[Dean Romig]

Charles A. King testified before congress that they had brought over some British barrel makers to show their employees how it was done. I believe King said that those barrels were Laminated. Those barrels, though I don't remember any particular quote, were made in segments of approximately 16" - 18" or so. I have two guns with those Parker made barrels, one a 12 and the other a 16 and it is easy to see where these segments were joined, about halfway along their length.
King also testified they only made these barrels between sometime in 1877 to sometime in 1879. Parker discontinued this practice due to the cost of producing them as being about three times the amount the British were paying their employees... it simply was not cost-effective to continue producing them when the British variation could be purchased in bulk much more cheaply.

We find some guns with Parker-made barrels well after the production of these barrels had ceased. My 16 gauge ( 18719 ) was made in 1880 while my 12 gauge ( 14056 ) was made in 1879.

Pictures of the segment joints shown below. 16 first with 12 below it.

In the Serialization Book there are no guns listed prior to 1877 with a L in the GRA column and the first one after the beginning of 1877 production is 10638 , well into the year of 1877.
A total of 103 guns are listed as LX until the end of 1879 and an additional 114 are listed to the end of 1881. There are more L guns listed in 1882 and beyond but these could been imported from England or Belgium.
There may be Parkers with imported Laminated barrels before 1877 but they were most likely listed with a D, grouping them with other types of composite barrels.



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