"Unusual Americans" or gunsmiths against patent law

37

"Congress has the power...
to promote the progress of science and the useful arts
by providing authors and inventors
for a limited time exclusive right
on their works and discoveries.

United States patent law is codified in Title 35 of the United States Code and authorized by the US Constitution in Article One, Section 8, Clause 8.

stories about weapons. In the two previous articles in this series, we talked about the unusual European designs of firearms of the late XNUMXth century. And what about the original designs of the same revolvers at the same time in the USA? Everyone knows that the famous Colt revolver appeared there, that there were Smith and Wesson, Remington, but ... there were also enough designs, sometimes quite exotic, and today we will tell you about them.

But first, a few words about American patent law. To obtain a patent in the United States, the patented design must be new and, very importantly, not obvious. Patent law today is valid for 20 years, but in the 1790th century, the term of a patent under the first law of 14 was XNUMX years. In the application, the inventor was required to accurately describe everything new that distinguished his development from the previous ones and, I must say, that it was the American patent law that became the most advanced, thoughtful and effective at that time.



However, any restrictions sometimes only stimulate the activity of citizens to overcome them. So in the US, developed patent legislation has become an important incentive to fight it! Many designers, including designers of new types of weapons, began to strive to obtain patents for one or another of its improvements at any cost, and thus protect their business from encroachment for 17 years, while others just such "encroachments ' and got busy!


Revolver "Eagle Arms and K". Right view. And it seems to be nothing special ...

Let's start with the Eagle Arms & C° revolver, and if a revolver of this type has black grip plates, then this is a Mervin and Bry revolver, and if with brown plates, then this is an Eagle ”, with the only difference being that Eagle has a drum for six charges, while Mervin and Bria has five. Before us is a typical attempt to circumvent Rollin White's revolutionary patent, which Colt short-sightedly refused to buy, but Smith and Wesson bought ...

Like what did he invent? Revolver drum drilled through. But… it was these drums that eventually went, and when others saw it, they directed all their ingenuity to how to bypass this patent.


Drum unloader

The original design of this revolver was that the sleeves are loaded into its drum from the front of the cylinder and ejected by a rod installed behind it. And he shoots with special conical cartridges. That is, the drilling of the drum is not cylindrical, but conical! This is his novelty.

"Unusual Americans" or gunsmiths against patent law

Revolver drum "Eagle Arms and K". Front view


Revolver drum "Eagle Arms and K". Back view


Allen and Wheelock's 1858 primer revolver

Ethan Allen was born in 1806 and became one of America's preeminent gunsmiths of the 1831th century, and his name is found in the names of a number of companies that produced primer firearms: "I. Allen and Grafton, Massachusetts 1837-1837, Allen and Thurber, Norwich, Connecticut 1847-1847, Allen and Thurber, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1854-1854, Allen, Thurber and Co., Worcester, Massachusetts, 1856 -1856, "Allen and Wheelock", Worcester, Massachusetts, 1865-1865, "I. Allen & Co., Worcester, Massachusetts, 1871-XNUMX


This is how his bracket-lever works ...

Production began with single-shot primer pistols. Moreover, the new pistols with percussion locks looked almost exactly the same as with flintlocks. Allen then pioneered the double-action mechanism, which did not have the spoke required for manual cocking. Single-barreled pistols replaced double-barreled pistols, and by about 1837, a long line of "pepperpot" revolver models began to be produced.


When cartridges began to be used, this device began to be used for discharge. Below is the sidefire cartridge used in this revolver. The cartridge itself is also of an unusual design, it is welted, “side fire”, but the welt, that is, the rim, on the bottom of the sleeve has only a small protrusion on one side

Although Colt started producing revolvers around the same time that Allen and many other firms were producing their pepperboxes, it took at least 10 years for his revolvers to seriously compete in the US market with Allen's pepperboxes.


The end of the revolver drum chambered for Allen

Allen's firms continued to manufacture "pepper pots" as long as the main Colt patents were in effect, which is why the earliest Allen and Wheelock revolvers strongly resembled their own "pepper pots", since they were double action, and their trigger did not have a needle.

