Henry rifle
Winchester had inherited a brilliant engineer, Benjamin Tyler Henry, who was an invaluable asset. Henry sought to improve on the Volcanic repeating rifle by enlarging the frame and magazine to accommodate seventeen of his newly redesigned, all-brass cased .44 caliber rimfire cartridges. This new cartridge put the new company on the map, and Henry's ingenuity was rewarded with a patent in his name on October 16, 1860, for what became the famous Henry rifle.