HISTORY OF THE BOX MAGAZINE
PART TWO
COLT ERA
On August 18, 1920, Auto-Ordnance and Colt's Patent Firearms entered in to a contract for the production of 15,000 Thompson Submachine Guns. The agreement also called for the production of 15,000 box magazines at a cost of 54 cents each. These box magazines were described as the Standard Box Magazine designed to take a maximum length cartridge of 1.275 inch. It would take the three types of ball cartridges, namely the 230 grain ball, the 200 grain ball, the special Thompson high velocity ball, and in addition the Remington slug cartridge. This magazine is referred to by collectors as the "Colt Blank Magazine" with dimensions 1" x 1.7" x 2".

Auto-Ordnance soon realized one magazine per gun was not enough. A contract was given to Colt for another production of box magazines. These magazines have been called by collectors Repeat Patent Date. The face of the magazine body reads

Patented - August 24, 1920
August 24, 1920 - January 11, 1921
 

This is for Patent # 1,350,619 (granted August 24, 1920), # 1,350,646 (granted August 24, 1920) and #1,365,234 (granted January 11, 1921). How many were produced is unknown.