Talk:Henry Nock

Henry Nock has been listed as one of the Engineering and technology good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
Review: December 24, 2014. (Reviewed version).

A fact from Henry Nock appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 8 September 2012 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Henry Nock, the maker of the seven-barrelled volley gun used by Patrick Harper in Sharpe episodes, founded a company which became Wilkinson Sword?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2012/September. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Henry Nock.

Wikipedia

Wilkinsons made swords for battle long before they made them for ceremonial purposes.[edit]

At issue is the accuracy of the phrase “…until 2005, made ceremonial officer's swords”. That is not incorrect. Wilkinson did, indeed, make ceremonial swords through much of the 20th century. But throughout the 19th century most of their swords were designed for battle.

You based your reversion on the following statement. The Wilkinson Sword name was established only in 1891, not 1805 and in any case the passage is clearly discussing much more recent times

Granted the “Wilkinson Sword Company” dates from 1891, but the “Wilkinson Sword” trade name is older. Between approximately 1804 and 1891, the successor company of Nock was called Wilkinson & Son. I see nothing in the passage that limits it to “recent times”.

The last paragraph of the article explains this: “The name became James Wilkinson & Son around 1818 when James' son Henry joined. Henry died in 1864 but the company continued making firearms and bladed weapons and became known as Wilkinson Sword. …It continued to produce swords for the British Army and for royal ceremonial purposes until 2005” Note the word “weapons”.

A paragraph from the article about Wilkinson Sword backs this up: “Aiming for the assurance of high quality, Wilkinson then invented a testing machine, called the Eprouvette, in 1844. Using this machine, Wilkinson, by then joined by general manager and son-in-law John Latham, was able to test each of the company's swords against conditions surpassing even those found on the field of battle. Blades that passed the Eprouvette were then marked, certified, and numbered.” All this was well before 1891.

Please restore my edit: delete the word ceremonial. Humphrey Tribble (talk) 17:00, 3 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I've self-reverted. I was not disputing the history of the company at all, but I thought the edit I was reverting was in the "Legacy" section rather than the lead which would have been a somewhat different context. SpinningSpark 17:58, 3 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]