 did cost twenty
dollars, the hunting 76-version even
thirty-five dollars; a cowboy would earn
in those days thirty dollars per month.
The 1866 had a polished brass-box which
could be seen from far away; it was
therefore called Yellow Boy.
Despite the high price it was popular for
more than thirty years. But finally, it
was surpassed by the model 1873 which
even was honoured in a movie
Stop! We want to watch it! This
film with James Stewart is reputed as the
starting point of the artistic and
economic success of American Western
movies.
CONTROL! START MOVIE!
WINCHESTER
73
U.S.A. 1950
Director: Anthony Mann
Cast: James Stewart, Shelley Winters, Dun
Duryea,
Stephen McNally, Millard Mitchell
Lin McAdam (James Stewart) has still to
settle an old account with bandit Dutch
Henry Brown. He wants to get back the
legendary Winchester 1873 which Brown had
robbed of him after a price shooting.
Until the furious showdown, this gun is
changing many hands: from weapon-dealer
Joe Lamont to Sioux-Chief Young Bull, but
it does not bring luck to anyone.
Fritz Lang had selected for his newly
established production firm Diana
Production Company a story by
Stuart N. Lake. According to Lang the
main story-line went as follows: A
Westerner looses his gun, a Winchester
73, which was his only motive for
life and the symbol of his strength. He
either must find the gun or find another
reason to live. He must find again his
lost strength.
Winchester 73 starts in
its final version on 4th July 1876
the 100th anniversary of independence of
the United States of America. The Wild
West is almost taken by white settlers.
Towns of the former Frontier
have established their own political and
administrative system. This order is
threatened by the two gangs of Dutch
Henry Brown and Waco Johnnie Dean. At the
same time, another threat comes from
Indians who are forced into
settlement-programs; it is the year of
the battle at Little Bighorn.
The Model Winchester 73
which gave the name to the movie and was
known as the gun that won the West
became the symbol for the settlement of
the Wild West.
You know the serial One of
Thousand which plays the main-role
in the movie was on the market since
1875. Of all tested barrels in a lot of
one thousand the most precise one was
selected and built in a gun which got
close to the muzzle the engraving One
of Thousand. Only one hundred and
sixty-six were released and sold for one
hundred dollars per piece
According to todays
value that would be some fifteen thousand
dollars! One of the still existing
examples has presently a collectors
value of one hundred and twenty-five
thousand dollars.
The triumphal march of the 73
started in full gear in 1878 when Samuel
Colt introduced his revolver with the
same calibre of 44. Since cowboys did not
want to carry different types of
ammunition, most owners of the Colt made
use of this calibre by purchasing a
Winchester-gun as well.
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