history question

[daveb]

Could anyone pinpoint the dates for conversion from cap and ball
to catridges in revolvers.  I have a writer friend who is trying to
be accurate with the dates.  I personally am also interested in  
the company that first came up with cartridge revolvers.  I seem  
to recall some work before 1860, maybe a French company, when
I went to the Cody Museum.  
 
Any single action historians out there?
 
Thanks
 
Dave

[Win 73]

Smith and Wesson were producing .22 caliber cartridge revolvers at least as early as the 1860's, maybe even the 1850's.  

An interesting sidelight, Smith and Wesson started the development of what eventually became the Winchester rifles.  They developed the Volcanic.  It was a lever action pistol that fired a caseless .44 caliber cartridge.  The powder was molded into the base of the bullet.  Don't know exactly what type of ignition system they used.  Daisy some years back develop a .22 caliber caseless cartridge they called the VL.  They used compressed air ignition.

[daveb]

Win 73,
 
Thanks much for the information.  I think I may have seen a  
Volcanic in Cody, but there were so many guns there during  
my brief visit that I'm fuzzy about them.   Do you happen to  
know who made the first big bore revolver using cartridges,  
and when?
 
Dave

[Dan Chamberlain]

Dave;

It is widely written that S&W's #3 was the first large bore cartridge revolver.  It's also possible the Hopkins and Wheelock lip-fire revolver fit that bill.  There may be some European designs that were contemporary, but the innovation probably happened in the US and Europe fairly simultaneously.  Tyler Henry developed the first effective large bore cartridge to be used in a repeating rifle and his cartridge made its way into revolvers fairly quickly.

Dan C

[daveb]

Dan and Win73,

Thanks for the info.  I'll pass it on to my friend.

Dave