A look at the 'cup-primed' cartridges........

[Elderberry]

oldammo.com

When Smith & Wesson obtained the rights to the Rollin White bored-through cylinder patent on November 17, 1856 click here for a discussion of the Rollin White patent, it essentially gave them exclusive control over meaningful revolver development in the United States for the next 12 1/2 years. A number of other gun makers attempted to cash in on the growing demand for revolvers that used standard rim fire cartridges, but all were forced to stop production or to market their guns through Smith & Wesson after they were successfully sued for patent infringement by Rollin White.

Other creative inventors worked on developing revolvers that did not infringe on the Rollin White patent, but to do so required that their revolvers not have bored-through cylinders. As a result, several unique cartridges were developed in the process of making these new revolver designs marketable. While the resulting patent applications were submitted as 'improvements in repeating firearms' or 'improvements in metallic ammunition', few offered any meaningful improvements at all. The revolvers tended to be more complicated and cumbersome to use, and the ammunition was less reliable, as attested to by their generally poor acceptance by the shooting public. That these patent evasions were doomed certainly is obvious in hindsight, considering the fact that the practicality and simplicity of the bored through cylinder has not been improved upon for a revolving firearm to this day. However, this brief period of alternative revolver design produced a number of unusual guns and cartridges that add to the mystique of collecting and, fortunately for collectors, are in most cases not too difficult to find. The first and one of the more popular among the evasions was Willard Ellis and John White's revolver, for which they received U.S. patent 24,726 on July 12, 1859.   

More: http://www.oldammo.com/february13.htm



https://www.ima-usa.com/products/original-u-s-civil-war-era-merwin-bray-cupfire-brass-frame-revolver-converted-to-44-c-1870

[Smokin Joe]

Is this the Benet cup or a different setup? Cartridge cases found near Fort Buford, North Dakota, included Benet cup, bar anvil, and swedged primer pockets, before the earlier center fire primers we know today (which resembled a shotgun primer). A few decades back, I found all those varieties in .45-70, likely fired from trapdoor Springfield rifles near the fort. Aside from a couple of different varieties of rifle bullets, and pistol bullets, Krag-Jorgenson bullets (identifiable by the iron jacket) were also found, and more rarely, a round ball or grapeshot ball.

[Elderberry]

@Smokin Joe

The "Benet Cup" is a form of cup priming for rimmed rifle cartridges. The article is discussing the form of cup priming for revolvers to get past the S&W patent by having to have rimless cartridges that you load from the front of the cylinder.

[Smokin Joe]

@Smokin Joe

The "Benet Cup" is a form of cup priming for rimmed rifle cartridges. The article is discussing the form of cup priming for revolvers to get past the S&W patent by having to have rimless cartridges that you load from the front of the cylinder.

The link led me to a revolver for sale, I didn't get much article.

Later note: My bad, I clicked on the second link, not the first. Interesting, and preceded the Benet Cup by quite a bit.