Winchester bought the rights to make lever action from S&W as there first go around at a company in 1852 was a lever action pistol that didn't do so well.. The guy that founded Winchester was a dry cleaner as he bought the first S&W company and turned it into Winchester which was a smart buy as the level action patent was S&W.
Oliver Winchester was a successful shirt manufacturer, not a dry cleaner. He and a group of investors invested in the Volcanic company around 1856, just about the same time that Smith and Wesson picked up stakes and started their new revolver company up the river in Springfield. The company was renamed the New Haven Arms Company. Winchester eventually bought out all the other investors and kept pouring money into it, hiring Benjamin Tyler Henry along the way to completely redesign the old Volcanic rifle. It was not until about 1865 or so that the company actually turned a profit. In 1866 the company name was changed again, this time to Winchester Repeating Arms Company, and the first product was the Improved Henry, later known as the Winchester Model 1866.
The patent thing may be true. Smith had the patent for drilled through cylinders, I think it was called. Colt had to wait the ten years or pay royalties to Smith. The cylinders rotating in different directions was just a way of being different for Colt. There was a lot of stuff like that going on in those days.
As I said earlier, the patent was the Rollin White patent for boring chambers straight through a cylinder so metallic cartridges could be loaded. Rollin White was a former employee of Colt, and when he brought his idea of a bored through cylinder to Colt, Colt did not see the value of the idea. So White patented it himself in 1855. S&W never owned the patent, Rollin White refused to sell it. Instead, he entered into a licensing agreement with S&W. They paid him a royalty of twenty five cents on every revolver they sold. Colt never paid any money to S&W. They had to wait until the patent expired in 1869. As I said earlier, Colt did not have a new design ready for market until 1873, four years after the White patent expired in 1869. Colt did try to get around the White Patent, with the Thuer conversion, using a backwards tapered cartridge. It never sold very well. Remington did enter into a licensing agreement with S&W to convert some of their Cap & Ball revolvers to cartridges, paying S&W a royalty for every revolver converted.
The Triple Locks were strong and reliable and worked well. But the third lock contributed nothing to the revolver's strength. As I pointed out, the third lock pointed the wrong way, so under recoil it tended to unlock or partially unlock.
That's why when S&W brought out the retro-Triple Lock, they reversed the third lock.
I never said the third lock contributed to the strength of the Triple Lock. I said
"the third lock proved unnecessary and was later dropped. Smith and Wesson made the Triple Lock just as a challenge, to prove they could do it. They only made the one model for a few years, from 1907 until 1915, then dropped the third lock because it was over engineered and not needed. The 44 HE 2nd Model dropped the third lock in 1915 and they never made another revolver with a third lock again. Saved about 50 cents on the cost of making the revolver. It was just plain unnecessary."
I have also been unable to find any reference to a modern made 'retro-Triple Lock'. I do not believe S&W made one.
Regarding the ejector rod unscrewing on a Smith, Yes, this is absolutely true. I have had it happen to me several times with some of my older Smiths. What tends to happen is the ejector rod unscrews just enough so that the spring loaded latch at the front of the ejector rod does not quite clear the detent in the rod, effectively preventing the gun from opening. Usually a quick twist on the end of the rod will remedy it. That is why Smith went to the left hand thread on the ejector rod around 1961. A bit of loctite or giving the rod a good hard twist will usually remedy it on the older guns. Also, unburnt flakes of powder under the ejector star can prevent the cylinder from unlatching too. Good to check under the star every once in a while for a buildup of powder residue.
With all due respect for everyone here, I keep asking why? Why we have this post, why we are talking about revolvers made over a Hundred Years ago?
For the same reason that people are interested in antique cars. You may not want to drive them on the highway every day, but they are incredibly cool. You may not want to carry a 100 year old revolver, or even a replica of a 100 year old revolver, but I sure enjoy collecting them and learning as much as I can about them, and shooting them. Here is a photo of me shooting my S&W New Model Number Three, which was made in 1882.
