Are we talking about the same book?
The only book I have by Adler is the one on the left in this photo, which is strictly about revolvers with cartridge conversions. Your descriptions of page numbers do not match up with this book. Perhaps we are talking about two different books.
I may have been unclear in what I said earlier.
"Historical note: The six shot R&D cylinder with its separate cap is not a historically accurate replica of a conversion cylinder. None of the old designs used a removable cap
with separate firing pins. I like the R&D version for the reasons I stated above. Quick and easy to reload. As I said, I only shoot mine with Black Powder. I began shooting Cap & Ball revolvers in 1968, and in my experience a cartridge conversion is quicker to reload and shoot, and no worries about pieces of broken caps falling into the mechanism. That's why they were developed during the Civil War."
What I meant by that statement is a cylinder with a separate cap,
and separate firing pins for each chamber, is not historically accurate.
Yes, I was wrong, I found one description and photo of a Remington with a separate cap that had six firing pins on it on page 52 in Adler's conversions book. It is described as an experimental conversion done at the Springfield Armory. Adler mentions this design served
as the basis for Ken Howell's conversions that also had a rear cap on the cylinder and had separated firing pins for each chamber.
Yes, there were many conversions of the Remington 1858 Cap & Ball revolver done in the years following the Civil War. Many of these revolvers were converted by independent gunsmiths in their own shops. Yes, some of these had two piece cylinders, with a separate cap covering the rear of the cylinder. But the great majority of these conversions with two piece cylinders that I have seen, simply had an extra long firing pin, usually formed on the original hammer. This hammer mounted firing pin could protrude through slots cut in the rear cap to fire each chamber. This only makes sense. It was much simpler, and therefor cheaper, to simply have an extra long firing pin on the hammer, than to mount six separate firing pins on the rear of a cylinder. If I am wrong, and there were lots of Remington conversions manufactured with separate firing pins on the cap, please show me and I will readily admit I was wrong. It would not be the first time I was wrong, and certainly not the last.
The Remington conversions authorized by Smith and Wesson in 1868 and 1869 had a thin plate attached to the rear of the frame. The plate was screwed directly to the frame. Smith and Wesson was the licensee to the Rollin White patent for revolvers with bored through chambers that could accept cartridges. This patent expired in 1869. As the patent licensee, in February of 1868 S&W signed a contract with Remington allowing Remington to alter a total of 4,574 Cap & Ball revolvers to fire cartridges. Remington did the conversions at their factory in Ilion NY. New five shot 46 rimfire cylinders were used. S&W received a $1.00 royalty on each revolver converted.
I'm pretty sure this is a photo of one of the S&W licensed conversions.
I have taken the liberty of down loading a photo from Jim Supica's Arm Chair Gunshow of a close up of one of the S&W licensed 1858 conversions. As I mentioned above, new 5 shot 46 rimfire cylinders were made for these conversions. The thin plate behind the cylinder, that was screwed to the frame, is evident in this photo. Also, notice there was no loading gate. The groove where caps had been affixed to the nipples was enlarged for loading cartridges. The geometry of the plate kept cartridges in place except when the hammer was placed at the half cock loading position, and a chamber lined up with the gap in the plate. I suspect one had to be careful to avoid cocking one of these revolvers slowly with the muzzle raised in the air, lest a round slide backwards out of the chamber.
While we are on the subject of Remington conversions, here is a very interesting one I picked up a year or two ago. An original Remington Cap & Ball revolver converted to fire the 32-20 cartridge. Notice the new front sight. Notice the barrel has been threaded much further than normal and screwed far into the frame to meet the front of the cylinder. Actually, I think this is a new barrel, or perhaps a cut down barrel from a rifle, the front sight looks a lot like Winchester front sights.
The hammer was cut off flat at the front and a new firing pin was mounted in the hammer.
The cylinder is sleeved for the 32-20 round.
I am really not sure of the origin of this cylinder. If it is an original, the rear where the nipples were has been machined off. The front has been relieved far back. But the locking slots are in the correct position to lock up with the bolt. If this was an original cylinder, and the rear had been machined off, the locking slots would no longer line up with the bolt. I am not sure what the story is with this cylinder.
The top of the frame where the old sighting groove was has been welded up and a small rear sight added.
No, I'm sorry to say I have not fired it. I discovered a hairline crack on the firing pin and I have been reluctant to fire it, for fear of breaking off the firing pin.
