born Oct. 28, 1793, Suffield, Conn., U.S.
died Aug. 12, 1861, Ilion, N.Y.
U.S. firearms manufacturer and inventor.
The son of a blacksmith, he grew up on his father's farm near Utica, N.Y., where he made his first flintlock rifle (1816). In 1828 he built a large arms factory at present-day Ilion, N.Y. He and his son Philo improved arms manufacture with the reflection method of straightening gun barrels and the first successful cast-steel, drilled rifle barrel made in the U.S. In 1847 he supplied the U.S. Navy with its first breech-loading rifle. His Remington Arms Co. made small arms for the U.S. government during the American Civil War and World Wars I and II.