On October 2, 1888, U.S. Patent No. 390311 issued to C.A. Pinckney and C.J. Hamilton on a Spring Air Gun:
In 1882 Hamilton, along with some investors, started the Plymouth Iron Windmill Company to produce a vaneless windmill that Hamilton had invented a few years earlier. In 1886, Hamilton began designing a steel air rifle to compete with the popular Markam Air Rifle that was also made in Plymouth, Michigan. Hamilton partnered with Cyrus Pinkney, and the air founded the Plymouth Air Rifle Company in 1888. Unfortunately, in 1894 Plymouth Air Rifle Co. suffered a catastrophic fire, and didn’t have the money to rebuild.
Hamilton did not give up, and brought one of their air rifles to the Plymouth Iron Windmill Company, demonstrating the gun to the Board of Directors. After General Manager Lewis Hough test fired the gun he exclaimed “Boy, It’s a Daisy!” The windmill company put the gun into production, and renamed it the “Daisy” air rifle. A year later the company was making more money selling Daisy rifles than windmills, so the company was renamed the Daisy Air Rifle Company.
In 1897 Lewis Hough bought Hamilton out, so that Hamilton could pursue firearm designs he had been working on. The next year Hamilton and his con Coello started the Hamilton Rifle Company, designing, producing, and selling inexpensive .22 rifles. The company patented serveral of their designs:
After the senior Hamilton’s death in 1902, Coello continued the business, and continued patenting new rifle designs:
The Company’s most popular rifle, the Model 27, was introduced in 1907, and remained in the market for 23 years:
