Although this European improvement was never embraced by the British, these "improved system rifles” saw much service on frontiers all over the World. 303 caliber Lee Metford bolt action rifle’s introduction into the British Military System. Revolutionary at the time by compartmentalizing the mechanism for quick disassembly, it only lasted 10 years as the latest technology.
So in the end, most of his not-inconsiderable royalties went for legal fees.In 1878, the Francotte patent Martini System was granted utilizing a detachable mechanism fitted without the Cocking Indicator. Under the agreement, he got a royalty on each metallic-cartridge revolver S&W made, provided that he took anyone who infringed the patent to court on his own nickel, not S&W’s. He didn’t stumble into a gold mine with his deal with Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson, either. Fundamentally, he was a confidence trickster more than anything else. He had a bad habit of “appropriating” existing foreign patents, filing slightly-altered versions in his own name, and then trying to sue the actual originators for infringement. I might add that there’s a very good chance that White was perfectly aware of the LeFaucheux patent. The fact that it either didn’t, or that such a search was not made, leads me to suspect some hanky-panky was involved. Patent Office should have turned up the LeFaucheux patent in their own files. It stayed in force through the Napoleonic period and the Second Empire, and AFAIK is still in force today.Ī standard patent search by the U.S. and French governments had dating back to just after the American War of Independence. due to the patent reciprocity agreement that the U.S. More to the point, the French patent should have been both recorded and honored in the U.S. Unmodified naval-issue M1858s are actually rather rare.
Francotte pronunciation plus#
Known as the Modele 1858 Transformee’ 1870N, these Lefaucheuxs can generally be spotted by their bobbed hammer spurs (still there, but shorter and more rounded), and the lack of a “pin slot” in each chamber of the cylinder, plus the trigger’s more forward position in the trigger guard. They also got a housing for their ejector rods, to prevent them from being bent the exposed rods on such revolvers were rather vulnerable to this. They were converted from pinfire to centerfire, and from single-action to double-action. It was double-action, solid-frame, had a rod ejector and a loading gate, and was generally fully nickel-plated to protect it from salt air corrosion.Īt the same time, most Lefaucheux M1858s in service were refurbished and modernized. In 1870, the French Navy adopted a new centerfire revolver, the Modele 1870.
The Lefaucheux Modele 1858, as issued to the French Navy, was a straight single-action. single-action Actually, quite a lot of pinfire revolvers were single-action. To be sure, you pretty much have to mike the bore and everything else.Ģ. For instance, a “12mm” round might indeed have a 12mm diameter cartridge case, but have a 9.5mm diameter bullet and be meant for a revolver with a 9.5mm diameter barrel.
Caliber For some reason, a lot of pinfire cartridges are gauged by the case diameter, rather than the diameter of the bore or bullet.