Winchester Primers
1874 Green Label
1878 Conical /Coned Anvil
1878 Red Label
Boxer Primers?
NEVER!
Neither the 44-40, nor any other American cartridge ever used "Boxer" (E. M. Boxer) primers nor do most, if not all modern known cartridges from the 1860's...at least in the USA. Boxer, of London England, improved G. W. Daw's design (patented May 4th, 1869). Boxer developed and patented the .577 Snider cartridge in England in October 1865 as the "Mark I", patent granted in England on the 20th of August 1866 and in the USA on June 29th, 1869 (look it up). The primer used is nothing like what was used in our American cartridges.
What is confusing is the part where in the USA, it was the cartridges that were patented, not the primers. Benet was denied twice for his cartridge patent in April, 1866. The denial was based on...and I quote...(from the March 3, 1879 Senate Committee Bill S.187) "Your committee disagree with Mr. Benét as to the novelty of his claim for the process of drawing a metallic cartridge from one piece of metal. The records of the Patent Office show that as early as 1826-27, Galay Cazalat showed and described in his French patent a metallic cartridge case made, as he says, "throughout of one piece of metal." Thus, we can only conclude that Benet's primer design actually proceeded Boxer's primer design. Again, we are talking primers, not cartridges at the moment although it was the cartridge that was patened or not. Both Boxer and Benet's primer designs were of our current conventional design but contained a "vertical" anvil, unlike what we use today.
Now, the cartridge that Boxer patented was nowhere near what we had been using in the 1860's (Folded Head) nor of the (Solid Head) type of which Hotchkiss patented on August 31st, 1869. Boxer's cartridge was "Coiled" brass and the head was made of several pieces of metal and held in place with a rivet type vertical primer (resembling a two piece shotgun primer). Hotckiss' 1869 patent shows the solid head (semi-balloon pocket) and using the primer design nearly identical to Benets 66' design. Again, Hotchikiss' patent was for a "Cartridge" not a primer (more on this in a moment). The next major patent change was Oliver Winchester's primer patent....yes, I said PRIMER PATENT...not a cartridge patent. Oliver Winchester standardized the primers we use today while Hotchiss standardized the solid head case.
On October 1st, 1878, J Gardner patented a PRIMER, like Winchester, with a horizontal anvil. Gardner added a "dome" shaped anvil with bent edges as improvements and was widely used by Winchester. Again, Hobbs strikes back with his April 18th, 1882 PRIMER patent (see, we got away from the cartridge patents and switched to Primer patents!!!!!) that is basically what we use today. Hobbs' design used a two leg horizontal domed anvil. Today we use a three leg anvil and every one of you guys know what it looks like. (I even left out a few guys like Farrington whom pated primers used by USCCo for the 44-40.
Looking at the 45-70,
Once the 45-70 did use Berdan primers and a Berdan case. The anvil was built into the case. Gill also patented a case with a built in anvil while A. C. Hobbs even patented a primer that is identical to Berdan's with the exception that the cup that had a foil or metal layer over the fulminate. Hobb's patent of September 14th, 1869...assuming...could be used in both Berdan or Gill's cartridge cases.
Berdan design cases and primers are still used today, but here in America and most all other parts of Europe, the conventional primers used are direct descendants of Hotchkiss solid head cases and Winchester/Gardner/Hobbs primers.......NOT BOXER!
So basically we can look at it like this...
Berdan - Primers and solid head cases (semi balloon pockets)
Hotchkiss - solid head cases (semi balloon pockets)
Oliver Winchester - conventional primers
Will this ever stop the Boxer garbage? No more than the 45 Long Colt garbage will ever stop either!
The terminology used by someone just shows their historical ignorance.
WINCHESTER
There appears to be only three patents listed for primers used in the Winchester 44-40 cartridges up to at least 1928 with the small primers, however, Winchester seems to list several variants.
Patents
Milbank - Patent No. 103,641, May 31, 1870, Isaac M. Milbank
Milbank - Patent No. 123,352, Feb. 6, 1872, Isaac M. Milbank
No. 1 (flat anvil)- Patent No. 152,936, July 14, 1874, Oliver F. Winchester
No. 1 (conical) - Patent No. 208,589, Pat. Oct 1st, 1878, John Gardner, assigned to Winchester
Variants
No. 1 (Black Powder - statements)
May 1, 1879 - Winchester makes a statement in their 1879 catalog announcing "...new and improved...", "...sure fire and easily used in reloading...", but does not seem to be called "No. 1 Improved" until about 1906.
