Benjamin Tyler Henry was a scumbag who tried to steal the company he worked for from its rightful owner, Oliver Winchester, but didn’t manage to pull it off before Winchester discovered the plot and kicked Henry the curb. He should have been relegated to the dung-heap of history and I would be hard pressed to name any respectable commercial enterprise after him.
On top of which if American Shooting Urinal is shilling for Henry Rifles you can bet they’re being paid for it, which means someone is conducting a commercial enterprise on Freepr and trying to pass it off as just another citizen posting online.
“Benjamin Tyler Henry was a scumbag who tried to steal the company he worked for from its rightful owner, Oliver Winchester...” [Paal Gulli, post 11]
It’s not likely that the gun-buying segment of the American public is going to suffer an attack of conscience and stop buying modern Henry rifles because of a condemnation of business ethics (or their lack) of 160 years ago.
One suspects that the leadership of Henry Repeating Arms chose B T Henry simply as a marketing hook, if they weren’t merely honoring his design & engineering talents.
It’s worth it to recall that no entrepreneurs of 1860 could meet today’s moral, ethical, nor legal requirements anyway.
Oliver Winchester himself bought out competitors and smothered their products.
Sam Colt failed more than once before hitting the big time. He evaded creditors in questionable ways, and shamelessly gifted influential persons with special-presentation pieces, if he thought they might approve a contract.
Rollin White sold patent rights to Smith & Wesson for bored through cartridge cylinders, and was well-paid. But he spent most of it, fighting patent infringers.
Other gun designers and industrial pioneers had similar stories: it was a time of rough-and-tumble enterprise, in an emerging nation during the biggest revolutions in manufacturing and commerce yet seen. They were real men with real quirks and flaws, not angelic purveyors of moral probity.