I.D'ing 1816 Lock Markings

[rachbobo]

I'm cleaning up an 1816 Springfield that was converted from Flintlock to Percussion with a 69 cal bolster barrel that was shortened to a 2 bander.
The lock plate is marked with Spring Field 1823 behind the hammer and the Eagle and US to the front of it.
The marks I'm curious about are on the inside of the lock plate.
About 1 inch to the right of the front mounting screw hole is the letter A and to the right of it is what appears an R or an F or a G, it's hard to make out.
The irregular spacing shows them to be stamped with hand held letter punches .
Next, about 3/4 ths of an inch to the left of the rear mounting screw are the letters H C .
They are in a rectangular box that has tiny scalloping/half circles facing inwards.
It looks like they were stamped in with a custom made punch, or cast in when the lock plate was made.
The last marking is a side ways letter "N" about 3/8th of an inch to the left of the rear screw hole and about 1/4 inch below it.
My world will not come crashing down all around me if I never find out what these marking are , I'm just curious about them.

Bill Cheek

The trigger pull on this old lock almost needed two hands to pull even after using a good lube.
A few careful strokes with a diamond file and then using polishing/valve grinding compound it is much better now

[Blair]

Bill,

These will probably be individual Inspectors marks/stamps which indicate that particular machining operation was inspected and met with their approval.
Some of these stamps may have been assigned to an individual, some may have been selected by the individual at random, some may have had engravers make them up a stamp.
There seems to be no special reason to the makings other than these inspections had to be conducted, and pass inspection, before the next operation in the locks construction could be preformed. It will be an early form of trying to develop some degree of interchangeability in the manufacturing of firearms.
Blair

[rachbobo]

Blair,
I figured as much, but with the wealth of information out there among the guys might have some info on the hand stamped initials and what looks like a custom made inspectors stamp.
It's kinda like the Hall rifle I picked up a few weeks ago that had hand carved in the bottom of the butt stock
Gen Twiggs Div Mex

Still working on trying to find out which units were issued the Hall and which might have been issued the newer 1842 Bolster percussion rifles.
As I aid, my world is not going to come to an end if I don't find out, I'm just curious.
Thanks

Bill Cheek

[Southron Sr.]

Dear Bill:

Regarding your Hall Rifle. The Mexican War is a fascinating era of American History. What most people DON'T realize is that Santa Ana not only had the revolt of the Texans to deal with in the 1830's but later, in the 1840's the revolt of Mexico's Yuccatan province.

The "Naval Battle Scene" depicted on the cylinders of Colt '51 Navy Revolvers is that of a naval battle that took place off of the Yuccatan Coast between the Texas Navy and the Mexican Navy! The entire Texas Navy had been "rented out" to the Yuccatan rebels by the Commodore of the Texas fleet. In the meantime, Sam Houston, serving as President of Texas declared the entire Texas Navy to be AWOL and therefore "Pirates."

The reason Sam Colt decided to depict that naval battle is that the Commodore of the Texas Navy was not only a friend of Colt, but had purchased a large order of Colt revolvers and long arms for the Texas Navy. After the battle and after the Texas Navy was "Mothballed" those Texas "Navy" revolvers were issued to the Texas Rangers. After that, whole new historical era began-not only for Sam Colt and Texas but for the entire United States!

Now regarding your M1816 lockplate markings. Blair is right and to add to his comments, if I recall correctly, M1816 locks [along with the rest of the arm] was largely handmade and the armory workers were paid on a "piecework" basis. In other words, when a worker finished his work on the lock, his work was inspected and IF it passed inspection; the inspector marked the lock, the item noted in the armory pay records and on paydays, the worker was paid for his work.

Of course, it was John Hall at Harpers Ferry that perfected the mass production of fully interchangeable, machine made arms that made the old "Armory System" described above largely obsolete by the mid 1840's. M1816's are fascinating in their own right.