No. 1W (Nitro or Black Powder)
Oct 1893 - Winchester announces, "Winchester Improved Copper Primer For Nitro Powders" for shot shells.
June 1896 - The first listing for the No. 1W shown in this catalog issue.
No. 1 Improved - (Black Powder)
By 1906 - No. 1 Improved now printed on the primer packages
No. 1W (Smokeless and Black Powder)
By 1906 - The word Smokeless replaced the word Nitro
The following Patents shows how the 44-40 cartridges were primed for various manufactures
Milbank - as mentioned above
Winchester - as mentioned above
A C Hobbs - Worked for UMC and created the Wesson Primers
Gardner - Improved the primer anvil pretty much to what we use now days.
A J Hobbs (son of AC Hobbs)
The Primer Saga is just as difficult to unscramble as everything else. It will take time to edit/add/correct information so check back frequently.
Early 44-40 small primer cartridge cases for normal black powder and smokeless loads.
Normal Loads
Round Top Small Primers
Copper - no stamp
Copper - W (inside a circle)
Copper - W (over-lapping V)
Copper - W
2. W.H.V. Loads
Round Top Small Primers
Copper - no stamp
Copper - Large W with Serifs
Copper - W
Late 44-40 large primer cartridge cases for normal and W.H.V. loads
Round Top Large Primers
Nickle - no stamp
Flat Top Large Primers
Nickle - no stamp
Primer Type based on patent dates
Eventually all of these these will be listed per Patent Dates, dates used and or when first seen in catalogs.
In a document dated August 14, 1906, the term "Round Top" and "Flat Top" can be found to describe the primer surface design from which W.M. Bellemore made his report in 1962. These are commonly referred to as "Oval" and "Flat" today.
Some of the information below gleamed from W.M. Bellemore's 1962 work "History of Winchester's Primers".
Dimpled
Copper
1873-1873 - Milbank - Black Powder, Pat'd May 31, 1870
Round Top
Copper
(Bellemore does not mention material used for the cap, probably a copper cap and brass anvil. Unfortunately his drawings are not shown)
1874-1878 - No. 1 - Black Powder, Pat'd July 14, 1874 (flat shape anvil)
1878-1906 - No. 1 - Black Powder, Pat'd Oct 1, 1878 (cone shape anvil)(pat date noted on boxes to at least 1926)
1995-1905 - No. 1W - Black Powder or Nitro Smokeless, Marked "W", first seen in Winchester's 1896 catalog, according to Bellemore)
1906-1938 - No. 1 Improved - Black Powder
1906-1938 - No. 1W Improved - Smokeless or Black Powder
1908 - No. 1 Non Fulminate - 50,000 samples to be called 1NF, the cup is of gilding, same as the #1W and stamped with an underlined W
NOTES: (for mention of flat top and round top primers for testing)
Oct 12, 1903 - No. 1W, .027" stock for .32 and .35 self loader, by June 1906...used in .25-20 Marlin, not suitable for the Model 92'
Aug 14, 1906 - #1W, .027" stock/flattened top, for .32 and .35 self loader
Aug 18, 1906 - No. 1W, .027" stock, ["flat top"] to distinguish between other No. 1W primers [44-40].
Aug 21, 1906 - No. 1W, .024" stock, ["flat top"] for .32 cal.
1W primers used for Black Powder loads from1895 to1938...thru WWII for exports only and for Smokeless powder loads to 1928
Nickle
1928 - No. 111 "Staynless" primers were available early 1928
1937 - No. 111 Staynless "Non-Mercuric" primers were available
1938 - No. 111, Winchester's 1938 catalog lists the 111 for use with the 44-40
Flat Top
Nickle
No. 111 - (Winchester experimented with flat primers off and on for a number of years but did not switch to flat primers until post-1976)
Large Pistol - Modern Components
Brass
Large Pistol - Modern Components
I do not knw who seemed to finalize the design, but below is what we all use today.