Winchester Patent

[Kenneth L. Walters]

The Star was just a copy of an earlier Winchester machine that Winchester patented in the 1890's.  But I've lost the number of that Winchester patent.  Anyone know what it was?

[rbwillnj]

Are you sure about that Ken?   I did a Google patent search for Winchester reloading machines using just about every key work I could think of (Case, Cartridge, Reload, Reloader, Bullet, etc) and couldn't find anything that looked like a Star, or any sort of progressive press.   I did find a lot of Winchester patents in the 1890s for reloading impliments, but they were all single stage devices.

I did find the original Star patent 2,031850 by Clarence R. Peterson, and found it very interesting.  The patent contains virtually all of the Star Reloader features found on later machines, but the drawings in the patent differ in many (mostly cosmetic) ways from the Star Reloaders I am familiar with.   I would love to see one of his original machines from the early 30's. 

If anyone is interested, here is a Link to the Star Patent.   
http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT2031850&id=7qdLAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4&dq=2031850#PPA25,M1

Ken,  In Google Patent Search, you can search for just about every patent written.  Maybe you can think of some Key Words I missed.
http://www.google.com/patents

[Kenneth L. Walters]

Before the internet when I wanted to look for old patents I simply purchased every reference in every patent I got.  Time consuming and expensive but I did it.  Eventually one that arrived, I know not how I got the number, was for a Winchester machine that clearly was star-like.  No question about it.  1890 vintage.  When this was all over I had well over 500 patents mostly about reloaders.  Yes I'm sure that the Star is based on a Winchester patent I just now don't know that patent's number.

[Ray Brandes]

Ken,
  You got me to looking. I haven't found that Winchester patent yet, but I searched on Clerance R. Peterson and found an indexer patent by a Michael G. Hoyer. It looks like the patent the Bruster is based on. It is number 3058387.
Regards, Ray