Colt Paterson Colt Paterson The Colt Paterson is a revolver. It was the first commercial repeating firearm employing a revolving cylinder with multiple chambers aligned with a single, stationary barrel. Its design was patented by Samuel Colt on February 25, 1836, in the United States, France, and England, and it derived its name from being produced in Paterson, New Jersey. Initially this 5-shot revolver was produced in .28 caliber, with a .36 caliber model following a year later. As originally designed and produced, no loading lever was included with the revolver; a user had to disassemble the revolver partially to re-load it.
Colt Dragoon Revolver days. With the addition of a loading lever this evolved into the 1849 pocket revolver (see Colt Pocket Percussion Revolvers). The Dragoon was produced because of the problems seen with the fielded Colt Walker revolvers, namely, the Walker's heavy weight, four and a half pounds, making it suitable only for use as a saddle-mounted revolver, the Walker's propensity for cylinders exploding on occasion when fired (due to the chambers being loaded with too much powder), and the Walker's habit of dropping the loading lever upon discharge, locking up the revolver action in the middle of combat. The Colt Dragoon Revolver