I don't know exactly what happened to the revolver barrel diameter, but for sure, the .38 Long Colt used a solid-base inside lubricated bullet of 0.353" diameter from 1892 until 1909 when a change to a hollow-base bullet occurred. The switch to smokeless powder at Frankford Arsenal occurred in 1900, but I do not know the powder type or charge. The only .38 LC cartridges which used the heeled outside-lubricated bullet (0.376" dia.) were the very earliest ones used by the Navy.
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