This is in response to another request. This article first appeared in the April, 2010 issue of Dillon's Blue Press catalog/magazine. Hope you enjoy it.

John



The turn of the 20th Century was the dawn of a new age in firearms. Smokeless powder had revolutionized the industry, and a wave of new firearms designs had swept the world. The semiautomatic pocket pistol had become the rage in Europe, and U.S. manufacturers found themselves scrambling to enter the market. Smith and Wesson was no exception. Their very first semiauto pistol was introduced in 1913. It was a milestone, with a number of unique and innovative design features. The fact that it was a flop in the marketplace makes no difference today – it has become a cult collector favorite and a classic in firearms history.

Joe H. Wesson, a son of Daniel B. Wesson, one of S&W’s founders, had taken an interest in autoloading pistols as early as 1890. He was charged by his father with development work, and so he began to accumulate samples of most of the new pistols of the day. He was bent on developing a Smith & Wesson pistol that could favorably compete. After years of evaluating then-current designs, he was still undecided as to which principles could be incorporated into a pistol that would be worthy of the Smith and Wesson logo.

In early 1909, Wesson met with a Belgian firearms designer, Charles Philibert Clement. Clement had designed a small .25 caliber semiauto pistol which featured a barrel axis lying close to the hand. The recoil spring and its guide rod were situated over the barrel in a channel in the top rib of the pistol. The slide was rather small, and a crossbar on its top engaged a slot on the recoil spring guide rod. The recoil spring was a very strong one, necessitated by the reduced mass of the small slide. Wesson was intrigued by the promise of the design, and bought the patents for it. He then began to improve the features of the Clement pistol, and mold them into a new and somewhat radical pocket pistol.

Wesson wanted some sort of safety that would prevent the pistol from being fired unless it was held properly. His first design was a thumb bar that had to be held down to enable the trigger to be pulled. Unfortunately, this was useable only by right-handed shooters, and so he went back to the drawing board and came up with a grip safety located on the front grip strap under the trigger guard. This was patented on December 13, 1910. He then turned his attention to the strong recoil spring, which made the slide difficult to retract, particularly for women. He came up with an ingenious solution in the form of a slide/spring disconnector. It was activated by an elongated button on the left of the slide. When depressed, the integral cross-bolt lock separated the slide from the slot on the recoil spring guide rod, enabling easy back and forth movement of the slide for loading and unloading the chamber. A patent was granted for this device on July 30, 1912.

As originally designed, Wesson’s pistol was to utilize the .32 ACP cartridge. However, some engineers at the factory were concerned that the cupro-nickel jackets of the bullets would make for shortened bore life. Working with the Remington Arms Company, S&W designed a new cartridge, just a tiny bit larger than the .32 ACP. It used a “half & half” bullet in which the nose of the bullet was jacketed for smooth feeding, but the bearing surface of the base was lead for less wear on the barrel. It was christened the .35 S&W Automatic cartridge.

Because of its close similarity to the earlier round, .32 ACP cartridges could be used in the pistol. This would result it slightly bulged cases and a sacrifice in power and accuracy, but it worked in a pinch. The removal procedure for the stocks on the pistol was novel. Once the retaining screws on each side were removed, the wooden panels had to be slid off downward, rather than being lifted off directly. They were attached to metal plates which were grooved into the grip frame. The first model of the pistol utilized a magazine release thumbpiece on the butt which moved to the side. This was later changed to one which moved back to release the 7-shot magazine. A Clement design feature which was retained was the innovative way the barrel was accessed for cleaning from the breech. First, the rear of the trigger guard was pulled down and forward to rotate it downward. This released a lug on the 3 ½ inch barrel, allowing the front of the barrel to move upward. The barrel and recoil spring assembly could then be pivoted up around a transverse pin located above the slide at the rear of the pistol.

The unique manual safety was a bit controversial. It consisted of a very small rotating cam in the upper part of the backstrap. It was knurled and could be moved somewhat awkwardly by the thumb. When rotated up, the pistol was on safe. Rotated down, the pistol could fire. Always concerned with safety, Smith & Wesson saw this as a preventive measure against an unauthorized person using the pistol. Someone not familiar with the function of this tiny device would take some time to figure out why the pistol would not fire.

The tooling for Joe Wesson’s new pistol was completed late in 1912, and production began on May 3, 1913. It was simply known as the .35 Automatic Pistol, and it was available in blue or nickel finish for $16.50. It was billed as one of the safest and most dependable handguns in the world. The first production change, the magazine catch, was made in April, 1914, between serial numbers 3,000 and 3,149. Sales of the new pistol started off well. In April, 1915, inventory of the pistols was sufficient that the factory ceased production in order to devote manufacturing capacity to producing revolvers for England’s war needs. The pistol illustrated was shipped from that inventory in October, 1916. Production started up once more in January, 1918, and was then halted again for the U.S. war effort. In February, 1919, manufacture was initiated for the final run. Six minor changes were made throughout manufacture, giving today’s collectors a number of variations to collect. To its detriment, the pistol was made in an odd, non-standard caliber, had unconventional controls, and was not very sleek in appearance. With the pistol not continuing to sell well, production ceased on July 5, 1922, with a total of 8,350 pistols having been made. The successor to the .35 Automatic was a more streamlined pistol modified to .32 ACP, which, ironically, did not sell nearly as well. It was discontinued in 1937 with only 957 pistols having sold.

Smith & Wesson made no further semiauto pistols until the introduction of the 9mm Model 39 pistol in 1954. The Model 1913 .35 Automatic pistol was admittedly a dead-end failure for Smith & Wesson, but has become a definite classic for it being S&W’s first semiauto pistol and its unique features. It is highly sought after by collectors, and excellent examples will command high prices today.

(c) 2010 JLM

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -