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A revolver is a repeating firearm that has a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. The term "revolver" refers to a handgun, but other weapons may also have a revolving chamber. These include some models of grenade launchers, shotguns, and rifles. Though the original name was ''revolving gun'', the short-hand "revolver" is universally used. (Cannon using this mechanism are known as revolver cannon.) Nearly all early revolvers and many modern ones have six chambers in the cylinder, giving rise to the slang term six-shooter; however, revolvers with a number of different chambers have been made, with most modern revolvers having 5 or 6 chambers. The revolver allows the user to fire multiple rounds without reloading. Each time the user cocks the hammer, the cylinder revolves to align the next chamber and round with the hammer and barrel, which gives this type of firearm its name. In a single-action revolver, the user pulls the hammer back with his free hand or thumb; the trigger pull only releases the hammer. In a double-action revolver, pulling the trigger moves the hammer back, then releases it, which requires a longer and heavier trigger pull than single-action. Loading and unloading a double-action revolver requires the operator to swing out the cylinder and insert the proper ammunition, all while keeping the gun pointed in a safe direction. The first guns with multichambered cylinders that revolved to feed one barrel were made in the late 16th century in Europe. They were expensive and rare curiosities. Not until the 19th century would revolvers become common weapons for non-rich owners. One of the first was a flintlock revolver made by Elisha Collier in 1814. The first percussion cap revolver was invented by the Italian Francesco Antonio Broccu 1833. He received a prize of 300 francs for his invention; although he did not patent it, his revolver was shown to King Charles Albert of Sardinia. However, in 1835 a similar handgun was patented by Samuel Colt, who would go on to make the first mass-produced revolver. The first cartridge revolvers were produced around 1854 by Eugene Lefaucheux.〔https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=T9e37mYzuNIC&pg=PA118&dq=Lefaucheux+1854&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CBsQ6AEwAGoVChMIxIvDzqnwxwIVi7IUCh3oDgK9#v=onepage&q=Lefaucheux%201854&f=false〕 Revolvers soon became standard for nearly all uses. In the early 20th century, semi-automatic pistols were developed, which can hold more rounds, and are faster to reload. "Automatic" pistols also have a flat profile, more suitable for concealed carry. Semi-auto pistols were not considered reliable enough for serious police work or self-defense until the later half of the century, however, and revolvers were the dominant handgun for police and civilians until modern pistols such as the Beretta 92 and Glock 17 were developed in the 70s and 80s. Automatic pistols have almost completely replaced revolvers in military and law enforcement use (in military use, from 1910-1960; in law enforcement, in the 1980s and 1990s). Revolvers still remain popular as back-up and off-duty handguns among American law enforcement officers and security guards. Also, revolvers are still common in the American private sector as defensive and sporting/hunting firearms. Famous police and military revolvers include the Webley, the Colt Single Action Army, the Colt Police Special, the Smith & Wesson Model 36, the Smith & Wesson Model 10, the Smith & Wesson 1917, the Smith & Wesson Model 3 the Nagant M1895. ==History== In the development of firearms, an important limiting factor was the time it took to reload the weapon after it was fired. While the user was reloading, the weapon was useless, and an adversary might be able to take advantage of the situation and kill or wound the user. Several approaches to the problem of increasing the rate of fire were developed, the earliest being multi-barrelled weapons which allowed two or more shots without reloading. Later weapons featured multiple barrels revolving along a single axis. The earliest examples of what today is called a revolver were made in Germany in the late 16th century. These weapons featured a single barrel with a revolving cylinder holding the powder and ball. They would soon be made by many European gun-makers, in numerous designs and configurations. However, these weapons were difficult to use, complicated and prohibitively expensive to make, as such they were not widely distributed. It would be several hundred years before the revolver would see widespread use. In 1836, an American, Samuel Colt patented the first revolver mechanism that led to the widespread use of the revolver. According to Samuel Colt, he came up with the idea for the revolver while at sea, inspired by the capstan, which had a ratchet and pawl mechanism on it, a version of which was used in his guns to rotate the cylinder. Revolvers proliferated largely due to Colt's ability as a salesman. But his influence spread in other ways as well; the build quality of his company's guns became famous, and its armories in America and England trained several seminal generations of toolmakers and other machinists, who had great influence in other manufacturing efforts of the next half century. Early revolvers were caplocks and loaded as a muzzle-loader: the user poured black powder into each chamber, rammed down a bullet on top of it, then placed percussion caps on the nipple at the rear of each chamber, where the hammer would fall on it. This was similar to loading a traditional single-shot muzzle-loading pistol, except that the powder and shot could