The Revolvers of John Adams

The Revolvers of John Adams 1857-1872 By Geoff Pogson

John Adams Revolver 1857

Ihave mentioned, in some previous eff orts, the It was recorded that John was in the party at the name of Robert Adams, inventor of the first of ceremony of the presentation of the Deane, Adams & a line of successful British revolvers, both hand Deane Revolver to HRH Prince Albert in 1851. At this held and long arm, together with his cousin John event, John and James Kerr, another cousin, had both Adams. Robert was a factory manager with the firm demonstrated the loading and firing of Robert’s revolver of Deane & Son, but was taken as a partner when he at targets, each of which were signed by the other patented his successful pistol. The firm was renamed The Deane, Adams & Deane partnership continued Deane, Adams & Deane. Also working in the company with the production and evolutionary changes to the with Robert Adams, was his cousin John Adams who Adams revolvers until. in late 1856, a new business, the was interested in manufacturing developments in “London Armoury Co” was established with R. Adams, the use of machine tools in firearms production. J. Deane Snr, F. E. Beaumont, W. Harding and J. Kerr John had taken a patent on a rifle sight and was as the major shareholders, all from the gun industry. developing his ideas in connection with the new There were other share holders in attendance from the revolver he was imagining. financial circles.

John Adams Revolver 1866

Robert Adams was overseer of the rifle making section while James Kerr ran the production of handguns. James Kerr and John Adams were simultaneously working on separate, new revolver designs, at the LAC works at this time. It seems that John may have been learning the gun trade in the early fifties, though there is not much recorded about his exploits until just after Robert split away from the “London Armoury Company”, in late 1856, when John went with him to premises at 46 King William Street where they were said to be working on a new revolver. This may have been the pistol patented in John Adams name, credited to him in the Adams Revolver book as the Adams Model 1857, though the pistol I own has the name and address of R. Adams at the address above. Perhaps this indicates possible interest or collaboration by Robert. This model of John’s is a five shot 54 bore percussion revolver, and is, in part, similar in

silhouette to a Beaumont Adams. Unlike the Robert Adams invention, the body of this pistol is constructed from two parts, one containing the barrel, top strap and recoil shield, and at the same time holding both ends of the cylinder arbor in the one piece of metal. The second frame unit holds the lock work and butt attachment features. Also pivoting on this frame is the under-barrel rammer, not unlike the Colt rammers of the day, but which also secures the arbor when the rammer is at rest. The barrel inscription on this revolver, featured in a previous article, reads R. Adams. 46 King William St London, though the patent was taken out by John Adams. With a serial number 40014, it is one of a small number of known survivors, some un-numbered, the rest in this 40000 range. This pistol, though well made, was not as successful as might have been expected, perhaps due to growth in development and improving eff iciency in breech loaders and ammunition.

John Adams Revolver 1867

John Adams must have decided that having developed a better pistol, he would follow the line and the result was the quite excellent Model 1866. A six chambered percussion revolver, also a twopiece construction, though much improved on the 1857 model. It still used the under-barrel rammer, which, in both revolvers, doubled as the Arbor pin retaining device. Some of these pistols were taken for trials by the War Department and they were the last percussion types taken into government service, soon to be replaced by a series of successful John Adams breech loading pistols.

John also took on the conversion of the Beaumont Adams revolvers held in government stores. This work required new cylinders to take five .450 CF cartridges; an extraction device to replace the rammer and a loading gate to be fitted behind the cylinder on the right-hand side of the frame. This conversion project, begun in 1868,

lasted well into the 1870’s, the finished product earning the title “Pistol Adams CF Conversion Mk I. My own example of this rare pistol is still a work in progress, I have been slowly restoring for some years. I would like to own a good one sometime soon. Simultaneously, John Adams was proceeding with work on a new design for a six chambered .450 C F revolver with the aim of stirring government interest, It was, on completion not unlike the Beaumont Adams, in silhouette, but used a modified two piece frame construction that he had tried out in the preceding percussion model 1866. The new model, patented in 1867, was in production in 1868 The main diff erences, apart from the obvious use of cartridges over cap and ball, were the arbor locking and ejector rod were controlled by a three position “tap” like revolving switch, and the provision of an upward opening loading gate behind

John Adams Revolver 1868

the right-hand side of the cylinder. When the “tap” was in the horizontal, both ejector rod and Arbor were locked in place. To use the ejector, the “tap” is turned down by 45 degrees, with the arbor still locked, and to remove the arbor and cylinder the tap was turned a further 45 degrees. Though sometimes deemed to be complicated it was an eff icient way to arrange the security of the arbor and the good operation of the extraction system. This pistol became known as the Revolver Adams Mk II

Finally John Adams produced a third cartridge revolver, the Mk III, with an ejector rod housed inside the arbor, which, when withdrawn from the arbor, pivoted on a moving bracket to line up with a fired chamber, the gate was opened and the rod used to expel the fired cases. The cylinder was revolved by hand to clear other empty cases. It was a system already in use with other makers and soon became the accepted method for many solid frame pistols.

This Model of 1872 was the last Adams Revolver to be used in Military service, and though superceded by later revolvers of heavier calibre and diff erent extraction systems, it was still in service with reserve units well into the Great War of 1914. They were issued to many Colonial Forces in Canada, New Zealand and most of the Australian states, and in many other places wherein the Colonial Off ice representatives managed the Administration of Government and Civil Service.

I have included a second, rather timeworn, Adams Mk III, displayed in a recently acquired leather bound Campaign case the sort used by off icers travelling to the numerous African small wars of the late 1800’s. What tales might they tell?

Over the many years I have been collecting I have been fortunate enough to acquire all of the revolvers I have described in this article, and although some might be rather ordinary examples, there are still a

John Adams Revolver 1872

couple of quite scarce ones yet to come within my reach but this only whets the appetite for the search. There is always that “One of these days” feeling that might, with luck, come true. I’m just glad that I still have “The Bug” which stirs the need to keep on with the search

I am again, very grateful to the many great publications of Mr Chamberlain and Mr Taylerson. This time I have used “The Adams Revolver”, “ W. D. Revolvers of the British Services” and “The Revolver 1865-1888.” to aid my memory, I have also had thoughtful and experienced advice from fellow collectors who share my interest, and some of whom parted with some of the featured examples, recently added to my collection, for which I thank them again. So too to John Newton who has made this readable.