Christopher Miner Spencer (June 20, 1833 – January 14, 1922) was an American inventor from Manchester, Connecticut. He created the Spencer repeating rifle, one of the first lever-action rifles, a steam-powered "horseless carriage," and many other inventions. He also designed the first fully automatic turret lathe, a machine used to shape metal parts. This type of lathe, when made in smaller sizes, is sometimes called a screw machine.

Civil War

The Spencer rifle was created as early as 1859, but the Union did not use it at first. On August 18, 1863, Christopher Spencer entered the White House with one of his rifles and a box of cartridges. He passed the guards and went to Abraham Lincoln’s office. After talking, Spencer returned the next day, when he met with Lincoln, Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War, and other officials. Together, they walked to the Mall near the Washington Monument and practiced shooting at targets.

After this meeting, the United States ordered about 13,171 rifles and carbines, along with 58 million rounds of ammunition. General Ulysses S. Grant said the Spencer rifle was "the best breech-loading arms available." During the war, about 100,000 rifles were made. Many soldiers took these rifles home after the war, and they were widely used on the western frontier. Because so many rifles were left over from the war, there was little need for new rifles afterward. Spencer could not recover the money spent on manufacturing machines, and the Spencer Repeating Rifle Company went bankrupt in 1868. In 1869, Oliver Winchester bought the company’s equipment for $200,000.

Post-Civil War

In 1868, while working at the Roper Repeating Arms Company in Amherst, Massachusetts, he collaborated with Charles E. Billings and Sylvester H. Roper. After Roper's firearms company went out of business, Billings and Spencer formed a partnership in 1869 in Hartford, Connecticut, named Billings & Spencer. This company produced sewing machines, hand tools made by a special forging process, and machine tools.

Around 1882, Spencer established a new company called the Spencer Arms Company in Windsor, Connecticut. The company's most notable product was the Spencer Pump-Action Shotgun, created between 1882 and 1889. This was the first commercially successful slide-action (or pump-action) shotgun, known as the Spencer 1882. Most were made in 12-gauge, with 10-gauge being a less common option. Due to financial difficulties, Spencer's company and his patents were bought by Francis Bannerman & Sons of New York around 1890. The company continued to produce his shotgun until approximately 1907.

In popular culture

The Civil War television mini-series, The Blue and the Gray, includes a dramatic performance of Abraham Lincoln testing the Spencer rifle. Gregory Peck plays Lincoln, and David Rounds plays Christopher Spencer in this scene.