Christopher Spencer had many design patents for guns, but the only one which has significant merit was his repeating rifle which Lincoln approved for the War Dept., on the Mall (Well documented event).
Many Columbia bicycle parts, in the early days, used parts designed by Spencer, and made at the Billings & Spencer Forge in Hartford.
Like many of the Spencers that followed him, he was a brilliant engineer, and terrible businessman. Percival (Percy, Spence), his son, was a well known aircraft engineer, who designed the SeaBee amphibious plane made by Republic Aviation, on Long Island NY. He was particularly well known for crashing his planes around the Hartford, Weathersfield and Glastonbury area. He and my grandfather were cousins, buddies, and partners in mischief. Their mutual cousin, Ernie Spencer, from East Hampton, CT, was the guy who drove my dad to Meriden on his 16th birthday to get his first, used, 16ga VH. I have that gun and have lots of memories and visuals associated with it.
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