Smith & Wesson

Smith & Wesson (AMEX:SWB), the largest manufacturer of handguns in the United States, has its corporate headquarters in Springfield, Massachusetts. Smith & Wesson has a reputation for the many types of ammunition it has introduced over the years and for its revolver know-how. more...

History of Smith & Wesson

Beginning

In 1852 partners Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson formed a company to produce a lever-action pistol nicknamed "The Volcanic". The company became known as the ""Volcanic Repeating Arms Company", and due to financial difficulties came into the majority ownership of investor Oliver Winchester.

In 1856 the partners left the Volcanic Company to begin a new company and to manufacture a newly-designed revolver-and-cartridge combination. The timing of the founding of this new company proved quite opportune for the partners, as the onset of the American Civil War five years later produced a great demand for Smith & Wesson's products.

In 1964 the company passed from Wesson family control, and subsequently a number of conglomerates took control of it.

Loss of the Police Market

During the mid-1980s, the company's long-standing dominance in the American police handgun market totally collapsed. This happened because American police forces switched from revolvers to semiautomatic pistols, while the company's semiautomatic pistols for police use had a bad reputation for unreliability both then and through the 1990s. Other foreign manufacturers, notably GLOCK, Beretta, and SIG, took virtually the entire American police handgun market during the 1980s.

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