George Gibbs, a gun maker in Bristol, became a co-owner of the Farquharson patent in 1875 and was the sole maker of Farquharson rifles until the patent expired.

Though the only well-known source of vaccine is a small stockpile owned by the Department of Defense, a large amount of new vaccine has been manufactured by BioPort, the sole maker.

All this demand for i486-based computers has been a boon for Intel, which is based in Santa Clara, Calif., and is so far the sole maker of the microprocessors.

Topps, the trading card company based in Brooklyn, was the sole maker of trading cards then, but paid no royalties, only nominal flat fees to the players.

Intel has been the sole maker of the 386 microprocessor.

Analysts said the company would probably sell fewer of the powerful machines this quarter than expected, because Intel, the sole maker of the 486 chip, is behind schedule on shipments.

Moreover, Aventis was left as the sole maker of the Td booster.

Merck, the country's sole maker of those vaccines, operates one vaccine-filling plant in West Point, Pa., and twice shut down that site for repairs in August and September.

Fujitsu is considering buying a stake in ICL P.L.C., Britain's sole maker of mainframe computers.