Eliphalet Remington

Eliphalet Remington , 1793-1861, American inventor, gunsmith, and arms manufacturer, b. Suffield, Conn. Trained in blacksmithing, he turned to gunsmithing at an early age. With his father he founded a firearms firm at Ilion, N.Y., and took over the firm upon his father's death (1828). He supplied the U.S. army with rifles in the Mexican War. In 1856 the business was expanded to include the manufacture of agricultural implements. His son, Philo Remington, 1816-89, b. Litchfield, Herkimer co., N.Y., directed the business during the Civil War, when the firm held many government contracts. The Remington firm later supplied the armies of several European countries with breech-loading rifles. In 1870 it began making sewing machines, and in 1873 Philo Remington became interested in the manufacturing of typewriters. The first Remington typewriter was exhibited in 1876 at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia.

Bibliography: See A. Hatch, Remington Arms in American History (1956).