Hamilton died young in 1902, and Coello carried on the business into World War II. In fact, they were so inexpensive that some were put randomly inside sacks of grain as prizes for farmers. Less known today are the rimfire “boy’s rifles” (because they were boy-sized and very inexpensive) that Hamilton, and his son Coello, made in Plymouth, Michigan and sold under the C.J. The company switched from being a windmill company that gave away air guns to an airgun company called Daisy, and the rest is well-known history. The guns were produced in the windmill factory and originally given as premiums to windmill buyers, but they soon became more popular than the windmills. In the late 1880s his invention saved the company he founded, the Plymouth Windmill Company, which was struggling to sell the vaneless windmill Hamilton also invented.
Yet there were millions of Hamilton “boy’s rifles” made, from 1898 to 1945.Ĭlarence Hamilton is best known as the inventor of the Daisy air gun. I have heard of most of the guns we use on Blasts from the Past, but I’ve got to admit the C.J.
