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Hi, Daniel and guys,
I made two mistakes, for which I offer only the excuse of its being very late and past my bedtime.
Daniel, you are correct about the rotation and that the cylinder can rotate forward - the hand stops it rotating backward. I also said the grips are hard rubber; this is true for the civilian model, but the military models had wood grips.
This is the only Colt to have its sideplate on the right, which sort of forces the counter-clockwise rotation. The mechanism is such that the rear cylinder stop does not engage with the hammer down, and if the bolt spring is broken, the cylinder can rotate with the hammer down. There are two cylinder stop notches. The front one is engaged by the bolt, which stops cylinder motion with the hammer down. It is disengaged by the trigger when the trigger comes back. But it does not stop cylinder rotation for firing. That is done by a second bolt stop made as part of the trigger and which engages in the rear cut in the receiver and required the long lead notch.
The guns are pretty fragile (mainly spring breakage) and a royal pain to work on.
I have called the gun the Model 1892 based on the patent dates given (shouldn't the last one be 1888 rather than 1884?). But there was a series of these, that the Army called the Models 1892, 1894, 1894, 1896, 1901, and 1903. The changes were minor and they all look alike. There was also a Model 1905 Marine Corps model, with a round butt. These are rare and are sometimes faked.
This was the gun that caused all the ruckus in the Philippines when the .38 Colt would not stop native troops. The ultimate result was the adoption of the Model 1911 pistol in .45 caliber.
Jim
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