doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com E.M. Reilly; History; Chronology; Serial Numbers

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-- Reilly manufactures 400 Green Brothers Patent rifles 1864 – 1868;
-- First Reilly use of assembly line interchangeable parts = "American System"?
-- Reilly builds rifles in the white for Wilkinson?
Modification of the Reilly History

There are three previous posts above (p. 12, 28, and above) which discuss Reilly’s manufacturing of Green Brothers (C.E. and J) breech loading single barrel rifles from spring 1864 to 1868. More rifles have come to light and this post will update the history so will be somewhat redundant:

C.E. and J. Green were gunmakers in London and in the 1850’s were regarded as one of the most innovative of breech-loading rifle firms. For several years they were in partnership with Prince and helped make and market the Prince breech loader. Per several posts above, Reilly may have had a financial stake in Green and Prince since neither Green nor Reilly signed the famous “The Field” open letter urging Arsenal to reopen the Rifle competition in favor of the Prince.


Green Bros. partnership with Prince came to an end in summer 1859. In January 1861 the Green Bros. took out a patent on a new breech-loader featuring a breech which could be attached to the 1853 Enfield rifle-musket. Nothing much seemed to come of the patent.

However, in early 1864 the Prussians crushed the Danes and the Dreyse Needle Gun got a lot of the credit. Suddenly every European army could see the handwriting on the wall and a frantic search began in UK to find an interim breech-loader which would do until a purpose built one could be adopted. Arsenal announced a competition.

In March 1864 Reilly announced in the UK Press that he now owned manufacturing rights to the Green Bros rifle and this was followed up by several press releases and something of a publicity campaign to show the gun and demonstrate its capabilities (see below advertisements).

In the end the competition was won by American Snider (who was living in penury in UK and who died before he could earn a farthing from his invention) and the Snider-Enfield was formally adopted in September 1866. The Green Bros rifle used a paper water-proof cartridge with a separate percussion cap while the Snider could use a metallic cartridge with primer included. Yet the Green Bros rifle continued to be popular with the marksmen crowd for another couple of years. It’s run terminated before the end of the 1860’s because it couldn’t be adapted to the all metallic cartridge.

There are so far 6 known surviving Reilly Green Brothers rifles out of an estimated some 350 made from 1864 to 1868. There are two possible lessons from the Pat use#- SN correllation sequence:

. . . . .-- Reilly SN 13326 - 13333 corresponds to Green Bros Pat use #16 -# 23, meaning that Reilly manufactured a whole block of guns at the same time in April-May 1864 all at 502, New Oxford Street. How many of these were made in this “block" is unknown but Reilly did gamble on making as many as 100 speculation guns at a time, particularly those with a new technology.

. . . . .— Reilly SN 14763 - 15047 corresponds to Green Bros Pat use #177 – #325 during a period from about Sep 1867 to March 1868. Reilly serial number a total of 284 guns of all types during this period. 148 of these guns, 50% of the total Reilly production, were Green Bros rifles made at both workshops, 502 New Oxford and 277 Oxford Streets. This again indicates that he made the guns as a “batch” or “lot” pretty much all at the same time.

Speculate that this making of "lots" or "batches" was perhaps an Reilly early attempt at an assembly-line interchangable-parts production called the “American System” in UK and which was being popularized in London at the time by the Enfield Armoury. This mass-production system did not reach Birmingham until the 1870’s.

1. 12002 - use #1: E.M. Reilly & Co., (address not mentioned). .577 cal. Rifle; single barrel, breech loader, hammer gun, Green Bros patent; Pat use #1, Reilly manufacture (originally type 3 Enfield). (1861). 9.1 lbs, 39” barrel
-- This is #1 (no photo). The Serial number from 1861 is too early for the patent, which wasn’t granted until Jan 1862. This obviously was a previously made Enfield rifle-musket selected by Reilly to be converted, possibly as an experiment. It worked. The barrel is a full length 39." Later guns were reduced to 24” barrels accounting for the weight difference.
https://collections.royalarmouries.org/object/rac-object-9371.html

2. 13326 - use #16: E.M. Reilly & Co., 502, New Oxford Street, London; .577 cal. Rifle; single barrel, breech loader, hammer gun, Green Bros patent; Pat use #16, Reilly manufacture. (no photo). 7.4 Lbs. 24.5” barrel.
https://collections.royalarmouries.org/object/rac-object-9851.html

3. 13333- use #23: E.M. Reilly & Co., 502, New Oxford Street, London; .577 cal. Rifle; single barrel, breech loader, hammer gun, Green Bros patent; Pat use #23, Reilly manufacture.
http://www.invaluable.co.uk/auction-lot/e.m.-reilly-co,-london-a-rare-.577-percussion-c-671-c-645dde1fff


4. 13884 – use #159: E.M. Reilly & Co., Oxford Street, London; .577 cal. Rifle; single barrel, breech loader, hammer gun, Green Bros patent; Pat use #159, Reilly manufacture. 24” barrel.
https://www.ima-usa.com/products/or...ech-loading-carbine-by-e-m-reilly-c-1864


5. 14763 - use #177: E.M. Reilly & Co., Oxford Street, London; .577 cal. Single barrel breech-loader rifle. Green Bros Patent – Pat use #177, Reilly manufacture.
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21639/lot/426/


6. 15047 - use #325: E.M. Reilly & Co., New Oxford Street, London; .577 Rifle. Single barrel, breech-loader rifle. Green Bros Patent - Pat use #325, Reilly manufacture. 24” barrel.
https://caseantiques.com/item/lot-698-british-e-m-reilly-co-percussion-carbine-577-caliber/



Note. Royal Armouries Museum has a Liège produced copy of the Green Brothers patent rifle. Liège would copy anything but the fact they copied a rifle with a limited market (Reilly appears to have sold less than 400 of them based on Pat Use numbers) is interesting.
https://collections.royalarmouries.org/object/rac-object-9719.html

There is this oddity. Reilly was the sole manufacturer of Green Bros. Breech Loaders. Yet there is this Green Bros. rifle with Wilkinson's name on it. The conclusion is that Reilly likely made it for Wilkinson.
https://www.invaluable.com/auction-...577-percussion-capping--534-c-c15403187c



======== Green brothers continued see below ==============