Colt M1878 Colt M1878 The Colt M1878 is a double-action revolver that was manufactured by Colt's Manufacturing Company from 1878 to 1907. It is often referred to as the "Frontier" or the "Double Action Army" revolver. A total of 51,210 Model 1878 revolvers were manufactured from 1878 to 1907, including 4,600 for the US Ordnance Department. These are known as the "Philippine" or "Alaskan" models. Samuel Colt experimented with double-action revolver systems, but he considered them to be unreliable. After Colt's patent expired in 1857, other manufacturers began producing double-action revolvers, but Colt's Manufacturing did not manufacture its own double-action revolver until
Tranter (revolver) Works was then sold to Schlund, who renamed the company Aston Arms Co. Ltd. and the brand name to the Schlund Revolver. The factory closed down in 1891. Only 600 Kynock revolvers of all versions and models were ever made. Famous users of Tranter revolvers included Allan Pinkerton, founder of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, the Confederate General James Ewell Brown Stuart, and Ben Hall, the Australian bushranger, and Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. It is also known that Dr Richard Jordan Gatling, inventor of the Gatling Gun owned an 80-bore (.38-calibre) First Model Tranter Pocket Revolver with a 4.29-inch [109mm]