Remington, Philo (1816-1889)

US inventor of the breech-loading rifle that bears his name. He began manufacturing typewriters 1873, using the patent of Christopher Sholes, and made improvements that resulted five years later in the first machine with a shift key, thus providing lower-case letters as well as capital letters. The Remington rifle and carbine, which had a falling block breech and a tubular magazine, were developed in collaboration with his father Eliphalet Remington. Remington was born in Litchfield, New York State, and entered the family arms-manufacturing business. US humorist Mark Twain bought one of the earliest Remington typewriters, becoming the first author to provide his publisher with a typescript. Philo and Eliphalet Remington made many improvements to guns and their manufacture; for example, a special lathe for the cutting of gunstocks, a method of producing extremely straight gun barrels, and the first US drilled rifle barrel from cast steel.