Coral Snake's Firearms History - Single Shot Pistols and Revolvers Part 2 - Colt gets Competition and the Opening of the Cartridge Era By Coral Snake
In the 1850s Sam Colt began to lose his patent monopolies on the single barrel revolver and wpuld now meet competition, first from Europe and then from America. In fact Colt simply abandined his British patents and let them expire because he was too buisy with his monopoly American market. Thus throughout most of the 1850s Britian would become the hub of Revolver innovation. This first took the form of what were called "transition" revolvers. These were essentially pepperboxes cut down to revolver size with a single barrel pinned to them in the mannor of the Colt Revolvers. However a gunmaker named Robert Adams began to work with genuine single barrel revolver designs using a solid frame arrangement for the first time. The Adams revolver essentially used a solid frame barrel unit attached to a frip frame containing a trigger action fireing mechinism similiar to a pepperbox but using a foreward/back hammer arc that did not interferte with the gun's sight picture ala Colt. On the Adams revolver the arbor was a removable part of the gun that went through the frame for the purpose of mounting the cylinder. Adams did not make as many revolvers as colt did however because his shop was still mainly a hand building operation. The British liked the Adams revolver except for one thing. While the Adams trigger action was faster in defensive shooting and the solid frame separate arbor system allowed fast reloading by cylinder replacement the Colt's thumb cocking single action had a shorter trigger pull and was more accurate in aimed fire. This led Adams to another grand innovation in revolver design, this was the first genuine double action that allowed for either trigger action shooting or single action style thumb cocking in a single fireing mechanism. Basically the thumb cocking option in the Adams was done with a separate sear because the Adams trigger action lifter was mounted on the trigger. Also loading levers were added to Adams revolvers for target and practice shooting situations where slower ball and powder loading could be tolerated.
However British Patents unlike the American patents of the time allowed a monopoly on ONLY the spacific Adams mechinism and not other means of achieving double action in revolvers. This led to two other British originated double actions, the William Trainter system and the Daen Harding system. The Trainter system used two triggers, one that simply cocked the hammer with an extention that went below the trigger guard and a second one mounted within the first one that actually dropped the hammer and fired the weapon. The trainter will be the first of many non standard or "odball" revolver designs that reached commercial and/or military success that we will meet in this three part story. The Dean Harding was an obscure at the time but very important double action revolver because it used the point of its trigger and a notch on the hammer for thumb cock fireing and a hammer mounted fly for trigger action fireing. This ended the necessity for a separate single action sear in double action revolvers and became the mechanism that would be used for modern revolvers of the double actaion type almost universally.
Competition came to America close to the end of the 1850s with the expiration of the cold Master Patents that gave him a monopoly on single barreled revolvers since the 1830s. One of the first gun companies to take advantage of the opening of the revolver market was that of Eliphalet Remington and his sons. The Remingtons knew well that the solid frame revolvers of Adams and Trainter were beating the pants of Colt in England due to their solidity combined with their quick loading by cylinder replacemrnt in situations when quick loading was neccessary. However he also knew that Americans prefered exclusively single action revolvers at the time. So Remington made a revolver that offered loading lever based ball and powder loading for target and practice sessions and quick cylinder replacement loading for combat situations with a solid frame and screwed in barrel designed for single action fire. The Remington was offered in holster size only but in two calibers .44 and .36 that were called the Army and Navy Model respectively. The Remingtons were destined to be the best revolvers of an American percussion era that would be forced to go on for 12 more years in the United States due to the Civil War and another Master Patent we will discuss shortly.
Other non Colt revolvers of this extended Percussion era were the Savage and Star revolvers both of which were basically Americanized interpretations of the of the British Trainter double trigger concept in double action revolvers and not actual double actions at all and the side hammered percussion revolvers of the former Allen Pepperbox company now calling itself Allen and Wheelock, These were conventional solid frame single actions with the exception of the musket style side mounting of their hammers.
