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Colt’s Patent Firearms Manufacturing (1847-1947)(1955-1964) Colts Manufacturing Company (1947-1955) Colt’s inc. Firearms Division (1964-) Colt in England: Colonel Samuel Colt (1814-1862) registered a patent in England for a percussion revolver in 1835 (No.6909) giving a Ludgate Hill address. On 20 June 1849 he patented improvements to the revolver (No.12668) whilst at Trafalgar Square (Scottish patent in 1850). In 1851 he patented several improvements to the revolver action (No.13823), and exhibited revolvers at the Great Exhibition. These generated much interest, 25 being sold to officers serving in the Cape of Good Hope, and a dozen for the Admiralty who wanted to trial them. The first revolver trial was held on 10 September 1851 at Woolwich but on this occasion Colt's pistols did not perform well; the Adams revolvers were the best. In November 1851 Colt gave a lecture to the Institution of Civil Engineers on the manufacture of revolvers, he was elected an Associate of the Institute and awarded the Telford Medal for his achievements. In 1852 he established an office in London (managed by Charles F Dennett) at 1 Spring Gardens, Cockspur Street and a factory at Bessborough Place, Millbank (Thames Bank, Pimlico). In January 1853 the factory started producing revolvers on the top three floors of the building, the basement housed planing machines and was used for making new tools. By June 1853 the factory was producing the .44 calibre Dragoon revolver, the .36 calibre 1851 Navy model, and the .31 1849 Pocket model. It used steam driven machinery and about 200 locally recruited staff were paid well above the average rates of pay for that time (from 10 shillings to 20 shillings per day). The staff, including 25-30 American technicians, were even provided with changing rooms and the first showers in a London factory. On 3 March 1853 he patented revolver improvements (Nos. 535 and 538 - the latter not traced) and a boring machine(No.1703). In March 1854 Prince Albert was shown round the factory and presented with a revolver, as was Charles Dickens. On 22 February 1854 Colt patented rifling and gun making machinery (Nos.429 and 861 respectively). In that year Britain and Russia declared war, the Colt factory supplied 23,500 revolvers to the British armed forces. On 9 June 1855 Samuel Colt patented a breech plug screwed and brazed to the barrel (No.1323) and together with William Thomas Eley improved bullet design and lubricated metal foil cartridge cases (No. 1324). Also in 1855 his offices moved to 14 Pall Mall. In 1856 he patented an improved backsight and bullet lubrication (No.908). In 1858 production in London was scaled back as the war in the Crimea ended; the new factory in Connecticut, USA could supply world demand. The factory, which had manufactured about 55,000 revolvers in 5 years, was taken over by the government as a Small Arms Repair Establishment and a training school for Armourer Sergeants. A new factory, which was not much more than a warehouse, was opened at 27 Chandos Street. In 1859 it moved to 37 Chandos Street before it finally closed in 1860. In 1862 Samuel Colt died and in 1864 the name of the firm was changed to Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Co. In 1891 the firm moved to 26 Glasshouse Street, Regent Street and in 1904 to 15a Pall Mall where they stayed until 1913. From 1914 to 1934 (?) the firm was represented in the UK by London Armoury Co Ltd. The U.S. Navy began its search for a new handgun to replace the aging converted 1851 Navy revolvers in 1887. These revolvers had been converted to .38 cal. center-fire in 1873, but were still outdated. In the mid 19th century, Colt manufactured revolving pistols for the Army and Navy that were based on a design by William Mason and Carl J. Ehbets. William Mason left Colt in 1882 to work for Winchester, but Ehbets remained at Colt, and continued to refine the design that they had collaborated on. These refinements led to the Model 1889. The Colt Model 1889 was the first double-action revolver that was manufactured using a swing-out cylinder. This design had two advantages over previous designs, in that it allowed for fast loading but also maintained the strength of a solid frame. The Model 1889 was chambered for the .41 Long Colt, .38 Long Colt and .38 Short Colt cartridges The Navy decided to replace the weapon with the Model 1889 .38 cal. Colt revolver, and ordered five thousand of them. The weapon did have a problem in that the cylinder did not have locking notches, or use a center pin and was prone to move out of alignment which could lead to misfires. The Model 1889 differed from earlier Colt revolvers in that its cylinder rotated counterclockwise instead of clockwise. This seems to have originated with U.S. Navy requirements, but the direction of rotation works against the cylinder lock and tends to force the cylinder out of alignment with the barrel. This weakness allowed the cylinder to rotate while holstered or even while the shooter was pulling the trigger. The Navy version was blued, and had a six-inch barrel. It was manufactured with hard rubber grips. Civilian versions had either a blue or nickel finish, and had walnut grips. Sometimes it can have ivory grips The Model 1889 differed from earlier Colt revolvers since its cylinder rotated counterclockwise instead of clockwise. This seems to have originated with U.S. Navy requirements, but the direction of rotation worked against the cylinder lock and tended to force the cylinder out of alignment with the barrel. This weakness allowed the cylinder to rotate while holstered or even while the shooter was pulling the trigger. For this reason, the M1889 was replaced by the Colt M1892 Army & Navy revolver. In 1892, a new model of the "Colt New Navy" and “Colt Army” was issued which no longer suffered from this problem. The barrel was also shortened. Minor improvements were again apparently made in 1895. There were 31000 made before 1894. Most of the 1889’s were altered to the later models and replaced barrels, cylinders and small parts. Only a few hundred escaped the alterations. This revolwer is one of those that were not altered. This is the1889 Navy model manufactured in 1890. The trigger action came from Colt’s first double action mechanism in the frontier model. The cylinder turned anti-clockwise. There was no stop for the cylinder. The cylinder’s timing was improved in 1892, with a roll stop on the New Army and New Navy models. This was the first Colt revolver of which the roll could swing out to the side. These weapons had loose bores and thin rifling to accommodate the weak .38 Long cartridge. It is classified as an antique in the USA. (Ref The ‘Colt d/a revolvers’ by J Kuhnhausen, ‘Pistols and revolvers’ by JE Smith, ‘Pistols of the world’ by Hogg and Weeks p64, Internet gun club. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_M1889 http://www.spanamwar.com/Colt1889series.htm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPfODbKqqeU )

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