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Broux
to Sage Ammunition Works
By Terry A. White
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In
England, Broux manufactured skin cartridges using the name Broux
& Co. and located at 22 Lawrence Pountney Lane, London. Broux
sold his manufacturing business to H. Gladstone & Co., which
continued the production of skin cartridges. It is unknown when
Hermann Broux actually immigrated to the United States, but it must
have been around 1860. His association with Broux & Moll is
unknown.
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1861, Broux, along with DeWitt Clinton Sage and Julius Hotchkiss
formed a co-partnership in Middletown, CT using the name Broux
& Co. It is not known what each contributed to the partnership,
but both Sage and Hotchkiss seemed to have the financial backing.
It is likely that Broux contributed his skill and knowledge
of the manufacturing of skin cartridge to the partnership.
The cartridges were manufactured using the patents of Hayes
and Mont Storm, both using the skin powder envelope. |
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On
February 11th, 1862, Hotchkiss received patent number 34,367
for "Improvement in Skin Cartridges," and with this
in hand, Sage and Hotchkiss bought out the Connecticut factory
of Broux & Co. With the newly issued patent, they no longer
needed Broux, ending the relationship, Sage and Hotchkiss
then formed a new co-partnership, D.C. Sage & Co. |
| By
August 1862, Hotchkiss decided to sell his half of the co-partnership
to Sage splitting all common assets. At this time, the two
had an inventory of 574,000 cartridges stored in three locations
in Middletown. Sage then had a sole proprietorship and changed
the company name to D.C. Sage and used the Hotchkiss patent
for the skin cartridges. What arrangement Sage had with Hotchkiss
for the use of his patent is unknown. |
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Sage
operated his manufacturing company until selling out to George
Gilman in 1864. The joint stock company of Sage Ammunition
Works was registered with the state of Connecticut on October
31st, 1864, naming D.C. Sage as president. Just a short time
later on December 6th, 1864, Sage sold his stock in the company
and George Gilman was named president of the Sage Ammunition
Works, again a joint stock company. |
| The
Middletown ammunition factory production included skin, linen,
and copper cased rimfire cartridges. They used the drilled
out wooden block to protect the skin cartridges of .44 caliber
and under, cardboard boxes for the larger caliber cartridges
including the rimfire. Printed labels were applied indicating
contents. |
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All
Photo Publication Rights Reserved
Terry A. White |
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