BulletsIn 1854, Horace Smith & Daniel Wesson were issued a U.S. patent for their design of a self-contained metal bullet cartridge (No. 11,496). The invention related to the arrangement of the tallow within the cartridge between the ball and charge of powder. The rimfire cartridge included percussion-priming. It was improved upon with patent No. 27,933 on 17 Apr 1860. Long before the U.S. civil war, Jean Samuel Pauly was granted a French patent in 1812 for a self-contained cartridge. By 1846, Lefaucheux had invented a pin fire cartridge and in 1851, Flobert created the rimfire cartridge. However, Smith and Wesson, could not produce a revolver to fire their new bullet until several years later when the Colt patent on the mechanically rotating cylinder design expired in 1857.« |
