POTD: Interchangeable Parts Contract – Simeon North Model 1813

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have the pistol that put interchangeable parts into a US government contract for the first time. This is a Simeon North Model 1813 in 69 caliber, made in Middletown, Connecticut.

The 1813 contract is the document people cite when they talk about the American system of manufacturing. Written into it was a requirement that the parts of any one pistol had to fit any other pistol in the order, all 20,000 of them. That was a big ask in 1813. Nobody was holding tolerances that way outside of a few armory experiments, and getting there meant jigs, gauges, and filing fixtures instead of a man at a bench fitting each lock to its own gun.

North got a fraction of the way there. Around 1,626 pistols were finished between 1813 and 1815, and only 626 of those went to the Army. Then the requirement changed. The 69 caliber ball kicked hard enough that the government cut it back to 54, which produced the Model 1816, and the big order went that way instead.

You can still see the old world in this gun. Assembly marks are stamped on the parts, roman numerals matching pieces to each other, which is the exact practice interchangeability was supposed to eliminate. It is sightless, iron mounted, with a 9 1/8 inch barrel and a hickory ramrod.

Most of our POTDs utilize images from our friends at Rock Island Auction Company, the premier firearms auction in the United States. Take some time to browse their current auctions – who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!

“Very Scarce U.S. Army Simeon North Model 1813 Flintlock Pistol.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/4097/189/very-scarce-us-army-simeon-north-model-1813-flintlock-pistol. Accessed 1 Aug. 2026.

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