Earliest Revolvers

S

skyder

New member
When were revolvers first in service? Reading in "Covenant" by James Michener the other day and there was mention of revolvers in use in 1820. Made me curious since I thought that revolvers were more of the middle of the 1800s.
The research I tried didn't lead anywhere, so it just seems natural to ask the guys who know these things.
skyder
 
It depends on what you call a "revolver." A handful were made during the flintlock era but the number was so small they had no practical effect on weaponcraft. What we know as a revolver was preceeded by something called a "pepperbox" that had a long cylinder which in effect was also the barrel(s). These date from middle 1830's although a small number were made earlier. Sam Colt designed and manufactured the first commercially successful revolvers starting in 1836 but went out of business around 1843. In 1847 he came back with the famous "Walker Colt" and thereafter continued to this day. Colt revolver were popular, but not commonly used until the middle-later 1850's.
 
" In 1836 Samuel Colt patented an early and practicable revolving cylinder percussion hand arm. But Colt did not claim to have been the originator of the revolvolving gun mechanism. Best known of the workable early revolvers was Elisha H. Collier's flintlock. Collier, too, disclaimed its origin and credited Artemas Wheeler of Concord, Massachusetts, as having previously invented a flintlock revolving gun that fired seven or more times. Collier claimed only to have applied refinements to the Wheeler arm."......Hank Bowman, Antique Guns, 1953.

Early source for the term "Wheelgun" ?

Trivia...
Jonathan Browning (Father of John Moses) in 1849 advertised his willingness to manufactur to order revolving rifles and pistols.

Sam
 
Revolver is such an open term. But if you nean something that would look like a modern revolver with swing out cylinder and a full trigger guard, I'd probably say the the Smith HEs would be the earliest.
 
Thanks for the replies!
I get from the book that something resembling what we are familiar with is what the author had in mind. Great book, though, and a small anachronism is not going to damage the story.
What a wealth of info is available on this site!
 
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