I wonder if Bill Ruger took the idea of tensioning the hand with a spring loaded plunger from this generation of Smiths.
I imagine he or his engineer just naturally came up with a spring and plunger for the Single Six cyl hand, having used it behind the trigger as well, when he decided to eliminate all flat springs from the Colt SAA design.
Of course we'll never know. But he did get the idea for the transfer bar passive safety from old Harrington and Richardson revolvers. My point being that some of the ideas for which he is often credited were not original to Ruger. He was a brilliant and dedicated student of firearms design from a very young age.
