Quote:
Originally Posted by glowe
SOAPBOX: This may be heresy, but I have to say that while the slight appearance changes in the production of the Model 2 are of interest to some, I do not see much support for differentiating the Model 2 this way? I'm still sticking with the general model designation without regards to the Type. It does not affect the value to 99.9% of the collectors out there. No significant mechanical changes were made that would have warranted official type designations, and there is no difference in function of the gun. Heck, the 2 pin variation is not even formally differentiated by any publication. Perhaps 2 pin should have been 1st Issue and the 3 pin should have been 2nd Issue, but even making that differentiation has never caught fire.
I have certainly added my revolvers to the Model 2 Project, but do not collect them or value them by the Ron's type designations. Not to diminish any desire to acquire all the types noted in Ron's research, but I am wondering if you are collecting all the types, and why it makes a difference whether your revolver is Type 7 or Type 8??
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Gary, your point is well made from a collecting perspective, since the
ad infinitum end to this argument would be that
every gun is its own unique variant in some way or another.
That said, as a historian of American enterprise and mass-production, these variants are of tremendous interest to me. One aspect of this that many people don't give much thought to is the evolution of "production engineering," which means engineering the product to make it easier to manufacture. The differences between the 1st and 2nd issues of the Model 1 are largely based on making the gun easier to manufacture. The rare 2nd issue, straight side plate variant is a good example of the factory making a change to the design that made manufacturing simpler, and that simultaneously made the gun much less reliable. They only made a few hundred of these before realizing the error of their ways and making a slight design change to improve reliability ... but it all speaks to the infancy of production engineering (a product of mass-production), and the need for quality control.
So you're right that from a collecting point of view, it can seem absurd to chase down every possible variant ... but from the perspective of telling a larger story about the first of modern American enterprise, this is one of the most tangible clues we have of businesses learning to juggle the manifold challenges of mass-producing a high quality product.
Mike