The Express.
London, England, 1853-02-01 00:00:00

COLONEL COLT'S REPEATING PISTOL.

(From the Chid Service Gazette.)
As there is much misapprehension abroad with re-
spect to the real nature of Colonel Colt's invention, we
think it right to lay before our readers the following facts.
drawn from authentic sources. People are in the habit of
supposing that because clumsy monstrosities, with many
chambers and a single barrel, are found to have been
manufactured at a very remote period, Colonel Colt has
not only invented nothing, bat has attempted to assume to
himself the credit of a very old invention. One of these
curiosities was pointed out in triumph to ourselves at the
Museum in Whitehall-yard, and we were gravely told that
the unsightly weapon was in principle identical with Col.
Colt's, and that it had been manufactured two hundred
years ago. Judging from the appearance of its antique
butt, and battered brass mechanism, we had little
doubt that our informant's assertion with respect
to its age win pretty accurate; but that it re-
sembled Colonel Colt's beautiful weapon any closer than
would the grossest caricature was a proposition which we
could by no means admit. The truth is that the notion of
having many chamte•rs to revolve behind a single barrel
dates as far back, in England, as the time of Oliver Crom-
well, and we are credibly informed that even the Chinese,
clumsy and ill-constructed as all their fire-arms are, have
known the revolving pistol for a very long time. Colonel
Colt lays no claim to the invention of the broad principle,
but to the improvement of that principle, so that it has been
brought to the highest possible point of efficiency, and to
the invention of an ingenious, yet beautifully simple piece
of mechanism, for regulating the movements of the lock
and the chambers of the breech. The points of superiority
claimed by Colonel Colt for his pistol are, first, the facility
with which the six chambers may be loaded by means of a
compound lever ramrod, attached to the pistol, which
forces the ball so effectually home that the chamber con-
taining the powder becomes hermetically sealed, and if the
nipple be covered with a little wax the pistol may be im-
mersed for any length of time in water without danger of a
mis-fire; secondly, the perfect manner in which the revo-
lution of the chambers is directed, so that it is impossible to •
fire the pistol until the barrel and one of the chambers are
in a direct line, and so that there is no possibility of any
lateral escape of flame on the explosion of the powder ; and,
lastly, the superiority of projectile power, as to force, din.
times and accuracy over every other pistol that has been I
invented. That the gallant colonel is justified in laying I
claim to these, a few simple facts will abundantly testify.
Upon a trial by the Board of U. S Ordnance, out of 2,032
tested only one pistol failed in the inspection trial, and this
was attributed, by the report, "to the imperfect metal of
the particular arm." At the same trial one of Colt's holster
pistols was fired twelve hundred times, and his belt pistol
fifteen hundred times in succession, and the Board re-
ported that " Neither of the pistols appeared to be injured
by the firing." The penetration of Colt's holster pistol
was found to he through seven inches of board, and his
belt pistol through six inches, while the greatest pene-
tration of the common dragoon pistol was only through
five inches. In the Eastern Province News we read that
Mr. Peard, Col. Colt's agent in Southern Africa (whither
large numbers of his pistols have been consigned, with the
approbation of government, for the approval of the officers
engaged in the Kaffir war), having met with some difficulty
in establishing the reputation of the arm, brought the mat-
ter to a public trial, at a plate called Beaken's Valley. The
firing commenced at 200 yards; and out of six charges Mr.
Peard lodged two bullets into the target at that distance.
The range of the pistol was then tried, and it was found to
throw a ball a clear flight of six hundred yards ; and that
any object, the size of a human being, could be struck with
a tolerable degree of certainty at from a hundred and fifty to
two hundred yards. The latest testimony in favour of
Colonel Cult's pistol comes from Australia; for, in the
Observer of Saturday lest, a letter is quoted as direct from
the diggings, wherein it is stated that "Colonel Colt's re-
volvers are there considered the best, and are bringing
twenty-four pounds a-piece." With these facts before us
we can scarcely marvel at the testimony of Colonel Jack
Hayes, the redoubtable commander of the Texan Rangers,
who, after the experience afforded him by the use he made
of it during the Mexican war, pronounced this pistol to be
" unquestionably the most formdable weapon ever used in
battle ;" or at the testimony of the Texan representatives
in Congress, who stated in a letter to the President of the
United States, that " five thousand mounted men, armed
with two of these pistols and a rifle, would do more service
than twenty thousand armed in the ordinary way ;" but
we do marvel at the tardiness manifested by the authorities
of the War-office and Admiralty in adopting this weapon
throughout both the services. Colonel Colt has now esta-
blished a manufactory for kis revolvers at Thames Bank,
near Vauxhall bridge, and Contemplates, as we understand,
erecting a shooting gallery, affording a range of 100 yards,
upon the premises.