Home Index Search Handguns Visual Selection British North American Italian German Belguim French Spanish Austrian Russian Czechoslovacian Turkish South African Hungarian Brazilian Israeli Competition Firearms Shotguns References Links Gunsite SAGA PAAA SAAACA Contact E-mail me!

Adams’ Patent Small Arms Company, London. John Adams patented the solid frame revolver in 1851 and in 1864 he formed the above company. In 1955 the British Army had adopted a Beaumont-Adams percussion revolver as the ‘Dean & Adams Revolver Pistol’. John Adams now perfected a conversion system to change these revolvers to breech loading. This needed a new cylinder, rammer, and loading gate. It was accepted for naval service as the ‘Dean and Adams Revolver Pistol, converted to BL, by Mr J Adams on November 1868’. The converted five shot revolvers became known as the Mk 1. This was an interim measure pending the adoption of a fresh design of breech-loading revolver. In February of 1872, the "Pistol, Adams, Central Fire, B.L. Mark 2" was adopted - these revolvers were made as cartridge arms, with a two-piece frame and six-shot cylinder, but retaining the fixed ejector rod. Six months later the Mk 3 came out with an improved extractor. Several Colonial countries and foreign governments adopted the Adams Mk 3. But in the British service they were superseded by the Enfield in 1880. Probably because of the military demand for the Adams revolvers, few appear to have reached the commercial market. This large revolver’s solid frame is actually in two parts like the Deane/ Harding model and not like previous Adams models. The barrel was included in one part of the frame. Trigger mechanism is double action like the previous Adams design used by Webley and Tranter. The swing type pin for pushing out cases was replaced by a sliding pin, attached to the front of the frame from a Tranter patent. Like with the percussion- and previous cartridge revolvers, Adams was the biggest competition for Colt and was copied in large quantities. It was also manufactured in America. It is classified as an antique in the USA. (Ref. ‘Pistols of the world’ by Hogg and Weeks p21, Internet Gun Club)

99874