However, in order to compete with the Colt, Allen and Wheelock introduced this side-triggered single-action pocket revolver in 1858, which is more similar to Colt's 1855 revolver than to any previous design by Ethan Allen. But on the other hand, they had a unique loading system in which the trigger guard leaned forward and served as a lever for tight driving the bullet. Recall that for Colt revolvers this lever was located under the barrel, and for most English revolvers on the barrel on the left.


View of the equipped drum. The Abadi Door is open. The protruding welt of the cartridge is visible

The revolver of Charles R. Alsop of Middletown, Connecticut, ca. 1860–1863 Caliber .31, six-shot, 4-inch nickel-plated octagonal barrel. It does not seem to differ in any features, except that it has a purely European, but not an American design. But this is only at first glance. In fact, what he has inside is protected by a number of patents: patent dated 17.7.1860 No. 29213; dated 7.08.1860/29538/14.05.1861 No. 32333; dated May 21.01.1862, 34266 No. 25.04.1862; dated January 34803, XNUMX No. XNUMX; and dated April XNUMX, XNUMX No. XNUMX.


Charles R. Alsop revolver

It turns out that his drum consists of not one, but two parts. And why this is necessary, it is not clear at all. But a patent is a patent!


The drum of a Charles R. Alsop revolver and next to it is a disk that ensures its rotation

Brooklyn Firearms C° of Brooklyn, New York, also attempted to circumvent Rollin White's patent between 1863 and 1864. As a result, a Slocum revolver appeared chambered for .32 side-fire cartridges with side (!) Loading of cartridges into the drum.


The appearance of the revolver "Slocum"

There are through channels in the drum, but at the same time there are side channels, which is precisely the hallmark of the patented design.


Inside these channels are chamber tubes with corrugations on the outside. When loading, they are alternately pushed forward, a cartridge is inserted into the channel, then the chamber is pushed back (in this case, the cartridge just falls into the chamber!) And the drum is rotated to load the next cartridge. At the rear of the drum there are rectangular cutouts that provide a trigger strike on the rim of the cartridge.

The design feature of the revolver is separate drum chambers, thanks to which the loading and unloading of the weapon occurs bypassing the Rollin White patent owned by the Smith and Wesson company. The revolver has a "Mexican" trigger, brass body and grip. The patent for this original device was received on April 14, 1863. The volume of production is estimated at 10 copies.


Empty shells are removed from the chambers using the extractor on the right. It is clearly visible in this photo. You feed the chamber forward, and it squeezes the sleeve into the drum cavity. And then it is enough to shake the revolver to remove them from the drum chambers as well

"That's lovely!" Lucius V. Pond must have thought, looking at this revolver, and went even further in his design...


Lucius W. Pond seven-shot revolver with nipple ("Mexican")


Lucius V. Pond's revolver drum with chamber extended from it


The chamber for the drum revolver Lucius W. Pond

The revolver had a through cylinder, but the rear holes were smaller than the front ones, so it can only be loaded from the front. A total of 2 in .000 and about 22 in .5 were produced.

Another attempt to circumvent White's patent was the de Moore revolver, chambered in so-called "nipple cartridges," so named because they really did look a lot like baby nipples. The sleeves of the nipple cartridges had a rounded back and a welt in front. The bullet inside was surrounded by a "putty" of "cannon fat". Such cartridges were loaded into the drum from the front, and since the front hole was larger than the rear, for the “nipple-primer”, this allowed Rollin White's patent to be bypassed.


Revolver de Moore. Left side view


De Moore's revolver and "nipple cartridge" to it


Drum with a cartridge loaded into its chamber

So there are battles on the battlefield, and there are battles on the patent field. And here people strain their mind with all their might, just to defeat the enemy. And the battles among the American gunsmiths of the XNUMXth century, on this field, as we can see, were very cruel ...

PS


Photos used: littlegun.be

To be continued ...
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37 comments
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  1. +4
    April 18 2022 18: 28
    Vyacheslav smile , thanks for the interesting story and excellent photos, everything is at a high level! good

    I just didn’t understand how the cartridges were fixed in the drums of the Pond and De Moore revolvers, because the cartridge was inserted from the front of the drum and was not covered by anything, in theory, when the barrel was lowered down, according to all physical laws, almost all the cartridges simply had to fall out of drum to the ground. request
    1. +1
      April 18 2022 19: 52
      I join thanks to Uncle Kostya!
      Did something else surprise me?
      From the article.
      Brooklyn Firearms C° of Brooklyn, New York also attempted to circumvent Rollin White's patent between 1863 and 1864.

