lawinman said
Here are a couple of photos of the markings.   

I can’t help you much but I’m sure Bert can tell you off the top of his head when Western was connected with Winchester.  The others are earlier. Unfortunately the only expert that I know just passed away less than a week ago.  He owned a few of the gallery gun speed loading set ups over the years.  There was a mechanical device that loaded the tubes, the tubes themselves and a wooden box to hold all of the tubes.  I carried these in and out of more that a dozen gun shows over the years but really paid little attention.  I don’t know where he found these but they sold as fast as he could find them.  When things settle I will ask his son if he still has one. I don’t remember if the device fit into a box too or if everything went into one box.  I do know that there were instructions with these too.

JWA said
Hi Lawinman,

The “notches” on the tubes are for indicating how many shells are inserted.  They are typically marked every third shell for .22 short since the galleries would offer either 12 or 15 shots.  Some tubes only have the notches at the 12 and 15 round marks instead of all the way down.  There are also some Winchester tubes that were only made to hold 12 instead of 15, they are shorter in overall length.

Regarding the markings, there were a variety of Winchester markings used on the tubes depending upon vintage (you do not list them all).  The markings can be roughly dated by the style and type as those changes were also made on the firearms as well.  For your tubes here is a rough timeline;

Circa 1912-1914 the tubes were marked with Winchester (block font) and Trade Mark

Circa 1915-1926 the marks were Trade Mark Winchester (block font) and Reg. in U.S. Off & Fgn.

Circa 1927-1931 the marking was Winchester (script font) with Trade Mark and Made in USA

Circa 1931-1942 the marking was Western (script font) with Trade Marks, Winchester (script font) and Made in U.S.A.

Post WWII the marking reverted back to Winchester Trade Mark Made in U.S.A. but it was a different size than the previous marking.

The last tubes from the late 1940’s – 1960’s were unmarked.

 

Here is a brief history of the loading tubes if you are interested;

– The loading tube concept was patented in 1879 by T.G. Bennet (a Winchester employee).

– The concept was first designed for the lever action rifles with the King’s improvement loading gate and later adapted to gallery rifles.

– In 1907 E. E. Drake patented a similar loading tube (after the Winchester patent expired) but it was made of cardboard.

– In 1909 A. F. Laudensack invented the metal tube we see today BUT with a spring loaded lever at the end to regulate the cartridges and keep them from falling out when transporting the tube.

– The tubular carrier/cartridge loader as you know it was patented in 1912 by F. O. Hoagland.  This is the loader made from sheetmetal with simple crimps to retain the cartridges and marks to indicate the number of cartridges loaded.

– In 1913 F. O. Hoagland updated the patent with an additional modification of numbers and holes on the tube to indicate the number of inserted cartridges but the extra cost of manufacturing these made them short-lived.

– In 1914 John M. Browning patented a cardboard loading tube with a simple crimped end.  Although John Browning produced a great many firearm innovations this patent does not seem to be unique or a large improvement over Drake’s 1907 patent.

– In 1926/27 when Winchester began expanding its line to include hardware items they manufactured the plain steel loading tubes, the concept of which, ironically, they had originally patented in 1879.  The tubes are listed in their catalogs of the period for .15 cents each.

– In 1927 R. G. Clyne invented the cartridge magazine loader.  Since Winchester was starting to sell the gallery tubes they immediately bought the rights and produced the loader almost identical to the patent drawings.

  – The tubes produced by Winchester from 1927 – 1931 are marked Winchester Trade Mark Made in USA (with several variations).

– The tubes made after the purchase of Winchester by the Western Cartridge Company in 1931 are marked Winchester Western or Western Trade Marks Winchester Made in USA.

– The tubes made after WWII are unmarked. Note: These are the same markings as on the rotating cartridge carriers.

– Winchester made tubes of blued steel (most common), in the white (no bluing or coating) and some nickel plated tubes.

– The last tubes supplied by Winchester in the 1950’s and through the 1960’s were simple copper tubes crimped on one end and beveled on the opposite end. These tube do not work well with the rotating magazine loader and were normally filled by hand.

The Winchester steel magazine tube was designed to be specifically used in the rotating magazine tube loader.  After the original patent expiration, many companies manufactured and sold magazine loading tubes.  Most were simple affairs that required loading by hand.  Due to the simple tube design, many galleries made their own loading tubes.

Here is what the tube loader looks like – 

Regards,  

Jeff you must have been editing your post while I was posting.  I didn’t remember seeing any pictures. Very cool.  My friend did not have metal containers for the tubes but rather factory wooden boxes with with slots for the tubes.  Do you have any pictures of a modified gallery gun?