While we are on the subject of cartridge conversions, here is my Colt Richards Conversion and four original 44 Colt cartridges. Not the Richards-Mason conversion, that came a little bit later and had some changes that made it less expensive to produce than the Richards Conversion.
Prior to the Richards Conversion Colt made the Thuer Conversion. The Thuer Conversion was an attempt by Colt to circumvent the Rollin White patent on revolvers with cylinders bored through to accept cartridges. The Thuer Conversions used an odd cartridge that was tapered, narrower at the rear than at the front, and the chambers were tapered to accept this cartridge. It was thought that because the bored through chambers were not cylindrical in shape, but were tapered, Colt could get away with making them without being sued by Smith and Wesson. The Thuer Conversions were mostly built on the 1851 Navy Colt and 1860 Army Colts, but there were some rare ones built on the 36 Caliber Pocket Models, the 36 Caliber 1862 Police Models, and some very rare 31 Caliber 1849 Pocket Models. There were even a few non-factory Thuer Conversions built on the Walker and Dragoon Models. The White Patent expired in 1869, and the first Thuer Models were also made in 1869. Only about 5,000 Thuer Conversions were made, from 1869 until 1872, they never sold very well because of the strange, reverse tapered cartridges.
Charles B Richards was one of the best designers at the Colt factory. He came up with a system to convert existing stocks of Colt Cap & Ball revolvers to fire cartridges. Basically, the cylinders were cut down, removing the portions where the nipples went, and a conversion ring was added to the frame to take up the empty space where the nipples had been. The loading lever was removed and an ejector assembly was fitted in its place to eject spent brass.
Completely disassembled, except I have not removed the ejector assembly because the screw holding it in place is too bunged up and I don't want to risk damaging the screw further.
Here is the ejector assembly. It fits into the hole in the frame formerly occupied by the loading lever assembly. This was an expensive part to make, the later Richards-Mason Conversion used a simpler, and less expensive ejector assembly.
The cylinder.
A comparison of the Richards Conversion Cylinder and the cylinder from a modern Italian replica 1860 Army Cap & Ball revolver. The earliest Richards Conversion cylinders were made by cutting down original C&B cylinders. The nipple area of the cylinder was machined away. Then a new ratchet star was machined from what remained. Later Richards Conversions had new cylinders made up from scratch. I have not lettered this one, I should, but I believe this one has one of the cylinders made from scratch, rather than a cut down C&B cylinder. Two of the 44 Colt rounds are sitting in the cylinder.
Frame.
A Conversion Ring was added to the frame to take up the space of the missing nipple portion of the cylinder.
A frame mounted, spring loaded firing pin, similar to a modern Ruger firing pin, was mounted in the Conversion Ring, and a raised rear sight was incorporated onto the top of the Conversion Ring. The front of the hammer was machined away forming a flat surface to strike the firing pin.
A loading gate not too different from a SAA loading gate was mounted onto the Conversion Ring.
The White Patent was due to expire in April of 1869, and it was felt there would be little possibility of it being renewed. The Thuer Conversions had not proved to be commercially successful, so Colt engineers were hard at work coming up with experimental designs to convert existing stocks of C&B revolvers to cartridges. Richards' first patent for a breech loading revolver was granted on August 18, 1868. Another patent was issued in July 1871. The final patent was issued on July 25, 1871.
In
A Study Of Colt Conversions, and Other Percussion Revolvers, author Bruce McDowell states, "It is impossible to determine the exact date the Colt factory machinery started turning for the production of the Richards System, or the conversion of the Colt Model 1860 Army percussion revolvers to accept metallic cartridges". McDowell goes on to mention some letters from Army officials dated January 1871 inquiring about converting existing revolvers to fire cartridges. He states that an order was placed by the U.S. Ordnance Department to 'clean, repair, and alter or convert' 1000 revolvers on the last day of January, 1871. Colt records seem to indicate that by December 4, 1871 Colt had finished making the parts for that contract.
A table in McDowell's book seems to indicate that the majority of contracts for Richards Conversions had been completed by 1873, but a few were converted as late as 1880, long after the Single Action Army appeared in 1873.
The later Richards-Mason Conversion was a simpler conversion. The ejector rod mechanism of the Richards Conversion had been simplified, the frame mounted firing pin was eliminated in favor of a hammer mounted firing pin, and the Richards Conversion rear sight was eliminated in favor of a notch on the hammer nose, similar to the rear sights on most Colt percussion revolvers.
