We are advised that it was the feature of the jointless, solid frame, eombined with the simul taneous ejection and its other good qualities, which caused the officers of the Bureau of Ord nance to adopt this re volver for the service of the United States Navy.
Coll's Special Target Revolver (Fig. 23) is sub stantially the same in action as the single-ac tion revolver in use in the United States: Army, and adopted by the War Department in 1873. The manufacturers in this pistol. however•, have sought. by refinements in the sights and in the rifling, to attain great accuracy of fire, and the results are notably successful.
A sample target, showing 25 consecutive shots at 12 yds. off-hand, made with a arm by an expert marksman in December, 1890, is given in Fig. 24. This pistol has made a remarkable record in many competi tive trials, both in the United States and abroad.
17/e Smith, f Hammerless Safely Revolver, manufactured by ,Messrs. Smith & Wesson. of Spring field, Mass.. is represented in Fig. 25. The especial feature of this arm is that the hammer, concealed with in the lock-frame and operated by the trigger. as in any self-acting pistol, is constantly locked by the safety latch, which is held in position by a spring. When held in the hand for firing, the natural pressure upon the sa.fely-lever in the movement of pulling the trigger raises the safety-latch and releases the hammer. The safety-lever and trigger must act in unison. and to dis charge this arm in any but the proper manner is an iin possibility. It is well known that a very large proportion of the tweidents with revolvers arises some unintentional manipulation of the ham mer. Either it receives a blow, is allowed to slip
(dr the thumb in cocking, is accidentally caught on some foreign object and partially raised, or is unintentionally left, at full-cock. The only other and a fruitful source of aeeident is the iminten Gaud manipulation of the trigger. It will be ccp par•ent that the above-described construction pre vents such casualties: first, by placing the hew mer of the arm entirely within the lock-frame, so that no external force whatever can be ap plied to it ; and, second, by so arranging the trigger that it can not he pulled except at the instant of deliberate firing, and only by this means.
The Colt illustrated in Fig. 26, is an ingenious device by which all chambers of a revolver can be loaded at one motion. The engraving shows the pack assembled, and also its parts. To assemble the pack the car tridges are placed with the bullets in the holes of the loading-blocks, shown on the left ; the ring is placed over the heads of the cartridges, and the central plug is in troduced into the ring and between the cartridges, which binds them firmly to gether. In using the pack, the pistol is held with the left hand, the cylinder being swung out, the right hand places the pack against the rear of the cylinder, and, grasping the ring, pushes it toward the cylinder, when the cartridges all enter the chambers and the plug escapes to the rear.
see Engines, Steam Fire. Fire-Engines, Chemical, see Engines, Fire, Chemical. Construction: see Safes and Vaults and Terra Cotta Lumber. see Fire-Appliances.