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The Alsop Series

Apparently during the winter of and the spring of , one of the chief workmen at the Savage establishment in Middletown, once the scene of Colonel North’s carbine factory, was Charles R. Alsop. The May, North and Savage patent shows pin and groove loading lever suggesting that fitted to Alsop revolvers also marked “Middletown,” and on May 22,, Charles R. Alsop patented a shoulder stock attachment for the Figure 8 Savage revolver. In addition, his own patents of July 17 and August 7, , May 14, and November 26, , and January 21, , all relate to the small five-shot Alsop series of spur trigger revolvers; revolvers which have an unmistakable relation to the North and Savage series of arms.
Alsop remained associated with the Edward Savage enterprise for at least the first several years of the War, and it is probable that the arms of Savage, Alsop, and Savage Revolving Firearms Company, including their rifle muskets, were all made in the same shops, Colonel North’s old works.
Alsop’s shoulder stock, the assignment of which was to J. R. Alsop of New York, was fitted first to the round iron-framed Figure 8 and then experimentally to one of the final series of arms, the Savage Navy Revolver. Edward Savage also turned his talents to the stock idea, and patented April 9, , No.32,003 (reissue 999) a brass-yoked stock hooking into the top of the handle, suggesting the form of the Colt shoulder stock. Apparently Alsop’s connection with Savage extended from the or to about , if not later.

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