The Express.
London, England, 1851-11-27 00:00:00

COLTS REVOLVERS.

At the meeting of the Institution of Civil En-
gineers, held on the 25th inst., a paper was read on the
application of machinery to the manufacture of rotating
chambered-breech fire-arms, and the peculiarities of those
arms, by Colonel Samuel Colt, U.S., America.
The communication commenced with an historical ac-
count of such rotating chamber fire-arms as had been dis-
covered by the author, in his researches alter specimens of
the early efforts of armourers for the construction of repeat-
ing weapons, the necessity for which appears to have been
long ago admitted. The collections in the Tower of Lon-
don, the United Service Museum, the Rotunda at Wool-
wich, Warwick Castle, the Mueie d'Artillerie, and the
Hotel Cluny, at Paris, as well as some ancient Eastern
arms, brought from India by Lord NVilliam Bentinck, de-
monstrated the early efforts that had been made to product
arms capable of rapidly firing several times consecutively
without the delay of loading after each discharge. Draw•
ings of these specimens were exhihitesl, comprising the
match-lock, the pyrites wheel-lock, the flint-lock, down to
the percussion-heel, as adapted by the author. Among the
match-lock guns some had as many as eight chambers, ro-
tatiug by hand ; mid the length of the chambers, as well as
the thinness of the barrel, showed the bad quality of the
gunpowder at the period of their construction. Some of
the pyrites wheel-luck guns had also as nanny as eight
chambers, and rotated by hand; one of them, made in the
pith century, hail the peculiarity of igniting the charge
close behind the bullet, burning backwards towards
the breech; an arrangement identical in principle with
that of the modern Prussian " Needle Gun," for
which great merit has been claimed. The flint leeks
induced more determined efforts, but all were abortive,
as the magixines for priming, and the pan covers were
continually blown off on the explosion of the charge. In-
deed from the earliest matchlock down to the present time,
the premature explosion of several chambers, owing to the
simultaneous ignition of the charges, from the spreading of
the fire at their mouths, hail been the great source of diffi-
culty. In some of the mood ancient specimens, orifices were
bprovided in the butt of the barrel fur the escape of the
ullets in case of esplostone, whilst others had evidently
been destroyed by this action. In a brass model of a pistol
of the time of Cuarles 11., from the United Service Mu-
seum, there was an ingenious attempt to cause the
chamber to rotate, by mechanical action, in some
degree similar, but more complicated, than the
arms constructed by the author. The " Coolidge "
and the "Collier" guns, both flint guns of compa-
ratively modern manufacture, exhibited the same radical
defects of liability to premature explosion. The invention
of Neck's patent breech, and the Rev. Mr. Forlyth's in-
troduction of the detonating or percussion guns, which
latter principle, with the necessary mechanical arrange-
ments for the caps, was essential to the safe construction of
repeating fire-arms, constituted a new era in these a capons ;
and the author, recognising the peculiar wants in a country
whose inhabitants were constantly moving onwards towards
new settlements, where the pioneers were repaired to pro-
tect themselves and families, by their personal prowess,
frequently against fearful inequality of numbers, irons the
attacks of the aboriginal Indians, whose peculiar mode of
warfare could only be coped with by rapid and repeated
firing, it was natural that attention should be
directed to the production of self-acting repeating arms.
The author, being fully cognisant of these wens, but en-
tirely unaware of any previous attempts to produce such
weapons, made a series of experiments on skeleton fire-
arms, which were very successful ; but subsequently he tell
into many of the errors of his predeceseors, fur, by covering
the breech and the mouths of the chambers, simultaneous
explosion of several charges constantly occurred. This in-
duced the restoration of the arms nearly to their original
skeleton form, and the result was the production of the
present perfect arm. The means for manufacturing these
arms on a large scale was the main point of the paper; fur,
unlike the system adopted in Eugland and on the Con-
tinent, of making fire-arms almost entirely by manual
labour, the several parts comprising these weapons are,
in Cul. Colt's manufactory, forgisl, planed, shaped, slotted,
drilled, tapped, bored, sided, and even engraved by ma-
chinery, to sash an catent, that 10 per ceut. only of the
value of the arm goes for hand labour in finishing and
ornamenting; 90 per cent. being executed by automa-
ton machines, guided by women and children, whose
labour was represented by 10 per cent., leaving 80 per
cent. for the machinery. The action of these machines
was described ; and it appeared that though, like
a cotton, or LIZ mill, the numufactory, at first sight, ap-
peared intricate, yet that each part travelled independently
through its course until at length the finishing workmen
had ouly to put the several parts together, almost indiscri-
minately, and the uniformity was no precise that little or
no fitting was required beyond removing the " burr " or
rough edge left by the machines. This was a point of
great importance, especially in a country of such extent as
America, where the necessity for sending arms from one
district to another for repair might be attended with serious
consequences. The arms now manufactured by the author,
and of which numerous specimens were exhibited, were of
the simplest construction ; the lock consisted of only five
working parts contained in a luck frame cut out from the solid
metal, into which the bre ch arbor was firmly inserted,
and by it rigidly attached to the barrel in such a mauser
as to regulate, with the greatest precision, the contact
between the end of the barrel and the mouths of the
cylinders, so as to pre vent any serious escape of lateial fire.
Ihe Tanning of the cylinder was accomplished by a self-
aeting 'eve r, to which motion was given by ttie act of draw-
ing back the hammer; at half-cock the cylinder wis free
to rotate in one direction, for the purpose of loading and
putting the cape on the nipples, the form r operation being
rapidly accomplished by the conversion of the ramrod into
a joiatcd lever attached to the barrel, by which means the
bullets were rammed home so securely, that no patch or
wadding was required. 'ltie grooves in the barrel were of
a peculiar spiral, commencing almost straight, aes the
breech end, and terminating at the murale in a curve of
small radius. The bullets were either of cylindrical or
conical shape; and from semi, di egrams of several practice
targets sent from Woolwich by Colonel Chalmere, R.A., for
exhibition at the meeting, it appeared that even by Men un-
accustomed to the use: of this particular arm, great precision of
thing could be attained, as with a small revolving belt pistol,
at a distance of fifty yards, out of torty-eight shuts, twenty-
! five bullets took e vet, within a space of one foot square,
and of them thirteen bit the bull's-eye, which WA* only
six inches in diameter; the whole unrulier of shots striking
the target.
This was the first American communication that had I
been brought before the institution, and it was received '
with acclamation ; and in the discussion which minuet, in
which the Honourable Abbott Lawrence (United States
minister). Captain Sir Thomas Rawlings, Captain
Sir Edward lieleher R.N., Captain Riddell, 1t.A.,. Mr.
Rielnuels, Mr. Miles, mid the members of the council took
part, the meat flattering testimosiy was given ed the cal..
ciency of the Colt resolvers in active service, and the
strongest opinions ea to the necessity of their use in all
frontier warfare, and that without this arm it was almost
impossible, except with au overwhelming force of troops, to
cope with savage tribes.
TR' President announced, that the discussion on this
subject would be renewed at the nest meeting, Tuesday,
Dec. 2, when the mechanical construction of the arm would
be mere particularly catered into.

C.tnunrixa, Nov. 26.—At a congregation holden
this day, the undermentioned degrees were couterred :
M.A. Charles King, Trinity College; D. Jsrman, St.
John's College; C. W. Dyer, Esunanuel Coll Ne. B.A.
Alemsader. Dennistoun, Trinity College; John iinisy
frereh. Trinity ; A.:ley Con". r, St. John's CJI.I
I.._e; i red. Francis Truy, Christ's College.