Hunh. Who knew? Like most firearms hobbyists, I was aware of odd precursors to the Colt revolver, but I sure didn't know about Elisha Collier's relatively-successful flintlock revolvers -- or that Samuel Colt had seen them.
This takes no glory away from Colt, who devised a more-compact mechanism and was the first to incorporate percussion caps, resulting in the first genuinely-reliable repeating sidearm and jumpstarting seventy years of remarkable advancement in gun design.
Very cool post! I did not know the revolver is coming up on 200 years of use.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't have OSHA and the Fire Marshal breathing down the back of your neck.
ReplyDeleteAnd Collier's version automatically meted out a bit of primer powder with each cock of the hammer.
ReplyDeleteMore complex, indeed. There's no telling how many complicated hand-manufactured and fitted pieces were eliminated with the invention of the percussion cap.