Collier Elisha Haydon
Collier
Second Model Five-Shot Flintlock Revolver.
Patentee: Patented by Elisha Haydon Collier (American, Boston 1788–1856 Boston)
Date: ca.
1820
Dimensions: L. 14 in. (35.6 cm); L. of barrel 6 1/4 in. (15.9 cm); Cal. .47 in.
(11.9 mm); Wt. 2 lb. 2 oz. (963.9 g)
The
Collier pistol’s design was far ahead of its time. Its technology, construction,
and appearance anticipated Colt percussion revolvers that were developed and
manufactured in the United States two decades later. Patented in England on
November 24, 1818 by Elisha Collier, an American engineer from Boston living in
London, the mechanism features a hand-rotated five-shot cylinder and a priming
powder magazine incorporated into the steel. Collier himself was not a gunsmith
and did not invent the action. The action was originally conceived by Captain
Artemas Wheeler (1781–1845) of Concord, Massachusetts, who patented it in the
United States on June 10, 1818. Collier held the rights to manufacture and sell
it in England, and his patent made improvements to Wheeler’s design.
Firearms
technology advanced at an extraordinary pace in Europe in the early nineteenth
century. London’s elite gunmakers, intensely focused on optimizing accuracy,
handling, and speed to meet the expectations of England’s sporting gentry were
at the forefront of its development. Building on design advancements made in the
1780s and 1790s, particularly the refinement of the flintlock ignition
mechanism, they secured in the next three decades dozens of patents for a
dizzying variety of new technologies ranging from improved lock mechanisms to
novel barrel-making techniques, competing to protect and market their
inventions. Handmade with remarkable precision, many London firearms of the
period display extraordinary mechanical ingenuity, in addition to being
elegantly designed. This creative push in the firearms field may be framed
within the broader context of the Industrial Revolution in England—a period
marked by the glorification of technological advancements and the celebration of
individual inventors and engineers.
On sold at "IVES DEVOS"
Photos Littlegun
