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According to the preeminent Smith & Wesson historian Roy G. Jinks (Smith & Wesson, by Roy G. Jinks and Sandra C. Krein), "The fire power of this lever action pistol was so impressive, that in 1854 when the gun was reviewed by Scientific American, it was nicknamed the Volcanic since its rapid fire sequence had the force of an erupting volcano." Cornell University has an extensive archive of documents available on line to document the "Making of America". This archive includes the complete issues of Scientific America from the 1850's. I perused all of the issues from 1854 and I hammered the collection with Cornell's advanced search engine. What I came up with was the following:
Scientific American dutifully reported the seminal patent of February 14 1854 in which Smith and Wesson (of Norwich Connecticut) patented an improved lever actuated mechanism that not only loaded a cartridge from a magazine into the firing chamber but also cocked the hammer and thus made the weapon fully ready to fire. Every issue of Scientific American in that era had an account of all notable patents, and was the only mention of anything related to Smith and Wesson or Volcanic firearms in 1854.
In January 1856 Scientific American reported another Smith and Wesson patent which was a further improvement in priming of ammunition. However Smith and Wesson assigned that patent not to their first company, Smith and Wesson of Norwich Connecticut, but to its successor, the Volcanic Repeating Arms company, of New Haven Connecticut. It was not until November 29, 1856 that Scientific American actually reports on the performance of a Volcanic pistol, many months after the Volcanic name had already been adopted by the manufacturers. The actual quote from Scientific American is the following:
“Col. Hay, of the British army, recently tried his hand with the ‘Volcanic Repeating Pistol,’ a Yankee invention. The pistol used on the occasion was an eight-inch barrel, which discharges nine balls in rapid succession. The Colonel fired the arm 27 times, making a number of shots which would do credit to a riflemen. He first fired at an eight-inch diameter target at 100 yards, putting nine balls inside the ring. He then moved back to a distance of 200 yards, and fired nine balls more, hitting the target seven times. He then moved back 100 yards further, a distance of 300 yards from the mark, and placed five of the nine balls inside the ring, and hitting the ‘bull’s eye’ twice. The man who beats that may brag.”
In the next Scientific American issue, dated December 6 1856, they clarified: "The American pistol with which Col. Hay of the British Army executed such accurate shooting at 300 yards distance, as noticed by us last week, is that of Smith & Wesson, of Hartford, Conn." Perhaps the particular pistol fired by Col. Hay was one of the many assembled out of the Smith & Wesson stock acquired by the Volcanic Repeating Arm's company when they relocated in New Haven in late 1855, early 1856. Since it was able to hold nine rounds, it certainly would have been one of the larger 41 caliber Navy models and not a Model 1.
I wonder what might have been the origin for Jinks' erupting Volcano. It certainly was not Scientific American. Scientific American did at the time publish a spin-off magazine titled "Mechanics" (perhaps a predecessor of Popular Mechanics), perhaps a review of the Smith and Wesson repeater was published in that.
Scientific American dutifully reported the seminal patent of February 14 1854 in which Smith and Wesson (of Norwich Connecticut) patented an improved lever actuated mechanism that not only loaded a cartridge from a magazine into the firing chamber but also cocked the hammer and thus made the weapon fully ready to fire. Every issue of Scientific American in that era had an account of all notable patents, and was the only mention of anything related to Smith and Wesson or Volcanic firearms in 1854.
In January 1856 Scientific American reported another Smith and Wesson patent which was a further improvement in priming of ammunition. However Smith and Wesson assigned that patent not to their first company, Smith and Wesson of Norwich Connecticut, but to its successor, the Volcanic Repeating Arms company, of New Haven Connecticut. It was not until November 29, 1856 that Scientific American actually reports on the performance of a Volcanic pistol, many months after the Volcanic name had already been adopted by the manufacturers. The actual quote from Scientific American is the following:
“Col. Hay, of the British army, recently tried his hand with the ‘Volcanic Repeating Pistol,’ a Yankee invention. The pistol used on the occasion was an eight-inch barrel, which discharges nine balls in rapid succession. The Colonel fired the arm 27 times, making a number of shots which would do credit to a riflemen. He first fired at an eight-inch diameter target at 100 yards, putting nine balls inside the ring. He then moved back to a distance of 200 yards, and fired nine balls more, hitting the target seven times. He then moved back 100 yards further, a distance of 300 yards from the mark, and placed five of the nine balls inside the ring, and hitting the ‘bull’s eye’ twice. The man who beats that may brag.”
In the next Scientific American issue, dated December 6 1856, they clarified: "The American pistol with which Col. Hay of the British Army executed such accurate shooting at 300 yards distance, as noticed by us last week, is that of Smith & Wesson, of Hartford, Conn." Perhaps the particular pistol fired by Col. Hay was one of the many assembled out of the Smith & Wesson stock acquired by the Volcanic Repeating Arm's company when they relocated in New Haven in late 1855, early 1856. Since it was able to hold nine rounds, it certainly would have been one of the larger 41 caliber Navy models and not a Model 1.
I wonder what might have been the origin for Jinks' erupting Volcano. It certainly was not Scientific American. Scientific American did at the time publish a spin-off magazine titled "Mechanics" (perhaps a predecessor of Popular Mechanics), perhaps a review of the Smith and Wesson repeater was published in that.
