By Philip H.A.Boulton

The delightful little revolvers popularly known as “testfires” were the product of the imagination of Daniel Moore. He originally started out to produce seven-shot rimfire revolvers whose mechanisms were quite similar to those used by Colt for their percussion revolvers. Further to his lack of originality, he also copied Smith & Wesson’s patent for the rear-loading, bored-through cylinder without authorization; a big mistake! This latter cost him dearly with lawsuits (the story was told in detail in Volume #1 of this magazine), and the project was abandoned.

To circumvent the S&W patent, he devised a front-loading revolver using a unique cartridge of his own design. These pocket revolvers were simple, lightweight, and very reliable. They became very popular and approximately 32,000 were produced.

A Puzzle Solved 

Collectors have been puzzled for years over the seemingly cryptic letters appearing on various parts of these revolvers. The full numerical serial number appears in just one place, under the barrel. In other parts, it was observed that a one or two-letter sequence preceded two numbers that were always the last two digits of the serial number. It was a mystery that begged to be solved. By recording and assessing, over a ten-year period, serial numbers and these strange alpha-numbers, there came a “eureka” moment when everything fell into place. It turns out that these are batch assembly numbers. Each 100-gun block was assigned a letter prefix: “A” for the first hundred guns plus the last two digits of the serial number — thus, serial number 50 would have the assembly number A50. The second hundred guns would start with B, and so on until all single letters were used, then double letters would be used “AA”, “AB”, etc. I half expected they might have omitted “I” or “O” to avoid confusion with numbers, but no, they rolled right along using those letters. Some confusion arose early on when it appeared the system didn’t work when double letters were initiated. My theory was saved when I realized that Moore had stuck in an extra “letter”, the ampersand (&), creating a 27-letter alphabet. (Further examples: AA45 would be serial number 2845, AB16 would be serial number 2916, etc.) This system was used until about serial number 24100. At around serial number 2860,0, when Colt took over, batching reverted to a single letter. Moore’s Patent Firearms Company of Brooklyn, NY, was incorporated in November 1861 for the manufacture of the afore-mentioned seven-shot revolvers and the single-shot, all-metal, “knuckleduster” derringer. After they were forced to stop production on the seven-shot revolver by the S&W action in the 1862 time frame, Daniel Moore devised and patented his front-loading testfire revolver. His patent was granted in April of 1863 (#38,321). Two years later, in March of 1865, the company was reformed as the National Arms Company of Brooklyn, NY. The gun, incidentally, was always officially called “THE NATIONAL REVOLVER” even during Moore’s Patent Firearms Company years. The firm’s product line included the original all-metal derringer, an improved version with wooden grips, and the continuation of the popular testfire revolver. In March of 1870, the company was purchased by Colt to continue production of the derringer line. It is apparent that Colt continued to produce testfires, as one of the improvements thereto, the Leaycroft extractor, was not patented until 1871 and was assigned to Colt (more about that later). The first revolvers, as shown in the Moore patent drawing, suffered from a design flaw in the cartridge’s configuration. The original cartridge design had a flat base with a projection containing fulminate. Almost half the base of the cartridge was exposed, and cases would occasionally rupture at that point. David Williamson found the answer by redesigning the cartridge with a globular base and a rounded protrusion, which allowed the base to be more protected with only the “teat” projecting rearward. No specimens of the gun shown in the Moore Patent are known to have surfaced. The guns manufactured under the Moore Patent name are so marked on the barrel. It is estimated that about 18,000 guns were produced under that banner. Probably about 14,000 additional guns were made by National Arms and subsequently by Colt for a grand total of roughly 32,000. Cartridges were loaded and held in place by a simple swiveling spring clip mounted on the frame in front of the cylinder. This clip could be flipped down to load or eject fired cartridges. In order to eject cartridges, a separate punch was provided. This item had to be carried apart from the gun and was frequently lost. Toward the end of production, seemingly after Colt became involved, a patent was issued to Edwin S. Leaycroft, which involved a hinged lever that would both retain cartridges and eject cartridges without the use of the separate punch. Exactly when this feature started in the serial sequence is not known, but it occurs as early as serial 27,170, suggesting that at least the last 7,000 might have this feature. I have also noticed that, toward the end of manufacture, the frame became somewhat slimmer, possibly to improve the feel in the hand. Some guns of this period were converted from the previous design. These can be identified by the dual-pin connection between barrel and frame, with one pin usually exposed or missing. Later, Colt manufactured guns with a single pinned connection.

Nearly all test fires that I have seen are hand-engraved with a simple floral and skip-pattern border design. I have yet to see a non-engraved specimen. The engraving on the earlier pieces is a bit more artistic than the later pieces. Frequently, fancy pieces are found cased, with custom engraving, pearl or ivory grips, gold and silver plating, and other special features. It is evident by the number of such fancy pieces that Moore must have maintained a custom shop. We show a number of these special pieces below.

Gerald Teesdale, in his 1975 Gun Report article, categorized the test fires into two basic divisions. Those marked with the “Moore” address and those marked with the “National” address. He noted two evolutionary variants of the Moore-marked pieces and three for the National-marked pieces (actually four if you count those that were converted to the hook extractor system). Nearly forty years later, these nomenclatures are still valid. Moore Patent Fire Arms Co., Brooklyn, N.Y. Type 1- Simple gate type with rectangular stop bolt indexing slots on rear of cylinder, (estimated production 5,400) Type 2 – Simple gate type with round stop bolt indexing slots on rear of cylinder, (estimated production 15,000) National Arms Co., Brooklyn, N.Y. This grouping of four was produced after Colt acquired the firm. Type 3 – Simple gate type with round stop bolt indexing slots on rear of cylinder, (estimated production 5,000) Type 4 – Leaycroft hook ejector/ gate with twin alignment pins between barrel and frame, (estimated production (2,500) Type 5 – Leaycroft hook ejector/ gate with single, central alignment pin between barrel and frame, (estimated production 2,000 to 2,500) In addition, National produced a very small quantity of 45 caliber revolvers. They are unusual in that they are solid frame, as per the patent drawing, for Army acceptance trials.

 

Cartridges 

Aside from any that may have been specially made to fit the Moore patent drawing gun, there were two types of cartridges (see the two cartridges illustrated earlier). The earliest had a flattened tip, and when loading, care had to be taken that the flattened tip orientation matched the anvil at the rear of the cylinder. A second type with a rounded tip did not require the careful orientation of the flat tip. These rounded-tip cartridges could not be loaded into the earlier guns without a slight modification to the anvil (i.e., filing a shallow groove).