Christian Sharps (January 2, 1810 – March 12, 1874) was the inventor of the Sharps rifle, the first commercially successful breech-loading rifle and the Sharps Four Barrel Pistol, and ‘’’Sharps Breech-Loading Pistol’’’. Life, death and legacy Born in Washington, New Jersey, in 1810, Christian Sharps married Sarah Elizabeth Chadwick of Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania. The couple had two children: a daughter, Satella, and a son, Leon Stewart. Satella's daughter, also named Satella Waterstone, became an author and composer. Sharps was hired as an apprentice gunsmith at the Harpers Ferry Arsenal in the 1830s. While at Harpers Ferry, he was introduced to the Hall rifle, an early breech-loader, and worked for its inventor, Captain John H. Hall. Sharps also became versed in the manufacture of weapons with fully interchangeable parts. Sharps' first rifle was patented September 12, 1848, a breech loading design it featured "slanting breech action" and used paper cartridges. It was manufactured by "A. S. Nippes" at Mill Creek, (Philadelphia) Pennsylvania, in 1850. In 1851, Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company (later renamed "Sharps Rifle Co") was organized as a holding company with $1,000 in capital and with John C. Palmer as president, Christian Sharps as engineer, and Richard S. Lawrence as master armorer and superintendent of manufacturing. Sharps was to be paid a royalty of $1 per firearm and the factory was built on R&L's property in Hartford, Connecticut. Christian Sharps left the company in 1855 to form his own manufacturing company called "C. Sharps & Co." which produced four-barrel pepperboxes, and later renamed "Sharps & Hankins", in partnership with William Hankins, in 1862. Both firms were located in Philadelphia. Sharps & Hankins not only produced four-barrel pistols, but also the single-shot Model 1861 Navy Rifles and the Model 1862 Carbines, both of which featured forward "sliding breech actions" and fired the .56-52 Spencer rimfire metallic cartridge. The Sharps and Hankins partnership ended in 1867, and Sharps resumed the manufacturing of firearms under the C. Sharps and Co. name. In 1870, Sharps and his family moved to Vernon, Connecticut, where he continued working on firearm designs and started a large trout farming business. Succumbing to tuberculosis, Sharps died in Vernon, on March 12, 1874. In all, he was awarded a total of fifteen firearms-related patents. "C. Sharps & Co." was shuttered after his death and firearms production came to an end. Although, "Sharps Rifle Co" continued to produce his namesake