Miller, that is hard to say. The L.C. Smith side lock was a patent of Brown's also, November 27, 1883 for hammer guns. This incorporated a sear spring and I wonder if they used this sear spring in their early hammerless guns. The early hammer guns used a bar action mainspring, so some thought had to be put in to making a hammerless guns that utilized a back action lock now.
Baker and Lyman's older brother Leroy left Syracuse in 1880 and went to Ithaca to start the Ithaca Gun Company.
I do have some serial numbers in the low 16000 in my records, but they were from auctions and no pictures of locks.
