PISTOL (OF. pis(ole, from It. pistola, pistol, dagger, from Pistoia, from Lat. Pistoria, a town in Italy, near Florence). This member of the sin:Mc:inns group was developed soon after the invention of the wheel-lock, in the desire to sup ply horse soldiers with a firearm. The result a weapon called the pistol, which was first manufaetured at PistorM, in Etruria, about 1540, by Camillo Vettelli. At their first ap pearance they were distinguished by very short barrels. and heavy, clumsy butts, which, sur mounted by enormous eaps, were very nearly at. right angles with the barrel. It was not long, however, before the butts were lengthened out al most in a line with the barrels. The great ma jority of the pistols used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were fitted with wheel lochs, for which they were best. adapted. Daggs was the name of a peculiar and heavy pistol in common use toward the middle of the seventeenth century. German manufactured pistols of the wheel-lock type had also been adopted by many of the important cavalry corps of continental Europe, foremost among whom were the Ritters of Prussia. (See CAVALRY.) It is to dueling. however, that the pistol is indebted for nearly all the improvements since made in its effectiveness; for while occasional slight alterations have been made in the general pattern, the exterior appearance and method of handling the dueling pistol of the nineteenth century was practically identical with that of the eighteenth. For mili tary and sporting purposes, the pistol has expe rienced many strange shapes and designs during its evolution into the modern revolver. The ear liest type seems to have been an arquebus with four chambers, a specimen of which is in the Tower of London Armory, and which is said to have been the personal property of Henry VIII. It belongs to the early part of the sixteenth cen tury and has a barrel 2 feet 9 inches long, and chamber 7% inches, the bore being about inch. There is a separate flash pan for every chamber, which is covered with a gliding lid and moved in rotation underneath the serpentine. The barrel, which is secured to the spindle, is strengthened by a roil fastened to its top, and the other extremity fixed to the butt of the gun. The lock consisted of a serpentine, passing through the stock and secured by a pivot. The serpentine extended below and behind the pivot. and thus formed a trigger, which on being pressed allowed the serpentine to fall into the flash pan, the weight of the trigger acting as a balance, and restoring it to its original position. In every instance the chamber had to be moved round by hand.
Devices for the combination of firearms with sonic other form of weapon have been frequent from the days of the first discovery of firearms up to the beginning of the twentieth century. The combination most frequently used has been the pistol and battle-axe, examples of which in the fifteenth century are not uncommon. The Dresden Museum is especially rich in examples of these and similar weapons. Combinations of pistols and daggers were also frequently met with between the fifteenth and eighteenth cen turies: since then and up to the present day, in ventions are constantly being recorded which have the same principle for their base. In 1896 a patent for a combined dagger and pistol was issued front the English Patent Office, and about the same time a pistol-lance was being advocated in both Russia and Germany, as an essentially effective cavalry weapon. The invention of the revolver, which is discussed under its own head, caused the pistol to he used principally for duel ing and target shooting, and excellent weapons were made for these purposes. The revolver with its six or seven shots served as an important, valuable military weapon on account of its ef fectiveness at close range, but at the beginning of the twentieth century the indications were that the automatic pistol would replace the re volver for war purposes. Many of the British officers in the Boer War of 1899-1902 were equipped with automatic pistols. while in coun tries like Germany, where the officers' equipment is supplied by the Government, a self-loading pistol is rapidly taking the place of the revolver.
The four best known types are the :gauger, the Burrhardt-Luger, the Colt, and the ilannlicher. Probably the best European example is the Bur chardt-Luger, operated by the utilization of the gas arising from its discharge, which is made to operate the mechanism, open the breech, extract and expel the cartridge, reloading and reclosing the breech for a new discharge. The firer merely replenishes the mechanism when necessary, and pulls the trigger. It is capable of firing 103 shots per minute. or 4S in 28 seconds. It is of 7.65 millimeters (0.301 inch) in calibre, and has a length of barrel of 120 millimeters. At the moment of firing, the gas, acting on the base of the cartridge case, forces back the barrel and breech casing, causing them to slide along the grooves of the frame. The detachable breech follows the movement, but both breech and barrel are firmly connected. The cartridge case, whieli is operated by the extractor, strikes against the ejector projecting out on the interior right wall of the breech easing and is expelled, thus making way for the top cartridge of the magazine, which is forced in front of the cylinder by an interior spring. A double spring compressed by the recoil force: the detachable breech sharply forward. The trigger is pressed, the firing phi released, and the cartridge exploded. N'ilien the magazine is exhausted, the lug of the magazine presses a separate spring projecting in the frame and catching in the notch of the cylinder. At the same time the breech. instead of moving forward, is held in an elevated position in the rear. The line of sight being concealed, the firer is made aware that his weapon is empty. The pistol is recharged with a fresh magazine. which is insert ed in the butt, an operation which may be in stantly performed, and as the weapon may be kept in use for a considerable time without cleaning. this constitutes one of its greatest values. The most important American invention is the Colt automatic pistol, invented by J. M. Browning. It consists of three principal parts: the frame, the barrel, and the sliding corer. in the first are contained the trigger, the hammer.. mainspring. and magazine; the barrel is secured to the frame by two strong links; and the sliding corer works in grooves on the sides of the frame, and. in the firing position, is locked to the barrel by three ribs, the tops of the latter fitting into corresponding grooves in the slide. Its calibre is 0.35 inch. The magazine is a metal slide which is loaded into the stock of the pistol from below and held in like position by clips, so that, like the Burehardt-Luger pistol, it may be instantly loaded. To load the chamber and make ready to fire, the slide is held with the thumb and the forefinger of the right hand, the pistol being held in the left hand. The slide is drawn back smartly, a movement which cocks the hammer, while the return action forces the uppermost cartridge of the magazine forward into the chamber and closes the breech. It has a safety device known as the firing-pin lock, which is also a rear-sight and must be raised. This device being raised and one cartridge dis charged. the force of the powder gases causes the slide and barrel to recoil together about two te;ntles of an inch until the barrel is stopped. forced downward by the two links already men tioned, and unlocked from the sliding cover. The slide, still moving upward, cocks the hammer, ejects the empty shell sideways, and compresses the recoil spring. The moment it arises at its rearmost position the slide is forced forward by means of 11 recoil spring, and, encountering the second cartridge on its way, carries it forward into the chamber of the barrel, the latter part of its motion carrying the barrel forward and up ward. After this the slide engages automatical ly with the barrel, and the weapon is ready for the next, shot. See the article REVOLVER for descriptions of modern revolvers and pistols: and SMALL Attits for automatic and other fire arms.