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BSA began trading in June 1861 in the Gun Quarter, Birmingham, England. It was formed by a group of fourteen gunsmith members of the Birmingham Small Arms Trade Association specifically to manufacture guns by machinery. Birmingham held a centuries-old reputation for its hand-made guns but their sales had fallen following the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854 because the Board of Ordnance's Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield had greatly increased its output. The War Office gave the BSA gunsmiths free access to technical drawings and to their Enfield factory. This machinery brought to Birmingham the principle of the inter-changeability of parts. BSA bought 25 acres (10 ha) of land at Small Heath, Birmingham, built a factory there and made a road on the site calling it Armoury Road. Their enterprise was rewarded in 1863 with an order for 20,000 Turkish infantry rifles. The management of the BSA Company was changed at an Extraordinary Meeting called on 30 September 1863 when the company was changed from being run by a committee to that of an elected Board of Directors, Joseph Wilson, Samuel Buckley, Isaac Hollis, Charles Playfair, Charles Pryse, Sir John Ratcliffe, Edward Gem, and J.F. Swinburn under the chairmanship of John Dent Goodman (1816-1900). Erratic demand was problematic for BSA. The first War Office contract was not agreed until 1868. In 1879, the factory, without work, was shut for a year; the military arms trade was precarious. The next year, 1880, BSA branched out into bicycle manufacture. The gun factory proved remarkably adaptable to the manufacture of cycle parts. In 1880 BSA manufactured the Otto Dicycle, In the 1880s the company began to manufacture safety bicycles on their own account and not until 1905 was the company's first experimental motorcycle constructed. Bicycle production ceased in 1887 as the company concentrated on producing the Lee�Metford magazine-loading rifle for the War Office which was re-equipping the British Army with it. BSA sold the bicycle business to Raleigh in 1957 after separating the bicycle and motorcycle business in 1953. In 1893, BSA commenced making bicycle hubs and continued to supply the cycle trade with bicycle parts up to 1936. BSA bought The Eadie Manufacturing Company of Redditch in 1907. BSA also signed an agreement with the Three Speed Gear Syndicate in 1907 to manufacture a 3-speed hub under licence. BSA sold its ammunition business in 1897 to Birmingham Metal and Munitions Company Limited part of the Nobel-Dynamite Trust, through Kynoch a forerunner of ICI. In 1906 Frank Dudley Docker was appointed a director of the company. By the autumn of that year BSA was in some difficulty. They had purchased the Sparkbrook Royal Small Arms Factory from the War Office, and in return, the War Office undertook to give BSA a quarter of all orders for Lee�Enfield rifles. But, the War Office did not honour their undertaking. The ensuing financial crisis did not prevent BSA from signing an agreement to purchase control of bicycle component manufacturer, the Eadie Manufacturing Company of Redditch, on 11 February 1907. The very variable military market was now supported by sales of target military rifles, sporting rifles, various patterns of miniature rifles and air rifles. Aperture sights were in demand for Bisley and other military rifle meetings. Motor bicycles were added to bicycle products in 1910. The BSA 3� hp was exhibited at the 1910 Olympia Show, London for the 1911 season. The entire BSA production sold out in 1911, 1912 and 1913. In an effort to make use of the Sparkbrook factory BSA established a motorcar department there. An independent part of it was occupied by Lanchester Motor Company. By 1909 it was clear the new motorcar department was unsuccessful; an investigation committee reported to the BSA Board on the many failures of its management and their poor organisation of production. Dudley Docker had joined the board in 1906 and was appointed deputy chairman of BSA in 1909. Believing he could buy the missing management skills that could not be found within BSA he started merger talks with The Daimler Company Limited of Coventry. In 1913 BSA undertook to manufacture quick-firing machine guns for the Lewis Automatic Arms Company whose rights covered the world except for the American Continent. During the First World War, the company returned to arms manufacture and greatly expanded its operations. BSA produced rifles, Lewis guns, shells, bicycles, motorcycles and, through Daimler, aero engines, aircraft and other vehicles for the war effort as well as machine tools. Following the Armistice the BSA group was described by its chairman as: � Three distinct legal entities: BSA guns, BSA (machine) tools� and BSA cycles all at Sparkbrook, Smallheath and Redditch � Daimler at Coventry � William Jessop and Savilles the two steel-making companies in Sheffield � Daimler Hire and Burton Griffiths� in London In November 1919 BSA launched their first 50 degree vee-twin, Model E, 770cc side valve (6-7 hp) motorcycle for