ROLLIN WHITE PATENT EVASIONS
- Last updated: 13/01/2025
Rollin White was born in Vermont in 1817, and at the age of 20, he was working in his brother’s gunsmithing business. In 1849, the brothers had a contract with Colt to produce revolver cylinders (or barrels, depending on the source of information), and Rollin began experimenting with the idea of making a repeating revolver that overcame the slow process of loading the percussion models of the day. Paper cartridges had improved the situation slightly, and White’s idea was to have a magazine loaded with these, aligned with and behind the cylinder. When the pistol hammer was cocked, a loading arm pushed a paper cartridge into the cylinder, which was bored completely through for this purpose. A single nipple in the centre of the frame meant that the percussion cap had to be replaced for each shot, which, ironically, actually slowed the rate of fire compared to the standard revolver. The design was extremely complex, and it is uncertain whether a prototype was ever produced.
Rollin patented his idea in 1855 and offered it to Sam Colt, who dismissed it as unworkable. Around this time, Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson were working on a similar idea for their new self-contained metallic cartridge, but when they applied for a patent, they found that White’s patent prevented them from using the bored-through cylinder. Shrewd businessmen that they were, they struck a deal with Rollin White for the use of his invention.
Smith & Wesson’s success
When the partnership of Smith & Wesson bought Rollin White’s patent for a bored-through revolver cylinder that would accept their new rimfire ammunition – essentially a .22 short – they effectively prohibited any other firearms manufacturer from producing a breech-loading cartridge revolver until 1869, when that patent expired. Under the terms of the contract, White received 25 cents for each revolver produced by Smith & Wesson. However, it was left to Rollin White himself to pursue infringements of this patent, which he did successfully, but at his own cost, significantly depleting the financial rewards he received for his invention.
Smith & Wesson themselves went on to manufacture large numbers of their small .22 and .32 rimfire revolvers, which proved very popular with the public and, in the case of the Model No. 2, as private purchases by officers during the American Civil War. It seems strange that, until the patent was almost expired, they did not develop a larger calibre cartridge revolver, which they eventually did in the shape of their No. 3 American. By this time, the ammunition had evolved to become centrefire, and another large manufacturer was about to steal their thunder with a revolver that would arguably become the most famous handgun of all time.
Solving the problem
While Rollin White diligently and effectively pursued legal action against those who copied his design, others either lacked the will or the means to contest him in court. As a result, several alternatives emerged that, while avoiding direct infringement of the patent, sought ways to circumvent it. If you were unable to bore a cylinder right through and insert a cartridge into it from the rear, then the choices left were to insert it from the front or, in one ingenious example, from the side.
Side entrance
On 14 April 1863, Frank Slocum was granted a patent for his five-shot, .32 rimfire, side-loading revolver. The pistol was manufactured by the Brooklyn Firearms Co. of New York, and the top of the barrel is marked “B.A. CO. PATENT APRIL 14TH 1863”. The pistol has a brass or bronze frame, with engraving as standard, which was nickel-plated. The steel cylinder and tubes, along with the 3” barrel, were either plated or blued, and the irregularly shaped grip had two-piece walnut panels.
This imaginative design used a cylinder with five cut-outs into which were placed five individual tubes that held the cartridges. The rear of the cylinder was a solid ring, necessary to get around the Rollin White patent, save for five slots that permitted the hammer nose to strike the rim of the cartridges. Located centrally between these slots were small notches into which the hammer nose could be rested, thus allowing the pistol to be safely carried fully loaded.
Placing the mechanism on half-cock, the cylinder can be rotated so that these tubes are, in turn, slid forward over a fixed rod attached to the cylinder arbor, and the standard rimfire cartridge placed in the cut-out in the cylinder. The tube is then slid back into place, and the cylinder is turned to align the next tube with the rod. This process is repeated until all five rounds have been loaded. After firing, this process is repeated, and this time the fixed rod acts as an ejector, pushing the spent case back into the now-exposed cylinder recess. It is estimated that over 10,000 of this popular little pocket revolver were manufactured during a production run of just over 12 months.
Novel cartridge
Probably the most successful pistol to get around the White patent was a five-shot model produced by Moore’s Patent Firearms Company in 1864. All models had a brass, silver-plated frame with a blue steel barrel and cylinder. Grip panels were either walnut or gutta-percha.
Using a unique .32 calibre cartridge known as a teat-fire, which was loaded from the front of the cylinder, some 30,000 were produced by Moore’s and subsequently the National Arms Company, until the latter was bought by Colt in 1870. The priming compound was in the nipple at the rear end of the case, and the cylinder had five notches in its rear face to allow the hammer to strike this area. A small, hinged gate on the right side of the frame, just ahead of the cylinder face, prevented the case from falling out when the pistol was pointed down.
A bit on the side
Plant’s Manufacturing Company circumvented Rollin White’s patent by using cup-primed cartridges, a variation on traditional rimfire ammunition. The company produced two models of their front-loading revolver: a six-shot .42 calibre and a smaller .30 calibre pistol in both five and six-shot variations.
The larger models were produced by Plant themselves, with the .30 calibre guns made by the Eagle Manufacturing Company of New York. The larger gun, with its 6” barrel, was marketed as the ‘Army’ model, although no government purchases have been discovered. The small pistol was known as the ‘Pocket’ revolver and had a 3.5” barrel. The Plant revolvers can be viewed as being fairly successful, with around 8,000 of the Army and 20,000 of the Pocket manufactured before the factory burned down in a fire in 1866.
The copper cartridges are cylindrical and open at one end, with the priming compound embedded around the edge of the cup at the other end. The cartridges are a push-fit into the cylinder, with the open end, being slightly flared, sitting in a rebate in the chamber mouth, preventing the case from being pushed right through. The ejector rod on the right side of the frame pushes out the spent case after firing.
Too late for the party
Colt entered this market, albeit a little late, with their Thuer conversions of the percussion range of revolvers. In 1869, as the Rollin White patent was about to expire, Colt began offering front-loading versions of their range of percussion revolvers.
Almost the full range of percussion models, except for the Dragoons and the 1855 Roots, were converted to front-loading using a system patented by Colt employee Alexander Thuer. The method used was to ream away the outer portion of the rear of the percussion cylinder, leaving the central part with the ratchet for rotating the cylinder, and fitting a separate ring that contained the firing pin for the metallic ammunition.
The ammunition was of a tapered design and could be loaded into the cylinder in the same way that a ball was loaded using the percussion loading lever. Indeed, the whole setup could be removed and replaced with the percussion cylinder. Extra appendages were provided so that the pistol itself could be used to reload the used Thuer cases. The system was not well received, and only around 5,000 units were produced across all models.
Everything comes
to an end
Doubtless, there were other efforts to circumvent White’s patent that never got past the drawing board, along with the many businesses that actually infringed the patent and had to cease production when they were taken to court. By 1870, Smith & Wesson’s monopoly was over, and the development of breech-loading revolvers began in earnest.