The Silver Eye

Very good news: Some of the Afghans my family knows who got trapped in the rush to the Kabul airport made it to the USA and are safe! And another family who has been stuck in limbo finally got approved to come to the states.

Interesting news: In 1855 my great great great grandfather patented the cylinder that basically ALL revolvers use today. I have a muzzle loading revolver that I haven’t used too much, but it takes me like 10 minutes to load the black powder and the lead ball and the little felt thingies and stick the percussion caps on. Then it takes like 30 seconds to fire it all.

Revolvers where you stick a metal casing/bullet in the back of each cylinder had to use the type of cylinder he patented. He made a deal with Smith and Wesson–they had the rights to license his patent, but in order for it to stand, he had to sue everyone that violated it–which meant EVERY gun manufacturer who wanted to upgrade from muzzle loading revolvers. He went broke fighting to keep up with it lawsuits and petitioned the USA government to help him protect his patent. It was approved by congress and the senate, but was vetoed by president Ulysses S. Grant. He quoted his Chief of Ordinance in saying that Rollin Whites antics were an “inconvenience and embarrassment” during the Civil War, because he was undermining gun manufacturers when the Union needed arms. White eventually gave up on protecting the patent.

It is famous enough that there is mention of it in the NRA museum which I visited. There are also YouTube videos about it. Someone made a 3d model of the gun White designed and used it in a mod for Doom(?). One rando internet user referred to White as a “troll”. These are all delightful juicy details I never expected to find out when researching family history! If the deal with Smith and Wesson hadn’t fallen through, my fam would be getting 4-5 million dollars annually for the revolvers they produce. If the patent stood and revolver manufacturers still had to license that cylinder design for the past 168 years… I would like to attempt calculate that sum when I have the time out of curiosity. I am sure it would be astronomical.