be loaded directly into the front of the cylinder rather than having to be loaded down the whole length of the barrel. Importantly, this allowed the barrel itself to be rifled, since the user wasn't required to force the tight fitting bullet down the barrel in order to load it (a traditional muzzle-loading pistol had a smoothbore and relatively loose fitting shot, which allowed easy loading, but gave much less accuracy). When firing the next shot, the user would raise his pistol vertically as he cocked the hammer back so as to let the fragments of the burst percussion cap fall out so as to not jam the mechanism. Some of the most popular cap-and-ball revolvers were the Colt Model 1851 "Navy" Mode, 1860 "Army" Model, and Colt Pocket Percussion revolvers, all of which saw extensive use in the American Civil War. Although American revolvers were the most common, European arms makers were making numerous revolvers by that time as well, many of which found their way into the hands of the American forces, including the single action Lefaucheux and LeMat revolver and the Beaumont-Adams and Tranter revolvers, which were early double-action weapons, in spite of being muzzle-loaders. In 1854, Eugene Lefaucheux introduced the Lefaucheux Model 1854, the first revolver to use self-contained metallic cartridges rather than loose powder, pistol ball, and percussion caps. It is a single-action, pinfire revolver holding six rounds.〔http://www.militaryfactory.com/smallarms/detail.asp?smallarms_id=313〕 On November 17, 1856, Daniel B. Wesson and Horace Smith signed an agreement for the exclusive use of the Rollin White Patent at a rate of 25 cents for every revolver. Smith & Wesson began production late in 1857 and enjoyed years of exclusive production of rear-loading cartridge revolvers in America, due to their association with Rollin White, who held the patent and vigorously defended it against any perceived infringement by other manufacturers (much as Colt had done with his original patent on the revolver). Although White held the patent, other manufacturers were able to sell firearms using the design, provided they were willing to pay royalties. After White's patent finally expired in April 1869, a 3rd extension was refused. Other gun-makers were finally allowed to produce their own weapons using the rear-loading method, without having to pay a royalty on each gun sold. Early guns were often conversions of earlier cap-and-ball revolvers, modified to accept metallic cartridges loaded from the rear, but later models, such as the Colt Model 1872 "Open Top" and the Smith & Wesson Model 3, were designed from the start as cartridge revolvers. In 1873, Colt introduced the famous Model 1873, also known as the Single Action Army, the "Colt .45" (not to be confused with Colt made models of the M1911 semi-automatic) or simply, "the Peacemaker", one of the most famous handguns ever made. This popular design, which was a culmination of many of the advances introduced in earlier weapons, fired 6 metallic cartridges and was offered in over 30 different calibers and various barrel lengths. It is still in production, along with numerous clones and lookalikes, and its overall appearance has remained the same since 1873. Although originally made for the United States Army (hence the name), the Model 1873 was widely distributed and popular with ranchers, lawmen, and outlaws alike. Its design has influenced countless other revolvers. Colt has discontinued its production twice, but brought it back due to popular demand and continues to make it to this day. In the U.S. the traditional single-action revolver still reigned supreme until the late 19th century. In Europe, however, arms makers were quick to adopt the double-action trigger. While the US was producing weapons like the Model 1873, the Europeans were building double-action models like the French MAS Modèle 1873 and the somewhat later British Enfield Mk I and II revolvers (Britain relied on cartridge conversions of the earlier Beaumont-Adams double-action prior to this). Colt's first attempt at a double action revolver to compete with the European manufacturers was the Colt Model 1877, which earned lasting notoriety for its overly complex, expensive and fragile trigger mechanism, which in addition to failing frequently, also had a terrible trigger pull unless given the attentions of a competent gunsmith. In 1889, Colt introduced the Model 1889, the first truly modern double action revolver, which differed from earlier double action revolvers by having a "swing-out" cylinder, as opposed to a "top-break" or "side-loading" cylinder. Swing out cylinders quickly caught on, because they combined the best features of earlier designs. Top-break actions gave the ability to eject all empty shells simultaneously, and exposed all chambers for easy reloading, but having the frame hinged into two halves weakened the gun and negatively effected accuracy, due to lack of rigidity. "Side-loaders", like the earlier Colt Model 1871 and 1873, gave a rigid frame, but required the user to eject and load one cylinder at a time, as they rotated the cylinder to line each chamber up with the side-mounted loading gate. Smith & Wesson followed 7 years later with the Revolvers have remained popular to the present day in many areas, although in the military and law enforcement, they have largely been supplanted by magazine-fed semi-automatic pistols such as the Beretta M9, especially in circumstances where reload time and higher cartridge capacity are deemed important. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Revolver」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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