What took S&W so long???

[willy]

S&W was making 22 and 32 cal. cartridge revolvers during the civil war..Henry was making a lever action repeater in 1860...What the heck reason did S&W have for not coming out with a 44cal. revolver shooting the henry rimfire round as early as 1861 at the very latest 

[Books OToole]

They were making their No. 1 & 2 revolvers and producing ammunition and were struggling to keep up during the war.  In 1865 introduce the 1 1/2.

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[Drydock]

Also, the top hinge bottom break design they were using during the war could not handle anything bigger either in power or size.  A whole new gun would need to be designed, and that would take time and manpower that could not be spared during the war.

[Blair]

As an aside from what others have posted... the .44 Henry rim fire belonged to the New Haven Arms Co. and it's inventor B. Tyler Henry, not to S&W.
B. Tyler Henry was working on his design for the .44 Rim fire and the firearm that would shoot it, based on the Vulcanic weapon when S&W sold the Vulcanic Arms Co. to what would become New Haven Arms and ultimately Winchester. B. Tyler Henry went to work for New Haven Arms at the point of sale.
I hope this info helps?
My best,
Blair

[Books OToole]

Actually the rimfire concept was patented by S&W* and they got a royalty for every round produced.  Regardless of who manufactured it or the caliber.

In 1862 S&W sold 416,000 rounds of .44/100 ammunition. (As well as 3,715,900 .22/100 and 2,203,400 .32/100)**


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* The "rocket-ball" ammunition was the main reason of the failure of the Volcanics.

**S&WCA Journal, Spring 2019, page 44.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

First of all, although the Henry rifle was patented in 1860, production did not start until 1862.

Neal and Jinks state that in the Paris Exposition of 1867 S&W displayed a 41 Rimfire Tip Up revolver. They called it the Model #3 Pocket Pistol. It looked like a scaled up Model 1 1/2 Second Issue. This was a case of a model being displayed before it actually went into production. Neal and Jinks are only aware of two of these existing.

S&W experimented with a 44 Rimfire Tip Up, but decided the design was not strong enough for a 44 caliber cartridge and never produced it.

When the White Patent expired in 1869, S&W introduced the American Model, the first Top Break, chambered for the 44 S&W American cartridge. The Top Break design was much stronger than the Tip Up design, so a large caliber Tip Up became a moot point.