      The revolver of Charles R. Alsop of Middletown, Connecticut, ca. 1860–1863

      And further in the text.
      There is a Civil War on the North American continent - people are dying corny, and gunsmith designers, instead of spitting on "patent law" and doing their best, are cut for "legal roles" !!!
      1. +4
        April 18 2022 20: 31
        "I'm being cut down for" legal roles ". Namesake, hello.
        "elementary Watson": war is war, but no one canceled profits. And the "grandmothers" there were not frail.
        How is Marx about profit: "ready for any crime"?
        PS. I haven't read it in a long time, I can distort
      2. +1
        April 18 2022 20: 54
        stupid people die
        You might think something has changed in 160 years...
    2. +3
      April 18 2022 20: 14
      "We just had to get enough sleep" Kostya, good evening. These revolvers were always worn barrel up.
      Seriously though, is it possible that the capsule-welt fixed the cartridge?
      According to the idea, there should be some elementary garbage that fixes the cartridge
      1. 0
        April 19 2022 06: 59
        [quote=vladcub] the capsule-welt fixed the cartridge![/ Quote]
    3. +1
      April 18 2022 20: 32
      The chambers were smeared with Pushsalom.
      1. +3
        April 18 2022 20: 52
        No other option is visible. But under a unitary cartridge with a sleeve, a bullet and a percussion cap, it was already an anachronism.

        Hello Anton.
        1. +2
          April 18 2022 21: 12
          During the Civil War in the United States and "Brown Bess" was an anachronism, but was widely used by both sides of the conflict.
          Hi Uncle Kostya!
          By the way, according to the performance characteristics, the “dark-skinned woman” is not much different from a crossbow, but in some ways it loses, which is completely beyond!
          1. +1
            April 18 2022 21: 36
            Well, it also depended more on the shooter, during the War of Independence, the British got it from their own guns, the American trappers hit a "fly" in the eye, where could ordinary soldiers compete with them. A very successful gun.
            1. +2
              April 18 2022 21: 43
              Think about it, for more than a hundred years the Volyn was in service with the British army! And you talk about pushsale as an anachronism...
              1. +3
                April 18 2022 22: 02
                She could have been for two hundred years, their business, but the fluff on a weapon with a unitary cartridge is an anachronism!
                1. +1
                  April 18 2022 22: 13
                  I agree, BFG-9000 rules! However, you didn't play Doom II.
                  "In our time, Pendalf, everything is decided by tank wedges and tactical nuclear strikes" (C).
                  PS And I was counting on an interesting dialogue...
                  1. +2
                    April 18 2022 22: 26
                    And I don’t see a topic for dialogue here, if you are talking about Bessie, so on this model flintlock guns have completely exhausted their capabilities, but we have already talked about pushsalo. Everything is good in its time. I didn't really play Doom II. Was it worth it?
                    1. +2
                      April 18 2022 22: 35
                      It was worth it. A shooter classic.
                      1. 0
                        April 19 2022 11: 52
                        Now I looked at the pictures and realized that I once played something similar. I don't remember anything at all, it was a long time ago.
        2. 0
          April 19 2022 13: 21
          Quote: Sea Cat
          No other option is visible. But under a unitary cartridge with a sleeve, a bullet and a percussion cap, it was already an anachronism.

          No, not an anachronism. In addition to smearing the revolver chambers, in order to eliminate the ignition of gunpowder in neighboring chambers, pushsal had a second important quality - softening of powder deposits from black powder. When the era of unitary cartridges began, grooves on bullets were filled with pushsal or a soaked navoinik was placed between the gunpowder and the bullet.
          1. -1
            April 19 2022 13: 26
            It was only about the method of holding the cartridge in the drum chamber.
            1. The comment was deleted.
            2. 0
              April 19 2022 14: 23
              Quote: Sea Cat
              It was only about the method of holding the cartridge in the drum chamber.

