Revolvers of the unknown
Maybe even six hundred
Reserves will not be brought to you,
And help will not come to you.
"Revolver" Lindsay Gordon
stories about weapons. Why this epigraph? And here's what: there are those many whom we know - heroes on the battlefield, talented engineers, whose weapons these same heroes used, and used successfully. But there were more of those whom we do not know about. Who died only because there were too few of them to send them backup or a cruiser for fire support. How is it in the movie "Red Square": "Our losses are insignificant - an infantry battalion and an armored train". And the same applies to weapons. There were many excellent examples, with which they fought and were heroes, but which, for a number of reasons, did not become known, or were known at one time, and then simply forgotten. So today we will tell you about some of the samples of such weapons - primarily about revolvers. Well, I think we should start with a country like Britain, since, alas, nothing like the letter “A” was found.
Let's start with the revolver of Christopher George Bonehill, a gunsmith from Birmingham, who was born in 1831 in the family of an ironmonger. From about 1844 to 1851 he was a student of one Aston (possibly William Aston). He founded his own firm in 1851. However, it was not until 1873 that he transferred all production to the Belmont Firearms Works. Probably, around the same time, the company also became a contractor for Her Majesty's military department, that is, at that time a person made a brilliant career, which any industrialist could only dream of then.
Soon C. G. Bonehill became the head of the Birmingham test center. However, he himself was no stranger to invention. In 1877, he received patent No. 3718 for a shotgun, patent No. 2323 of 1878 again for a shotgun, and in 1880 he patented a shotgun breech and stock for it (No. 1952). In 1884, he received four patents at once: No. 8469 for barrels, No. 8471 again for a shotgun and No. 12586, issued jointly with A.J. Simpson, also for another shotgun, and in 1888 patent No. 7823 for a double-barreled gun and fuse. In 1895, patent No. 12578 of a change in the bolt of the Martini rifle was also received.
Interestingly, there is practically no information about the activities of this company from 1900 to 1965, when it closed. Presumably, she produced something military in 1914-1918, and probably in the period 1920-1935. it also suffered from the Great Depression. Then there was the Second World War and again work on government orders, and then a gradual decline in production until it ended in 1965.
It is all the more surprising that this company produced revolvers, and that these revolvers have survived to this day.
Before us is a Bonehill revolver with a closed frame, with a folding trigger and a side system for removing spent cartridges from the drum using an extractor rod. Loading and unloading takes place through the "Abadie door" on the right. The revolver has an octagonal barrel and 7 right-hand rifling. The original handles are made of walnut and are almost completely covered with a checkered pattern. Caliber .320. Barrel length 83 mm, total length 184 mm.
Everything is known in comparison: "Colt Detective Special" (above) and "Bonehill" (below) along with cartridges
This revolver must have been made sometime after 1870, when the .320 cartridge was introduced. With the exception of the use of an extractor rod, the Bonehill revolver bears some resemblance to the M1868 Tranter revolver and some Webley pocket revolvers. The design of the revolver is simple, and therefore reliable.
It is known that the company was a major supplier of sporting weapons and rifles for export. They made shotguns and combination shotguns, as well as the Britannia air rifle. From about 1900, this company also became the main supplier of rifles for the "Society of Clubs of Shooting from Small Bore Weapons". The society was founded to encourage rifle shooting among working-class men and is largely responsible for making small-bore rifle shooting a very popular sport in England. To this end, the old .303 Martini-Enfield rifles were chambered in .22 rimfire and sold to British citizens at a very reasonable price.
It is interesting that it was Bonehill who organized at his enterprise the first mechanized in-line production of weapons in England, the details of which no longer needed manual adjustment and were absolutely interchangeable. This idea was not new to the United States, where rifles have been mass-produced since the Civil War with a minimum of skilled manual labor. But for England, this was a truly revolutionary approach to production.
As a result, Bonehill began to produce durable, high-quality, undeniably cheap and, by today's standards, really good weapons, but he lacked a spectacular appearance or something and the feeling of a “quality product”, which was certainly important for the consumer. Well, in the end, the bulk of English weapons were then produced for a long time like this: the main parts were machined, and then ... turned and finished by hand.
And revolvers in England were produced by a certain Benjamin Cogswell. The revolvers issued by him are marked "Tranter's Patent", which indicates the origin of the patent. If you look, it is a Model 4 Tranter, but it has the inscription: “B. Cogswell 224 Strand, London" which refers to its manufacturer. At the same time, it is known that Cogswell actually lived in London at this address from 1841 to 1900.
The same revolver with a lever for tight bullet driving, characteristic of primer models. Left side view
George Henry Doe was also a revolver maker in London.
Capsule revolver made in the 1850s by British gunsmith George Henry Doe. Caliber .338, six-shot, double-action only. The frame is finely hand engraved with swirls in the British style of the era. Original white polished finish
Dow produced three models of revolvers, two of which were double and single action, calibers .497, .338 and one unusual caliber .28. He worked with the famous Scottish gunsmith Alexander Henry, who became famous for his special rifling in the barrels.
Henry's rifling revolvers have his name engraved on the top of the barrel. A feature of this revolver is that in addition to the fact that its drum rotates counterclockwise, it is also locked with a special mechanism. A flat spring on the left side of the frame, behind the drum, can be pressed inward to lock the hammer in the half-cocked position for loading. Once the trigger is in this position, the drum can be freely rotated by hand.
However, he was also no stranger to invention, because he equipped one of his revolvers with a terrible blade as much as 17 inches!
Henry Doe revolver with blade
The gunsmith Dean is known for producing conversion revolvers, that is, converting primer revolvers into cartridge ones. His company was called "Dean and Son", and it was Dean's son William who was its chief engineer.
It is known that the later famous Robert Adams worked in the store of George and John Dean at 30 King William Street, London Bridge, and developed a revolver, which later became known as the Dean-Adams model. Adams parted ways with the Dean firm in 1856 and commissioned Frederick Beaumont to design a new model, both single and double acting. Then William Harding came to work at the firm and became its chief designer. Together, Harding and the Deans patented a design for a percussion revolver that could operate in either single or double action mode. Subsequently, Dean and Harding patented and produced cartridge revolvers.
A very rare transitional model in .44 designed by Dean and Harding. Initially, it was sold with two drums: primer and cartridge. The hammer is designed in such a way that it allows you to shoot either rimfire cartridges or primers, and the revolver has retained the loading lever typical of primer revolvers. The photo clearly shows the horizontal trigger switch lever
Capsule revolvers were also produced by the master from Birmingham Harper James. Caliber .41. The frame is open, the revolver had an underbarrel lever for tight bullet driving.
Harper James double action revolver
Bullet tight lever on a Harper James revolver
In conclusion, we note that the most noticeable external difference between English and American revolvers was such a detail as a handle - more traditional in shape than American ones. In addition, as a rule, English revolvers were self-cocking, that is, double action, and often did not even have a trigger spoke.
To be continued ...
- Vyacheslav Shpakovsky
- littlegun.be
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