the 1920 season. During the war Daimler had built enormous numbers of aero engines and aircraft and by the end was building 80 Airco de Havilland bombers a month. In February 1920 BSA amalgamated with what was the world's largest aircraft manufacturer, Aircraft Manufacturing Company (Airco), Within days BSA discovered Airco was in a far more serious financial state than George Holt Thomas had revealed. Holt Thomas was immediately dropped from his new seat on the BSA board and all BSA's new acquisitions were placed in the hands of a liquidator. Some relief was achieved when in March 1924 Daimler Airway and its management became the major constituent of Imperial Airways. As well as the Daimler car range, BSA Cycles Ltd re-entered the car market under the BSA name in 1921 with a V-twin engined light car followed by four-cylinder models up to 1926, when the name was temporarily dropped. In 1929 a new range of 3- and 4-wheel cars appeared and production of these continued until 1936. By the end of 1924 difficult economic conditions left the bulk of BSA profits coming from cars and cycles. During 1928 there was a drastic reorganisation of the business of some BSA subsidiaries. By 1930 the BSA Group's primary activities were still BSA cycles and Daimler vehicles. Economic conditions began to improve in the mid 1930s and BSA's activities and profits all grew sharply. International tensions added more activity. An aero engine shadow factory was built and entered production during 1938. Motor cycle sales shrank but BSA maintained its relative position. 1937's new British registrations fell from 57,000 to 46,500. Defence and military equipment including Daimler's Scout car were in heavy demand in Britain and in export markets. Economic conditions began to improve in the mid 1930s and BSA's activities and profits all grew sharply. International tensions added more activity. An aero engine shadow factory was built and entered production during 1938. Motor cycle sales shrank but BSA maintained its relative position. 1937's new British registrations fell from 57,000 to 46,500. Defence and military equipment including Daimler's Scout car were in heavy demand in Britain and in export markets. By the outbreak of the Second World War, BSA Guns Ltd at Small Heath, was the only factory producing rifles in the UK. The Royal Ordnance Factories did not begin production until 1941. BSA Guns Ltd was also producing .303 Browning machine guns for the Air Ministry at the rate of 600 guns per week in March 1939 and Browning production was to peak at 16,390 per month by March 1942. The armed forces had chosen the 500 cc side-valve BSA M20 motorcycle as their preferred machine. On the outbreak of war the Government requisitioned the 690 machines BSA had in stock as well as placing an order for another 8,000 machines. South Africa, Ireland, India, Sweden and the Netherlands also wanted machines. Civilian firearms produced: � The 1906 war office pattern rifle � The Sportsman series of .22 Long Rifle bolt-action rifles � Various Martini action target .22lr rifles � The Ralock and Armatic semi automatic .22lr rifles � Various bolt action hunting rifles An action is the mechanism in a breach loader that handles the ammunition (loads, locks, fires, extracts and ejects) or the method by which that mechanism works. There are various types of manual actions, for this rifle we will look at single shot breechblock actions: � Dropping block � Tilting block � Falling block � Rolling block � Break-action � Hinged block � Bolt action � Rotating-drum action � And more We are now interested in the �Dropping Block� action. Dropping block are actions wherein the breechblock lowers or "drops" into the receiver to open the breech, usually actuated by an underlever. There are two principal types of dropping block: the tilting block and the falling block. For our interest we will look at the tilting block action: In a tilting block or pivoting block action, the breechblock is hinged on a pin mounted at the rear. When the lever is operated, the block tilts down and forward, exposing the chamber. The best-known pivoting block designs are Ballard actions, the Peabody, and the Peabody�Martini. Charles H. Ballard's self-cocking tilting-block action was produced by the Marlin Firearms Company from 1875, and earned a superlative reputation among long-range "Creedmoor" target shooters. Surviving Marlin Ballards are today highly prized by collectors, especially those mounted in the elaborate Swiss-style Sch�tzen stocks of the day. The original Peabody rifles, manufactured by the Providence Tool Company, used a manually cocked side-hammer. Swiss gunsmith Friedrich Martini developed a pivoting block action by modifying the Peabody, that incorporated a hammerless striker which was cocked by the operating lever with the same single, efficient motion that also pivoted the block. The 1871 Martini�Henry which replaced the "trapdoor" Snider�Enfield was the standard British Army rifle of the later Victorian era, and the Martini was also a popular action for civilian rifles.

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