Simeon North Made Dueling Pistols? | C. 1820 Flintlock Pistol

There are few names on the list of American firearms manufacturers that hold up to names like Jacob Dickert, John Hancock Hall, and Samuel Colt, but if anyone should, it's Simeon North.

North is known to be one of the first official pistol makers for the United States of America, thanks to his role in producing U.S. martial pistols for decades in the early national period starting with the Model 1799 pistols.

Simeon North developed one of America's first milling machines (possibly the very first) in 1818 and played an important role in the development of interchangeable parts manufacturing.

By 1813, North had signed a government contract to produce 20,000 pistols that specified that parts of the lock had to be completely interchangeable between any of the 20,000 locks: the first contract of which any such evidence exists. It was during this period that North is believed to have invented the milling machine, which was able to shape metal mechanically and thus replaced filing by hand.

This pistol is similar to other known Simeon North dueling pistols from late flintlock era c. 1820, including the prominent examples in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and previously in the William M. Locke collection

Fitch, Charles H. (1882), Extra Census Bulletin. Report on the manufacture of fire-arms and ammunition., Washington, DC, USA: United States Government Printing Office.

Muir, Diana (2000), Reflections in Bullough's Pond: Economy and Ecosystem in New England, University Press of New England, ISBN 978-0-87451-909-9.

North, Simon Newton Dexter; North, Ralph H. (1913), Simeon North: First Official Pistol Maker of the United States: A Memoir, Concord, NH, USA: Rumford Press.