Revolver many European gun-makers, in numerous designs and configurations. However, these weapons were difficult to use, complicated and prohibitively expensive to make, and as such they were not widely distributed. In 1836, an American, Samuel Colt patented the mechanism which led to the widespread use of the revolver, the mechanically indexing cylinder. According to Samuel Colt, he came up with the idea for the revolver while at sea, inspired by the capstan, which had a ratchet and pawl mechanism on it, a version of which was used in his guns to rotate the cylinder by cocking the hammer. This provided a
Snubnosed revolver States. It featured a 2.5" barrel and was chambered for .442 Webley or .450 Adams cartridges. Webley produced smaller scaled .320 Revolver and .380 calibre versions later, but did not mark them with the British Bull Dog name. The term "bulldog revolver" would go on to become synonymous with large caliber "snubnosed revolvers." The Colt M1877 Double Action Revolver is a 6-shot, double-action revolver manufactured by Colt from January 1877 to 1909 for a total of 166,849 revolvers. The Model 1877 was offered in three calibers, which lent them three unofficial names: the .38 Long Colt "Lightning", the .41 Colt