By John MarshallDuring the 1880s, Smith & Wesson co-founder

Daniel Baird Wesson was seeking to design andproduce a revolver for self defense that would beentirely safe to handle until properly gripped andfired by a long, heavy double-action pull on thetrigger. He was particularly motivated by reports ofchildren firing guns accidentally. Such a revolverwould have no external hammer, and could nottherefore be fired with a light single-action pull.D.B. Wesson began work on the project with hisson Joe, and the result was the first in a long line ofdouble-action-only self-defenserevolvers. These would beextremely difficult for a childto fire. Such guns would havean additional advantage forlaw enforcement officers,who could draw theirrevolver from underneathclothing without a hammercatching on a pocket or coatand impeding the draw. Thisconcept lives on in some modern S&W revolvers.Today, these early revolvers, named by the factory“Safety Hammerless” or “New Departure” are clas-sic collector items.

D.B. Wesson assigned the development of thenew revolver to his son Joe, and this was one of Joe’sfirst drafting projects. Joseph H. Wesson had learneda lot from his father, and had inherited much of hisforebear’s mechanical aptitude. His first modeldesign was completed on May 1, 1884. In additionto it being a double-action-only revolver, it incorpo-rated a grip safety in the backstrap of the firearm.Gripping the revolver tightly deactivated an internalhammer block, and allowed the gun to be fired. Thisfirst design did have a flaw. It featured a heavy strikerbar. Unfortunately, if the gun was dropped on itsmuzzle the forward inertia of the striker bar couldallow it to strike the primer, sometimes firing the gunaccidentally. Joe Wesson went back to the drawingboard and came up with a second concept in Janu-ary 1886 that eliminated this problem. This designutilized a much smaller spring-loaded inertia-type fir-ing pin that could only ignite a primer if it was strucka strong blow by the internal hammer. Being spring-loaded, it automatically retracted after being struck,and did not continue to touch the primer even whilethe hammer was at rest against the pin. John Brown-ing later utilized this nearly identical system for hisenduring Model 1911 .45 pistol design.

Initial plans were to produce the new revolverin calibers .32 S&W, .38 S&W, and .44 S&W Russ-ian, and early advertisements stated these inten-tions. However after producing a prototype, it wasdecided to make them only in the two lesser cal-ibers. The first guns manufactured were known as.38 Safety Hammerless models, and eight nickeled

revolvers were produced in July 1886. Twentymore nickeled revolvers were made in August ofthat year, and these guns were held in inventoryuntil February 1887, when production and distribu-tion began in earnest. Over the life of the .38 Safe-ty Hammerless models, five distinct model varia-tions were generated, differing primarily in the bar-

rel lockingsystems. All,of course, wereof “top break” designwhere the cartridges orempties were ejectedautomatically when thebarrel and cylinder werereleased and swung down. Duringits production life, this arm wasmade with either a blue or nickelfinish, and was offered in a widerange of barrel lengths from 2” to6”. Production ceased on the .38model in 1940, with a final serialnumber of 261,493.

S&W tooled up and began produc-ing the .32 Safety Hammerless models inFebruary, 1888 when 16 nickeled revolverswere made. The improvements made to the latch-ing mechanism on the .38 models were incorporat-ed on the .32, the first ones being essentiallyreduced-size versions of the .38 Third Model. Threedifferent model variations were made in the .32revolver over its production life. These changesinvolved improvements to the barrel catch, thefront sight, and the cylinder base pin attachment.Almost all were equipped with black rubber stocks,although as with the .38s, stocks of other materialswere available from the factory on special order. Atfirst, the .32s were offered only with 3 and 3.5”barrel lengths. In 1898, the “bicycle gun” variationwith a 2” barrel came out and was popular withcyclists wishing protection against canines wishingto do battle with their velocipedes. These 2” gunsare scarce, and collector values for them are quite

haifnfect shape, it appears unfired and is accompaniedb

e1b

rmltwrdferent factory nomenclatures, today these revolversaSgu

4040 CCLLAASSSSIICC HHAANNDDGGUUNNSS:: TThhee SS&&WW SSafety Hammerless Revolvers

““These revolvers are affectionately known as Lemon Squeezers.”

Oct 10 Blue Press Section 2 8/14/10 11:17 AM Page 40