Benjamin Tyler Henry

Who was Benjamin Tyler Henry?

Benjamin Tyler Henry was an American gunsmith and manufacturer. He was the inventor of the Henry rifle, the first reliable lever-action repeating rifle.

Henry was hired by Oliver Winchester at the New Haven Arms Company in the late 1850s to improve the design of the Volcanic repeating rifle. On October 16, 1860, he received a patent on the Henry .44 caliber repeating rifle, which soon proved the worth of the lever-action design on the battlefields of the American Civil War, where Henry rifles were used alongside muzzle-loading rifled muskets such as the Springfield Model 1861.

Benjamin Tyler Henry continued to work at the Winchester Repeating Arms Company until at least 1873.