This Board assents generally to claims 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. No particular advantage is thought to be found in the 4th; and the 5th, so far from being advantageous, is regarded as unnecessary and hurtful, hampering one, as it does, in the use of the pistol.
On the whole, the Board regards this as a very good pistol, it having endured the tests in a fairly satisfactory manner. It should be bored up to cal. .45, in order that it may use service ammunition, when it may be more intelligently compared with other arms now in service.
Stocks of walnut and hard rubber were furnished with this pistol. The rubber appears to be fully equal, if not superior, to the walnut in hardness and tenacity. To ascertain the effect of heat, it was placed in a covered tin cup, which was in turn placed in a vessel of water slowly heated to 150°. The rubber did not soften in the slightest degree. It was then placed between two blocks of ice until thoroughly chilled, when it was repeatedly struck with a hammer. It was not at all brittle. The rubber admits of a very neat finish.
CHAPTER V.
THE COLT’S REVOLVER.
The armory of the Colt’s Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company is located at Hartford, Conn., and here are manufactured the famous Colt’s revolvers, so favorably known throughout the world. Samuel Colt, the inventor of the Colt’s revolver, commenced devising the mechanism of this arm as early as 1830, and the result of his ingenuity and skill is the large plant at Hartford, where the Colt’s revolver has been manufactured in enormous quantities for half a century, during which time improvements have been made: and the popularity which the Colt’s revolver has secured is attested by the enormous sales in all parts of the world. The variety of revolvers made by this company are as follows:—
New Model Army, single action: length of pistol, 12½ inches: length of barrel, 7½ inches: bore or calibre, .45 inch; weight, 2 lbs. 5 oz. Rifling, six grooves, one revolution in 16 inches; depth of groove, .005 inch. Six-shot.
Cartridge.—Weight of powder, 30 grains; weight of lead, 250 grains. Central fire, external priming.