The original Henry rifle was a sixteen shot .44 caliber rimfire breech-loading lever-action rifle, patented by Benjamin Tyler Henry in 1860 after three years of design work.[2] The Henry was an improved version of the earlier Volition, and later Volcanic. The Henry used copper (later brass) rimfire cartridges with a 216 grain (14.0 gram, 0.490 ounce) bullet over 25 grains (1.6 g, 0.056 oz.) of black powder. Production was very small (150 to 200 a month) until the middle of 1864.[citation needed] Nine hundred were manufactured between summer and October 1862;[citation needed] by 1864, production had peaked at 290 per month,[citation needed] bringing the total to 8,000.[3] By the time production ended in 1866, approximately 14,000 units had been manufactured.