Looking at the profile, except for the "harpoon" tip, it looks like it was made very similarly to one of the early un-numbered WRA sight elevators.

Go back further in time, Vall, to the WRA Model 1873.
Two of those early WRA elevators didn't have the widened thumbpieces like the later production 1A, 1B and 1C sight elevators had... one had the notches parallel to the top flat of the barrel, and the other had the notches at an angle like shown on that Marlin Fish-hook elevator.

marlinguy wrote on Jan 15^th, 2019 at 4:46pm:

Vall,

You raise an interesting question...  has anyone ever discovered just who that "same company" was that produced the sights that were used by so many different firearms manufacturers?
That outfit had to have a name, building(s) with street address (and mailing address if different from the street address), workers who were there at various times, purchase records for steel and other basic sight production materials, production equipment, tooling and special cutters, etc, and billing invoices that were addressed to the different firearms companies when the sights were delivered to them... and the firearms manufacturer records should have had copies of the billing statements in their own records for accounts payable that were made back to that "same company" somewhere.
Who has uncovered at least some of the records pertaining to that "same company" ?    

Bill Lawrence wrote on Jan 15^th, 2019 at 6:13pm:


But BGI had a predecessor:

"The Bridgeport Gun Implement Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut was founded in 1878 by Marcellus Hartley. The firm was one of the major suppliers of loading tools and accessories for sportsmen. Hartley purchased a company from Charles D. Leet in order to found his own firm; Leet was the manager of the Bridgeport Gun Implement Co. for a time. The company sold tools in sets that ranged from basic to very complete; sets included gun-cleaning implements and loading tools. Most of the company's tools are marked with the company name and a tool number."

From Conn. Hist. Soc. website.

I believe BGI made sights for many of the gun companies. I saw a BGI catalog years ago, and their sights looked like what I see on many guns.

Vall, 

Do you recall a catalog date?
Or any of the various models of the sights that were depicted?

Redsetter wrote on Jan 15^th, 2019 at 7:14pm:


Considering the high number of sights that would have had to have been produced to supply the demand and ongoing volume requirements for the firearm production of the multiple major manufacturers that occurred for decades, how could it have remained a secret for so long?
People constantly talk... and damned few can keep a secret... secret for so many, many years.   

Perhaps we should move this sight discussion into its own thread.

But until or if that happens, first, since the "same other company" must exist by at least the late-1870s, Marbles is out.

Second, except for Remington, all the other big boys are either in Connecticut or neighboring Massachusetts; ideally the "same other company" was too.

Third, there has long been a contention that because of the diversity of its offerings, BGI (and its earlier counterpart?) was at least initially only a distributor ala Sears.  Still, as Vall notes, BGI did eventually market its own brand of at least simple, open sights.

Fourth, Remington was not adverse to jobbing and even went so far as to rent space within its buildings, sometimes for a goodly while, to developers/inventors, especially when the company might eventually make money off them, sometimes even creating semi-independent "divisions" to do so.  Henry Quackenbush and his air guns and Christoper Sholes and his typewriter are two well-documented examples (though only the typewriter becoming part of the Remington corporate family).

Last for now, as any experienced historian will attest, it's most often the things that "everybody knows" that fail to be formally documented and/or preserved.  Plus not counting that fellow who has "written" two books by essentially reproducing catalog pages, has anybody rigorously researched gun sights and their accredited and actual makers?

That's enough for now.

Bill Lawrence