Eley Limited

Eley Limited is a British manufacturer of firearms cartridges. Historically the company has produced a broad variety of ammunition, but today specialises in .22 Long Rifle cartridges for competitive target shooting. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, six of the twelve medals for cartridge rifle and pistol were won using Eley ammunition.

Founded as Eley Brothers by Charles and William Eley in London in the 1820s, the company purchased the patent rights to the "wire cartridge" in the spring or early summer of 1828. The patent for "wire cartridge" was issued by the English Patent Office on 28 November 1827 to Joshua Jenour under Patent No. 5570. Jenour had been born in Fleet Street, London in 1755 and had previously been the owner and manager of the Daily Advertiser, a London newspaper. The 'wire cartridge' consisted of a wire cage which held the shot together during the first stages of its flight.

In 1828, Charles and William Eley established a factory in Charlotte Street (London), later moving to Bond Street (London). Initially, Charles Eley had been the primary owner of the concern and the original wire cartridges had only the name of Charles Eley on them. The initial attempts to sell the Eley Wire Cartridge went poorly and Charles Eley withdrew from the business. During the mid-1830s, William Eley reinvigorated the company and began selling the "Improved Patent Wire Cartridges".

In 1837, the company added percussion caps to their range and though William was killed in an explosion in 1841, his three sons helped carry on the business. His eldest son William Thomas forged an alliance with Samuel Colt, the two patenting a skin cartridge for use in the latter's revolvers.

By 1860, they were making pinfire shotshells and first listed them for sale in The Ironmonger & Metal Trades Advertiser. On 13 April 1861 William Thomas Eley took out a patent for an improvement to the pinfire shotshell. The key aspect to this patent was to better fix the cap into the case and prevent the pin from flying out of the case on detonation.

The growth of business accompanied by moves to the Grays Inn Road in 1864, and by the development of the Boxer cartridge designed by Colonel Boxer - Chief Superintendent of the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich - and adopted by the government in 1866.

In 1874, they went public to fuel expansion, but lost momentum after 1881 when William Thomas died. His brothers remained in control until 1901 but shareholders accused them of running it as a private company. Nevertheless, innovations included smokeless powder, and in the 1890s, 400 types of cartridges were produced. They had established a factory at Tile Kiln Lane, Edmonton, London by 1865.

In 1894, the company transferred production to enlarged premises at Angel Road which included a tramway to its wharf on the nearby River Lee. Twice the War Office removed the company from their Approved List of suppliers due to poor quality .303 British ammunition, much of it returned from abroad as unusable. Moreover, poor facilities meant the company had to buy in components, unlike their competitors.