Welcome to as we speak’s Photo of the Day! Right here we have now an Allen & Wheelock Middle Hammer Lipfire Navy revolver manufactured within the early 1860s. A technological dead-end – good thought executed effectively that arrived at precisely the unsuitable time.
The lipfire cartridge was Allen & Wheelock’s try and dodge Rollin White’s bored-through cylinder patent, which Smith & Wesson had locked up tight. As a substitute of drilling chambers all over, the lipfire used a protruding rim or “lip” on the cartridge that sat in a groove lower into the rear of the cylinder. The firing pin struck this lip to ignite the priming compound inside. On paper, it labored. The design prevented patent infringement whereas providing the pace and comfort of metallic cartridges over cap-and-ball loading.
The issue was timing and practicality. By the early 1860s, the Civil Battle was creating huge demand for revolvers, however the army wasn’t curious about adopting a proprietary cartridge system that solely labored in a single firm’s weapons. Percussion revolvers just like the Colt 1860 Military had been confirmed, obtainable in big numbers, and used ammunition already within the provide chain. Civilian consumers weren’t way more . Why put money into a lipfire revolver when percussion weapons had been cheaper and extra dependable, or when you would get a Smith & Wesson that used commonplace rimfire cartridges?
The lipfire cartridge by no means caught on commercially, and as soon as Rollin White’s patent expired in 1869, there was no cause for anybody to trouble with different designs. Allen & Wheelock didn’t make these in big numbers, and most that had been made in all probability obtained transformed or scrapped as soon as lipfire ammunition grew to become unattainable to search out.
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“Scarce Allen & Wheelock Middle Hammer Lipfire Navy Revolver.” Rock Island Public sale, www.rockislandauction.com/element/1049/337/allen-wheelock-center-hammer-lipfire-navy-revolver. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025.
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