              The cartridges in the de Moore revolver were fixed by friction. In the front of the cartridge there is a small rim that enters the countersunk area in front of the chamber and thereby holds the cartridge. The countersink of the drum is clearly visible in the last photo in the article.
              1. 0
                7 July 2022 20: 46
                And how to pull it out? It's just that the cartridge has nowhere to fall out. There is an obstacle in front of the sleeve around the entire circumference of the drum. And where the cartridges are put into the drum, there is an analogue of the "Abadie's door".
                But how Pond dealt with this is not clear.
                1. 0
                  10 July 2022 08: 40
                  The drum was removed, after that the spent cartridges were removed and reloaded. It didn't scare anyone at the time.
      2. +2
        April 18 2022 21: 22
        Anton, greetings. In my opinion, not the best fix: one way or another, the garbage will stick, and then fuck with cleaning
        1. +1
          April 18 2022 21: 29
          Hello, Glory!
          However, it is widely used on models with separate loading, which Shpakovsky wrote about repeatedly.
        2. +3
          April 18 2022 21: 30
          My husband did not like to clean his PM, but I liked to clean it. True, the hands were dirty. There was a colleague: "Horse, cannibal" he uses an ultrasonic bath for cleaning. Too bad we didn't have one. Then the hands would not get dirty, otherwise it's not nice
    4. 0
      7 July 2022 20: 42
      De Moore has a hinged lever that plays the role of Abadi's door. And the cartridge could fall out only in this place, in other sectors the cartridge has nowhere to fall out.
      1. 0
        7 July 2022 20: 57
        This lever does not look like a "door", in any position it does not lock anything.
  2. +1
    April 18 2022 20: 43
    Q. Oh, what was the weight of the Brooklyn revolver? All the same, 32 rounds, chambers - everything adds weight
    In my opinion: the design is not the most practical. The simpler the more reliable.
    1. +3
      April 18 2022 20: 49
      Glory, hello!
      All the same, 32 rounds,

      .32 is the caliber, and there were five or six rounds in the drum. All in all. wink
      1. +2
        April 18 2022 21: 15
        Kostya, read for yourself: "32 with side loading of cartridges" if you do not think about it, this is a caliber, you can take it as a quantity.
        V. O did not come up with a very successful formulation.
        1. +2
          April 18 2022 21: 30
          There, before the number 32, there is a dot ".32", which means the caliber of the weapon in inches.

          "Caliber - the diameter of the bore of a firearm, as well as the diameter of a bullet (projectile), expressed in inches, lines (0,1 inches), millimeters. The .32 caliber designation implies a whole class of cartridges of 7,65 mm caliber" (c)

          And look at the size of the drum, well, how can three dozen rounds fit in there? smile
          1. 0
            April 19 2022 12: 46
            Didn't look at the dot.
            1. 0
              April 19 2022 13: 24
              They say the devil is in the details. smile drinks
              1. 0
                April 19 2022 14: 17
                Exactly. Now, if I don't understand, I'll ask you. You know more
  3. +1
    April 18 2022 21: 27
    Good evening . Out of boredom, I climbed into Armament. It's still not my specialty.
  4. +2
    April 18 2022 22: 51
    I liked the whole cycle about revolvers. Thanks to the author!

    The color of the revolvers Allen and Alsop was interested in, bronze (or brass). Does anyone know what cover they used? In principle, it can be bluing, but the color is very continuous.
    1. -1
      April 19 2022 12: 43
      I myself noticed that the coloring for that period was unusual.
  5. 0
    April 19 2022 10: 58
    Quote: "to promote the progress of science and the useful arts by granting authors and inventors for a limited time the exclusive right to their works and discoveries"
    Actually, in fact, this provision from the American constitution (1783) perhaps most successfully reflects what should be the approach to the entire system of the so-called. "copyright". Which shall be granted only for a limited time and only for the purpose of promoting the progress of science and the useful arts.
    Moreover, it should be especially noted that the current legislation of the United States and not only in this respect (a special "hello" to the "Bern Convention") does not comply with these principles. The duration of "copyright" is frankly prohibitive, and there is no other purpose for its existence, except for the protection of property interests and the thirst for profit of big business, primarily in the film industry. So it goes :(

    But it's just like that, in the order of offtopic.

    And the article is very good, yes. Thanks to the author for an interesting text!

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