Rollen White, Smith and Wesson and the Civil War The Cartridge Era Opens
Smith and Wesson, second only after Colt in revolver fame in many ways owes that fame to a monopoly on a master patent secured after a bankruptcy on a failed firearms experiment. The story of Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson begins with their first commercial patent for a postol called the "volcanic" pistol. Basically two things were wrong with this pistol that predestined it to failure. The first was that it was not a revolver (Colt's patents were still in effect at the time), pepperbox or other multi barrel design. It was in fact part of the line of lever action repeaters that would lead eventually to the Winchester rifles. However what would eventually be good for a rifle was a terrible system for a one handed pistol which was expected to be repeat fired by one hand quickly. The other problem with the volcanic was its cartridge which was essentially a an undercharged leaden rocket with a percussion primer whose exploded parts had to be extacted from the weapon after fireing. While as lethal as any firearm at close range where accuracy was not required the "volcanic" was innefective and innacurate at longer ranges. Needless to say Smith and Wesson nearly went bankrupt with this experiment and sold their interest in the "volcanic" pistol to what eventually became the Winchester firearms company.
However as the Colt patents headed ever closer to expiration Smith and Wesson started to work on a cartridge Revolver designed to load fixed .22 caliber ammunition based on the French Flobert rimfire principle used in single shot traget pistols from the rear of the cylinder. This is where they encountered a second patent problem with their idea. This was in the form of one Rollen White who already had a patent on the bored through cylinder required for the Smith and Wesson invention. However the remainder of the White Revolver was an impractical weapon that was esentially a percussion revolver that loaded nitrate paper cartridges into the cylinder from the rear through a magazine and used a Maynard tape primer for priming. Probably through telling White about their experience with the equally impractical "valcanic" pistol Smith and Wesson were able to buy a license to the Rollin White patent on terms favorable to them and soon as the Colt patents expired started manufacturing their Model 1 pocket revolver in .22 caliber. Shortly before the Civil War Smith and Wesson introduced the larger Model 2 revolver in .32 rimfire caliber which became popular with Yankee soldiers despite its small caliber. Thus the Cartridge Era of Revolvers began as a Monopoly of a single company just as did the revolver era in the first place.
However a full monopoly was not to be. For one thing the Rollin White patent only covered revolvers, Single shot and multi barreled handguns still could be manufactured as breech loading as cartridge arms and this made the opening of the handgun cartridge era in America a high water mark for the development of cartridge "darrengers" of which the Remington Double Barreled Darrenger was to become the most famous and durable design. This gun essentially used a moving fireing pin to fire one of its barrels at a time from a single trigger and hammer. Other cartridge "darrengers" were mostly single shot affairs with barrels that swiveled to the side in various ways for loading, a trick that it would take revolver manufacturers until the last decade of the 19th century to add to their feature arsonal. The fixed rimfire cartridge was also entering the relm of the Single Shot target pistol mainly in the form of the Flobert rimfires generally known today as CB and BB caps that inspired Snith and Wesson.
And it turned ourt out that not even the cartridge revolver was to stay a monopoly of Smith and Wesson. Europe did not recognize the Rollen White patent and was totally open to cartrifge revolver development. Most of this occured around the "pin fire" cartridge so named because it was self contained to the point of even having its own fireing pin as well as metallic case powder and bullet. In fact the French adopted an indigionous "pin fire" revolver design ad their standard military handgun becoming the first to so adopt a cartridge revolver. Also Adams was building the first center fire cartridge revolvers toward the end of the Civil War using essentially the ame unitized frame barrel system that his percussion revolvers used. These were adopted by England as their first standard cartridge military revolver toward the end of the 1860s.
