Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-01-19
DEADLY WEApOES.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN
REVOLVER.
Dueling Pistols of Half a Century Ago
Contrasted with the Latest
Weapons of To-day.

1
say-in the far South gentlemen defended
their honor at from forty to one hundred
PAGES apart with the famous old dueling
pistols of the period-weapons as large as
any army revolver of to-day-fourteen
inches long, single barreled, and loaded
with powder and ball. To-day a second
hand gun dealer has no use for one of these
antiquated weapons. Dueling is practi-
cally out of date, and the shooting man
now buys a hammerless double. action re-
volver, with its automatic cartridge ejector.
Thus have fashions in shooting-irons
changed. The evolution of the pistol has
kept pace with the scientific development
of almost every other production involving
inventive genius and skill in construction.
Modern pistol history does not begin un-
til Just within the second quarter of the
present century. In 1925 the weapon in
use was the oldtime fintlock, muzzle loaded
with powder and ball. In 1880 Samuel
Colt brought out "a device for combining a
number of long barrels so as to rotate upon
a spindle by the act of cooking the lock"
This weapon, called the "pepper-box," was
the primitive revolver. Six years later, as
the story goes, he obtained patent for an
improvement upon this plan, using rotary
cylinder containing seven chambers, all of
which discharge through one barrel"
Here was the revolver of to-day.
Neither the "pepper box" nor the first
revolver, both muzzle leaders themselves,
drove out the dueling pistol, just then in
the hight of its popularity, but they speed
iiv became the hand weapons ofthe plains
and of the "Forty miners" Powder and
ball were, after awhile, held more COM
pactly together in little paper cartridge,
set fire to by percussion cap, invented at
this time. The cap was placed on a nipple
at the rear Of each chamber of the cylin-
der, and upon it fell the hammer when the
trigger was pulled.
Contemporary with these weapons was
the deadly little Derringer, famous in Mis-
sissippi river brawls. In general scheme
it was simply a dueling pistol on a small
scale, except that it was rifled and of a
large bore-usually a caliber of Al. The
name was derived from that of the maker,
Derringer, of Philadelphia. 1t was bit
of weapon, from two to five inches long
"a pocket piece par excellence. In fact,
| the Western gamblers always carried them
in front trousers pocket, and when occa-
sion arose, quickly putting their hand
therein, would shoot-and kill-through
the cloth. Long did the Derringers hold
their ground against the new revolvers.
But lust before the war they had to go.
Their one or two barreled compactness
was no match for the revolver's five Shots
| To a Lafaucheux-belongs
the credit of inventing the breech-loader.
This was in 1886, but in the United
States, at least, the scheme did not seem
to be appreciated, and muzzle-loaders were
in use until 1858. In that year Rolin
! White took out patent for inserting the
cartridge at the rear end of the cylinder,
| the chamber of the cylinder being bored
entirely through and the barrel "broken"
upward instead of downward, as is the
case to-day. With this the "rim" cart
ridge was used, cartridge entirely of
metal, where the hammer fell on some
portion of the rim, on which the illuminate
was placed.
But the rim was not the first metal
cartridge Early in the forties Lefau-
cheux commenced experimenting in this
direction. His first device was combina-
| ton form, paper cartridge with metal
base In 1S45 he brought out the first
distinctively metal cartridge, known as
the spin fire." still in use and called by
his name. Here the hammer fell upon a
pin projecting out nearly half an inch,
The "center fire." most used to-day, where
the hammer strikes against depression
exactly in the middle, is product of the
sixties, but only within the last fifteen
years has it become popular.
During the war period it was "take what
you can get" The Government used prin-
cipally a muzzle-loading 45-caliber Colt,
for the new breech-loading weapon, as yet
in its infancy, was turned out in very linn
tied quantities. The South was even worse
off. There, for the most part, old-fash-
ioned weapons were in use, though they
managed to secure few Of newer style.
During the sixties series of clever de-
vices in firearms appeared. There were
constant attempts to get away from the
awkward muzzle-loading and yet evade the
patent held on loading at the breech. Few
of these experimental pistols have sur.
vived, except as euriosities. One of them
was the '-Slocum,' with barrel consisting
of FIVE sectional tubes loaded at the rear
The 'Sharp" of '64-'65 had four barrels
and revolving hammer.
1t was only small affair, made in %
so and S2-caliber. The "Elliot' of little
later date, four and five barreled, had q
concealed hammer and curious ring trig
ger To this period also belongs that ode
pistol with hammer underneath, which
actually rose instead of falling.
Made in the village of Catskill-on-Hud.
son, transgressing no patents, and never
patented itself, was that curious little
weapon called "the knuckle pistol" L
possesses an especial interest from being
almost purely local. 1t was the distinc
tive defense back in the seventies of tht
New York 'tough" "My friend was the
name it went by in the criminal parts O
town. 1t was principally cylinder anC
stock. The cylinder, four chambered
went almost to the end of the barrel. The
stock, the greater part of the pistol
dropped down much below, and in it
lower end was a thumb hole for its frs
service-that Of firing. For this pistol hac
double use. Immediately the four shot:
were exhausted, the man brought to bay
would grasp its barrel and use the stock
heavily loaded, as a miniature bludgeon
Nowadays these weapons-those left o
them-lie in secondhand Bowery shops
The "tough" of to-day sees the advantage
in the latest revolver out, with the auto
matte ejector.
Double-action revolvers, cooked either
with the trigger or the thumb, were known
in the days Of powder and ball, before the
the time of metal cartridges. The earliest
Remington, the Rider patent, was the
first of these. The ''pepper-box" was {
single action. 1t was self-cocking, as il
the new hammerless revolver, an invention
of the last couple of years, where, for the
purpose of safety, the hammer is com
pletely inclosed. This is almost the las
thing done in pistol-making. The very
last thing is the folding hammer" Here
the top of the hammer LES just on q leve
or slightly below the top of the barrel
there being nothing to project to ge
caught
The automatic election was devised il
1865. Originally the barrel Eas broker
down, the eiector moving with the hinge
In the newer pistols, however, within the
last few years, the barrel is broken side
WAYS by a screw motion. In the old style
automatic pistol, should cartridge rust
ia the cylinder, it was a difficult matter to
break the barrel down. With one OF the