Action is Powells patent 1163 of 1864. The retractable firing pins are covered patent #1055 of 1869.British patents numbers are not seqential; hence we have Firing pins with a lower patent #than the action, even though the firing pins were patented 5 years after the action!
The late Larry Barnes provided me with a copy of a John E.Long,Detroit,trade add. Unfortunately, its miss-placed in my files.As I recall, he was a dealer in guns and sporting gun powder.
Single bite snap actions[ie:Powell, Horsley.Daw and many others]were in use from 1861-to circa 1870.By 1865 they were being rapidly superceeded by the Purdey mutiple bite snap action in combination with the Scott top lever.

Last edited by Roy Hebbes; 12/17/09 08:24 PM.
Roy Hebbes