American Rollen White patent evading efforts were built largely around alternatives to rear loading for metallic cartridges in revolvers. Of the successful evasions the PLant/Eagle, National/Moore, Slocum and Pond firearms companies were the most sucessful with alternative loading systems. Of these the Plane/Eagle and National/Moore revolvers loaded metalic cartridges of a special type from the front of the cylinder in the manner of a percussion revolver with the PLant/Eagle system using a variation of the rimfire system they called a "cup" primer that made for a streight front loading metallic cartridge. The National/More Revolver used a front loading metallic cartridge where the priming was concentrated in a "teat" at the cartridge rear and thus called "teat fire" by them. The Slocum and the Pond used standard rimfire cartridges but with cylinder systems that avoided the bored through rear loading specifications of the Rollen White patent. Of these the Slocum was the simplest and probably the most popular. Its cylinder rather than being solid had sliding chambers mounted on it that could locked for shooting and unlocked for loading and unloading by switches at the cylinder rear thus Slocum marketed it as the "side loading" revolver. With the single exception of the Nagant "gas seal" revolver we will be looking at in the third part of the revolver's history, the Pond has to be one of the oddest most complicated revolver cylinder systems ever to be put into production. It's cylinder was solid but avoided rear loading and by the use of separate removable chambers which were locked and unlocked to the cylinder by a turning cylinder arbor which doubled as an ejector rod. This oddity thus picked up the name Pond "Separate Chamber" revolver. As for Calibers the Slocum and Pond were chambered for the .32 rimfire as that was the most popular cartridge with Civil War soldiers and the National and Moore were basically chambered for .32 caliber varients of their particular front loading cartridge systems even though National did produce the first American .45 caliber revolver around their "teat fire" system. Despite the oddities of their cartridges or loading systems all of the Rollin White evasions were simple single action revolvers as far as fireing mechanisms went.
The Civil War
The second event other than the Smith and Wesson licensed Rollen White patent that kept America an the percussion handgun era for a longer period han Europe was the Civil War. This caused most of the famous percussion revolver companies like Colt, Remington and Star as well as several Confederate knock of companies to aim at improving and producing large numbers of what they had which was percussion revolvers. The civil War saw the epitome of Colt Percussion Revolver design and yet another oddity from this company. This odditity was in the form of the 1860 army revolver which was built in response to the Remington Army revolver's being built to holster rather than horse pistol size but still retaining the horse pistol's .44 caliber. The 1860 Army was the first of Colts new streamlined percussion revolvers with rounded rather than octigon barrels and rack and pinion loading levers and was an exceptional gun for the time except for one thing. While the bulk of the 1860 Army was built to holster pistol size the gripframe continued to be that of the 3rd model Dragoon horse pistol and was out of all proportion to the rest of the gun. This however would be remedied in future Colt single action revolvers. 1861 and 1862 would see colt complete their new streamlined series of percussion revolvers with the 1861 Navy model and the 1862 Police model a .36 caliber five shooter that was designed to both take over the pocket size of revolvers for Colt and be of sufficient caliber and lightness for the new Uniformed police departments that cities were beginning to organize. However two of the older octagon barrel Colts would remain in manufacture because of their popularity. These were the 1850 pocket model and the 1851 Navy.
Remington basically made what they already had more robust and changed the hammer spur profile to a lower more modern one in their Civil War era revolvers. However because of their solid frame and quick cylinder replacement loading system Remingtons were desitned to become more popular late in the war amongst handgun carrying soldiers than the official 1860 Army Colts. This led the Union to finish off their Civil War revolver orders with Remingtons rather than Colts.
Aftermath
With the exception of Smith and Wesson replacing the model 2 with a more pockatable five shot .32 called the Model 1 1/2 the end of the Civil War baically saw most revolver development going to Europe and particularly Britian where rimfire cartridge conversion of Adams and Trainter Revolvers was becoming common place and Adams was making the first dedicated center fire revolvers finally making a percussion cap varient of the Pauly cartridge practictal in .450 caliber. In America there was simply a waiting game around the expiration of the Rollin White patent identical to that of the waiting game around the Colt patents at the end of the 1850s. There were a few more oddball attempts to evade the Rollin White patent including an attempt from Colt with their center fire front loading Theur conversion cartidge and cylinder but nothing came of them. However Smith and Wesson was no longer in the cat bird's seat even though their monopoly continued. An attempt by them to extend the Rollin White patent was shut down in Congress and the competition would be comming fron the other companies currently locked into percussion revolvers only or oddball Rollin White patent evasion systems. To keep ahead of the coming competition Snith and Wesson would have to come up with something BIG!!!!
Part 3 - The Cartridge Era in Full Flower