Who invented the revolver?
Let's start with the differences. How to distinguish a revolver from a pistol? In fact, everything is extremely simple. In a pistol, cartridges are fed from the magazine into the chamber one by one as the bolt moves. The bolt moves automatically due to the energy generated when the powder gases are fired. The shooter only has to aim and pull the trigger. Due to automation, the rate of fire increases significantly. And the pistol also unloads automatically - spent cartridges are thrown out after each shot.
A revolver has a rotating drum into which cartridges are inserted. The name of the revolvers came from this detail - (revolve - rotate, English)
. After the shot, the spent cartridge remains in the drum, so you have to spend some time using an extractor to free the drum from cartridges and reload it. Despite this, the revolver still has advantages. One of them: in case of a misfire, it is enough to simply pull the trigger again, while on a pistol in this case you must first pull the bolt again. But many good shooters died precisely because of this misfire!
At the beginning of the 19th century, revolvers began to appear. Although, to tell the truth, a similar device with such a mechanism existed before. Many items have survived - mainly hunting rifles - which also have a drum that serves both as a magazine and a chamber.
June 10 American officer and designer Artemas Wheeler
Patents a silicon revolver in the USA.
In November of the same year, with a copy of this revolver, another American, E. H. Collier
sailed to England and took out an English patent in his name. It is believed that he acted at Wheeler's request, but it is impossible to say for sure.
The invented revolvers had a very short firing range, and due to their high cost and complexity of production, they were not particularly widespread.
When the percussion cap lock and the percussion composition for igniting the charge appeared, all the conditions were created for the invention of a real revolver.
Samuel Colt was born in Hartford
, in the future - an extraordinary businessman. And already in 1834−35. John Pearson, a gunsmith, developed the first workable model for Colt, who paid him a salary, although it is also said that Colt himself invented his revolver. There is also information that the revolver design was proposed in the 30s of the 19th century by the Englishman Charles Shirk, taking Collier’s drum gun and the ideas of the Frenchman Mariette as a basis.
In general, it is not known for sure whether Colt is really a brilliant inventor, or whether he just took advantage of the ideas of others. However, on December 18, 1835, Colt patented his cap-ignited revolver in England and gave it the name “Paterson” - after the city where Colt’s manufactory was located. And on February 25, a year later, he received a patent in the USA. The revolver became especially popular in Texas, so soon this revolver began to be called by the name of this state. This revolver was much more popular than its predecessors, and brought real profits.
It is impossible to say who originally invented the revolver. Wheeler and Colt can also be considered the inventor of the revolver. Be that as it may, the undeniable merit of the latter is that Colt is the first person to discover the mass production of these weapons.
Tags: weapons, revolver, colt, history, inventor
Who invented the revolver remains a mystery
The first patent for an automatic revolver was received 183 years ago, on February 25, 1836, by Samuel Colt.
But there are still different versions about who developed the Colt revolver. Historians claim that Colt was not a talented designer - he was, rather, a successful and prudent businessman. On February 25, 1836, he received the first patent in the United States for a 6-shot 45-caliber revolver, and 10 days later he opened his own production. The first pistol model was first called “Paterson” after the city where the revolver factory was opened, but soon received the name “Texas” for its popularity among the residents of this state.
In 1842, Colt's enterprise went bankrupt, and he began developing underwater mines, for which he even received $20,000 from Congress. But at the beginning of 1847, Colt again began producing revolvers, receiving a large order from Ranger Captain Samuel Walker, who highly appreciated the quality of his revolver. He resumed production at the Eli Whitney factory in Connecticut. The new model was called the "Army Model 1847" or "Walker Pistol".
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History of the revolver
In operation, it was very unreliable, because such a system is dangerous because burning particles of gunpowder and sparks from the shelf could ignite not only the charge that was located in the drum chamber being used, but also those in neighboring chambers. In other words, there was a double shot, simultaneously from two chambers of the drum, one of which passed by the barrel. Therefore, the first revolvers did not become widespread.
In 1818, the American Artemas Wheeler created and patented in the United States a revolver with a flintlock, the design of which eliminated the possibility of powder gases getting into the gap between the barrel and the chamber. This was achieved with the help of a spring, which moved the drum forward during the shot, and the chamber was put on the protrusion of the barrel.
In the same year, Wheeler's fellow countryman and comrade, Collier, patented this revolver in England. There he opened a factory producing revolvers and shotguns designed by Wheeler. However, this revolver also had many shortcomings, which were resolved with the invention of the percussion cap mechanism.
At the end of 1835, the young American Samuel Colt received the world's first patent for the Colt-Paterson capsule revolver. And the very next year Colt launched its mass production. In 1839, the modernized Colt-Paterson was released, which had a lever for pressing bullets into the drum, making the loading process simpler and clearer. Colt launched other similar models, but they were not in great demand, and only in 1851 the Colt model 1851 “Marine” revolver he released became widely popular and was produced for more than 20 years.
Thus, it is impossible to unambiguously name the creator of the revolver. Wheeler created it earlier, but it was the Colt revolver that became widespread, and recognition is determined by popularity.
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His Majesty Revolver
The photo on the right shows the Colt-Patterson 5th model (left) and Smith & Wesson model 610 (right) revolvers.
The thorny path of His Majesty the Revolver from flintlocks and matchlocks of the 16th century to the latest high-tech masterpieces of the 21st century, capable of knocking down an elephant at 100 meters with the first bullet with perfect lines of appearance.
