Two men by the names of Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson came from a line of old New England families. Horace learned about firearms while working at the National Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts and Daniel learned about firearms working with his brother Edwin Wesson, who was the leading maker of target rifles and pistols in the 1840s.
Smith & Wesson started their first partnership in Norwich, Connecticut back in 1852 with the idea of creating a lever action repeating pistol that would use a fully self-contained cartridge. The first pistol that was made did not make give them financial success and only two years later in 1854 the company experienced financial difficulties which forced them to sell out to Oliver Winchester, a shirt manufacturer. By using the original repeating lever action which was designed & created by Smith & Wesson, Winchester’s company came out to become the famous Winchester Repeating Arms Company in 1866.
The second partnership of Smith & Wesson was back in 1856 and they wanted to produce a small revolver that would fire the Rimfire cartridge that they had received a patent on in August of 1854. This revolver was the very first successful fully self-contained cartridge revolver ever to be available in the world at that time, so as a way to prevent any other manufacturers from being able to produce a cartridge revolver, Smith & Wesson received secured patents for the cartridge and by doing this, the company became a very lucrative business for Smith & Wesson.
In 1869 Smith & Wesson completed a new design for the first large caliber cartridge revolver. The marketing for the new revolver, The Model 3 American started in 1870. Once the revolver gained notoriety in the United States, Smith & Wesson became known as the world’s leading handgun manufacturer.
The next revolver introduced by Smith & Wesson is probably the most famous revolver in the world, the .38 Military & Police, today it is known as the Model 10. This revolver continues to be in production since that year and has been used by almost every law enforcement agency as well as military forces around the world.
In 1935, Smith & Wesson introduced the first Magnum revolver, the .357 Magnum and introduced a double action auto-loading pistol which was the very first one made in America and next was the Model 39 to be introduced. In 1956 the handgun used by Clint Eastwood in “Dirty Harry” The Model 29 chambered in .44 Magnum which made this handgun famous, was introduced. The Model 60 was the first ever stainless steel revolver and was introduced by Smith & Wesson in 1965.
At the age of 65, Horace Smith retired from the company and sold his share to D. B. Wesson. The company introduced its line of hammerless revolvers during the late 1800’s and today they are still represented in the handgun line.
Without the accomplishments of Smith & Wesson, it would be impossible to understand the history of modern handguns today. When Smith & Wesson was first founded back in 1852, they were an industry leader back then and Smith & Wesson continues today to lead the world into the 21st century with their innovations.
