Smith & Wesson Model 1 Smith & Wesson Model 1 The Smith & Wesson Model 1 was the first firearm manufactured by Smith & Wesson, with production spanning the years 1857 through 1882. It was the first commercially successful revolver to use rimfire cartridges instead of loose powder, musket ball, and percussion caps. It is a single-action, tip-up revolver holding seven .22 Short black powder cartridges. As Samuel Colt's patent on the night revolver was set to expire in 1856, Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson were researching a prototype for a metallic cartridge revolver. When they discovered that a former Colt employee named Rollin
Smith & Wesson Model 39 Smith & Wesson Model 39 The Smith & Wesson Model 39 was a semi-automatic pistol developed for the US Army service pistol trials of 1954. After the Army abandoned its search for a new pistol, the Model 39 went on the civilian market in 1955 and was the first of Smith & Wesson's first generation semi-automatic pistols. The Smith & Wesson Model 39 was the first U.S. designed double action (DA) semi-automatic pistol marketed in the United States. The German Walther P38 DA pistol impressed American ordnance personnel during World War II. The Army Ordnance Corps issued a proposal for