Such revolvers in those days were very expensive to produce; after shooting the entire drum, loading it took an unrealistically long time for combat, plus the above-mentioned disadvantages. As a result, it becomes clear why such revolvers were practically never used by anyone; neither the army, nor the forces of law and order, nor citizens were interested in these weapons.
Collier's flintlock revolver.
Collier's revolver flintlock.
The second round of evolution is the capsule.
The same Colt model 1851 Navy in a state of incomplete disassembly.
Lefoshe 7 mm caliber pinned revolver cartridge case. The branding reads “Russian PF”. You can see a pin sticking out of the sleeve.
Schematic drawing of a Lefoshe revolving pin cartridge.
Lefoshe system hairpin revolver, first modification.
Unitary revolver cartridges with central and side firing. The reliability and efficiency of the revolver is rapidly increasing.
In 1878, the Belgian manufacturer Emil Nagan produced the first successful revolver he designed; the cartridges for the revolver were unitary, with black powder and a primer on the bottom of the cartridge case; the primer was broken by a striker, as on modern revolvers. This 9.4 mm caliber revolver was supplied to the Belgian army.
Revolver of the Nagant system, model 1878, “Belgian” model.
Cartridges used in Nagant system revolvers, in models starting from 1893. On the left is the first version of the cartridge, with a narrowed cylindrical cartridge case, on the right is a later version, with a smooth tapering of the cartridge case.
Revolver of the Nagant system, model 1895, model of one of the first series, produced in 1898.
So, in 1895, Leon Nagant developed an improved model with a double-action self-cocking trigger mechanism, improved sealing and a monolithic frame, which made the gunsmith famous throughout the world. This revolver was used all over the world, including in Russia. The production of the Russian Nagant was established at the Tula Imperial Plant; there were so-called “officer” revolvers with a self-cocking trigger mechanism and “soldiers”, in which it was necessary to cock the trigger before each shot; self-cocking was deliberately blocked in order to save ammunition. The Model 1895 revolver of 7.62 mm caliber was very widely used in both World Wars and was in service with many armies until the mid-20th century, and in some places even later. Perhaps the Nagan 1895 was and is the most famous revolver in the world; many even confuse these concepts, “revolver” and “Nagant”.
Revolver. The day is today.
Over time, a variety of revolvers began to appear, any kind of cartridge extraction and reloading mechanisms were offered, the most viable were options with a drum that tilted to the side (Nagant, model 1910, had the same design) and options with the upper part of the frame that folded down. There were even automatic revolvers that used the energy of combustion of powder gases to roll back the top of the frame; an example of such a design is the British Webley Fosbery revolver of the 1896 model.
An example of a modern nickel-plated Colt Python 357 revolver with a six-inch barrel and ergonomic wood grip.
Also, speaking about modern revolvers, it is worth noting a lot of other models, which I don’t see the point in, we have a Weapons Catalog, if you are interested, read it. But in general, here are a few more models:
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Master of the Wild West: Revolver vs. Modern Pistol
The most unusual revolver models
“Essentially, twelve gauge
-
This is the caliber of a hunting rifle.
There, if you measure in millimeters, it’s about eighteen and a half millimeters, which would be a revolver of enormous destructive power,” said
Alexander Kamkin, leading researcher at the Center for German Studies at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
History of the revolver
“This legend originated in the Wild West in the mid-19th century. In order to bury a person normally, they stuffed a banknote into an empty chamber, which was taken by the undertaker, who, accordingly, used this money to make at least some kind of primitive coffin and bury the unfortunate poor fellow who was unlucky,”
-
explained .
Why did gunfighters shoot without missing?
Howard Derby is the fastest shooter on the planet. In less than one second, he can draw a revolver from his holster and accurately hit up to five targets from the hip. From the moment of the starting signal to the first shot, Derby takes only a quarter of a second. This is an absolute world record. They say that gunfighters shot without missing because the cartridges for the first revolvers were very expensive. But it is not so. The main secret of accurate high-speed shooting is in carefully calibrated movements brought to absolute automatism.
“The shooter can bend back, bend as much as possible, so that the revolver travels the minimum distance.
And the shooter actually makes the shot on his side,”
noted
gunfighter Alexey Gezin.
For what qualities is a revolver valued?
“He disassembled ten models of his pistol, mixed all the parts and from randomly selected parts from the boxes, he reassembled ten pistols, and all turned out to be working,”
-
explained Alexander Kamkin.
An interesting fact: the first models of revolvers were produced without safeties - they were added later. And gunfighters of the 19th century left one of the six chambers in the cylinder of a revolver empty precisely for security reasons, and not at all in order to hide a bill there for the undertaker.
The Superiority of the Modern Pistol
The clip of a modern pistol can hold up to 20 rounds of ammunition, while a revolver can hold a maximum of eight, and usually six, rounds. This is a major trump card of pistols.
“Who were the arms companies counting on? First of all, this is a law enforcement officer, this is the army. A soldier or officer on the battlefield, can you imagine how long it will take him to reload this revolver?”
—
said the President of the Russian Practical Shooting Federation Mikhail Gushchin.
Revolver Superiority
Reliability. According to this criterion, a revolver outperforms a pistol: in the event of a misfire, the revolver can fire immediately, just press the trigger again. The pistol shooter will have to jerk the bolt.
Israeli "Desert Eagle" 50 caliber
From all that has been said, we can conclude that it is too early to write off the revolver. Perhaps in the near future pistols will finally prove their superiority. But so far there is no winner in the duel of short-barreled muzzles.
Engineering insights, history, scientific analytics and the secrets of our planet - look at this and much more in the episodes of the “Did you know what?” program. with Alexey Ivanchenko. Every Tuesday at 23:30 on REN TV!
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