Sam Colt and Elisha K. Root
There are great names in firearms design and manufacturing: Colt, Browning, Sharps, Spencer, Henry, and many more.
Then there are the other guys. The ones who perhaps only turned out one product, but it was a remarkable one. The ones who took an already impressive design and improved it. Or, as in this case, a designer who is known for one design that didn’t blow up a lot of skirts and that in fact wasn't even really his, but it was somewhat unique, and the engineer that bears its name ended up having a much bigger impact on American firearms manufacturing than is generally understood.
In 1849, Sam Colt had just started manufacturing revolvers again, after the mixed success of his early Paterson guns. He had a new plant in Hartford, Connecticut, he had a new design in his 1848 Dragoon pistol, and he had a new factory superintendent, a guy named Elisha King Root. Root, then 41 years old, already had made a career for himself in the axe factory of one Samuel W. Collins, who had an axe factory in Collinsville, Connecticut. While working there, Root came up with an improved way to manufacture axes, and then he invented an improved process for tempering those axe heads. Colt was looking to leverage Root’s experience in his revolver factory.
The Designs
Then, in 1855, the Colt works came out with a new revolver. Colt directed the new gun to be named after his factory superintendent, Elisha K. Root, and so the Root revolver was born. Yes, it’s a common misconception among many that Root designed the gun himself, but it was instead a product of Colt engineers and just named for Mr. Root.
The design of the gun was quite a departure from Colt’s existing works, like the 1851 Navy that was already in production. The Root revolvers had a top strap, instead of the open top of the other Colts. The hammer, instead of being central in the frame, was mounted on the side of the receiver, giving the gun the name, Colt Model 1855 Sidehammer Pocket Revolver. And a pocket revolver it was, being made in some real pipsqueak calibers in those days of black powder: .28 caliber and .31 caliber. About 30,000 of the former were made and 14,000 of the latter. The gun was sized for a jacket pocket, being about 8 inches long overall, with a 3 ½ inch barrel; it weighed in at 17 ounces. This was also the first Colt revolver to use the “creeping” loading lever that would later be used in the 1860 Army, 1861 Navy, and 1862 Police Model sixguns. It was also the first Colt handgun to feature a spur trigger, which would only otherwise be used in derringer pistols.
There were seven models of the Root revolvers, each succeeding model featuring a design tweak or two.
The Guns
Production began in 1855. The guns, as noted, underwent a few design changes through the 15 years it was in production. It remained, though, as it was designed to be, a small, light pocket revolver, in either .28 or .31 caliber. A round ball or a conical bullet in those calibers, backed by a small charge of black powder, was sure to cause great annoyance and displeasure to any assailant. Even so, when you need a gun, nothing else will do, and any gun is better than no gun at all. That seems to be the market niche the Root revolvers were made for, unlike Colt’s bigger, heavier, more well-known holster guns.
The Root revolvers did see some use in the American Civil War, but the gun had a perhaps-unfair reputation for chain-firing, an event that occurred in black powder revolvers when the ignition of the cylinder under the gun’s hammer set off the chambers on either side, or sometimes even all six. This generally had unpleasant consequences for the gun and the shooter.Interestingly, Colt also made a half-dozen long guns based on the Root revolver’s action, those being:
- Colt Model 1855 "First Model" Sporting Rifle
- Colt Model 1855 Half Stock Sporting Rifle
- Colt Model 1855 Full Stock Sporting Rifle
- Colt Model 1855 Military Rifle and Rifled Musket
- Colt Model 1855 Revolving Carbine
- Colt Model 1855 Revolving Shotgun
Then, in 1870, with the advent of brass cartridges on the horizon, Colt quietly dropped the Root revolver from its product line. There was no later, cartridge firing adaptation, and frankly, in the face of the enormous success of the 1873 Single Action Army, the odds of any updated Sidehammer cartridge revolver achieving any commercial success would have been spare indeed.
As for Elisha K. Root, he doesn’t seem to have been too upset by the lackluster performance of the gun that bore his name, although he didn’t live to see it drop from the Colt catalog. He had continued on at Colt, taking over as president of Colt’s Patent Firearms after Sam Colt’s death in 1862, continuing in that role until he died in late 1865.
What Happened?
The Root revolvers were never a big commercial success. In the 15 years of production, about 40,000 guns were made in the various configurations, but the guns never achieved the popularity of Colt’s sixguns, which included not only the Dragoon pistols but also stellar pieces like the 1851 Navy revolvers, which is considered by many (including me) to be perhaps the best-handling single-action revolver ever made; it’s frame and grip were the basis for the immortal 1873 Colt Single Action Army revolver.
But while at Colt, Root not only streamlined and improved the process of manufacturing Colonel Colt’s guns, modernizing production by designing and building his own drop hammers, boring machines, gauges and jigs, but also perfected the Lincoln-Miller milling machine, which sold over 150,000 copies, making it one of the most successful machine tools of the 19th century.
The revolver named for Elisha K. Root may not have been so much of a much. But his impact on American firearms history was significant, all the same. He deserves more credit than he generally gets.
And now, you may well know a little bit more than you did, about this man who stood in the shadow of Sam Colt, and yet performed wonders of his own.
