How Muskets are Made

The Committee who are examining the contracts for ordnance, have had prepared for them, by Messrs. Jenks & Co., of Brideburg, near Philadelphia, a complete collection of the numerous pieces used in constructing a Springfield musket. The wooden stock passes through sixteen machines before it is completed. They have furnished each piece as the machine leaves it, thus at a glance, showing the whole process of making a gun. The nipple, which is the smallest piece, requires twenty-two distinct operations. The trigger fourteen. The [ramrod] five, and the bayonet eighteen. The whole detail of the manufactory would be very interesting, but for the present must be withheld. The factory of Jenks & Co. is said by the Committee to be the most perfect of any in the country. Their contract was endorsed by the Committee and ordered to be continued by the Secretary of War.

– Published in The Athens Messenger, Athens, Ohio, Thursday, April 24, 1862