_The pistol_ may be defined as a small arm held in one hand to be fired. It is an ancient weapon, but had attained no special importance or popularity prior to the Nineteenth Century. The duelling pistol, with its long barrel, its hair trigger and inlaid stock, and the derringer, with its short barrel of large bore, were the popular forms. Not until the revolver made its appearance did the pistol attain any importance. Colt is popularly credited with having invented this, but it is really a very old principle. In the Alte Deutscher Drehling Der Ruckladungs Gewehre, by Edward Zernin, 1872, Darmstadt and Leipzig, is shown an ancient form of match lock revolver, said to belong to the period 1480-1500. It is probably the same as the match-lock revolver in the museum of the Tower of London, which is also credited to the Fifteenth Century. In the British patent to Puckle, No. 418, of 1718, is shown and described a well-constructed revolver carried on a tripod, and of the dimensions of the modern machine gun. The inventor naïvely states that it has round chambers for round balls, designed for Christians, and square chambers, with square balls, for the Turks. The first revolving firearm in the United States was made by John Gill, of Newberne, N. C., in 1829. It had fourteen chambers, and was a percussion gun, but was never patented. The first revolver patented in the United States was that to D. G. Colburn, June 29, 1833. The revolver of Col. Samuel Colt was patented February 25, 1836, (re-issue No. 124, October 24, 1848), and again August 29, 1839, No. 1,304; September 3, 1850, No. 7,613, and September 10, 1850, No. 7,629. It was the first practical invention of this kind, and it embodied as a leading feature the automatic rotation of the cylinder in cocking by a pawl on the hammer engaging a ratchet on the end of the cylinder. [Illustration: FIG. 276.--SMITH & WESSON REVOLVER DISCHARGING SHELLS.] Various types followed, such as the old pepper box, patented by Darling April 13, 1836; the self-cocking pepper box, patented by Allen, No. 3,998, April 16, 1845; the four sliding barrels of Sharp, No. 6,960, December 18, 1849, and many others. The most popular and successful, however, of the succeeding types is that of Smith & Wesson, shown in Fig. 276, and covered by many patents. One of its most important features is the simultaneous extraction of the shells by an ejector, having a stem sliding through the cylinder. This was the invention of W. C. Dodge, patented January 17, 1865, No. 45,912, re-issue No. 4,483, July 25, 1871. In Fig. 277 is shown Smith & Wesson’s latest pattern of Hammerless Safety Revolver, with automatic shell extractor and rebounding lock. [Illustration: FIG. 277.--SMITH & WESSON SELF ACTING HAMMERLESS REVOLVER.]