Everyone involved in the gun world or just likes shooting has heard of John Moses Browning. He invented the 1911, Hi Power, B.A.R., 38 Super, 45 acp, 50 Cal Browning, a bunch of pocket pistols, etc, etc, etc. He was a genus.
Ask people if they ever heard of Charles Newton. He is an unknown genus who was far ahead of his time. He is the inventor of 22 Savage High Power, 22 Newton, 256 Newton, 270 Newton, 30 Newton, 250=3000 Savage, 35 Newton, also the progenitor of the 22-250, and a slew of other cartridges. He was an early version of Weatherby and made his cartridges from the early 1910's to the late 1920's.
The 250-3000 was one of the first, if not the first round to push a bullet past 3000 fps. This was designed for the Savage 99 level action gun around 1915. With modern powders, this velocity can be exceeded by another 200 fps. 3000 fps was an amazing accomplishment at the time. Remington released a cartridges called the 257 Roberts about 20 years later, with similar shooting characteristics.
The 30 Newton was a 30-06 length case but was much fatter. It was a beltless magnum, pushing a 200 gr bullet to 2730 fps with 3318 ft-lbs of energy, right on par with the 300 H&H Magnum, and darn close to the 300 Winchester Magnums of today. The 25 Newton is a necked up 30 Newton with at least the same power (250 gr, 2975 fps, and 4925 ft-lbs of energy) of as 375 H&H Magnum and the current 358 Norma Magnum. These cartridges were standard action length, unlike the H&H Magnums.
Newton's cartridges, though most are no longer in production, match up nicely to modern produced cartridges. All these cartridges can be improved with today's powders. Had Charles Newton made his cartridges in the late 1940's/1950's rather then 1910 to 1920, with the massive improvements in powders that came in those middle years, he's genus would have been far more recognized. It is sad that a man who contributed so much to the firearms industry, does not even have a Wikipedia entry.
