Invincible Hand Gun

ajabear

August 22, 2003 18:30

My great great grandparents gave each of their three daughters a coal oil lamp from Sweden and an Invincible Hand Gun when they were married. Several years ago, my father took the gun to a gunsmith. He was told that they didn't make very many of the guns because the barrel blew up. I know have both lamp and gun. I was wondering if anyone could tell me anything else about the gun, such as when it was made, etc. Thanks!

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  rufe-snow

  August 22, 2003 19:06

  The only "Invincible" I have listed is a "Suicide Special" revolver made in the late 19th Century by "Johnson Bye & Co". and/or "Iver Johnson".
  Bill Goforth will be around shortly to give you the skinny on them, (He wrote the book!)

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  b.goforth

  August 22, 2003 21:00

  i prefer not to use the terms saturday night oar suicide special for the class of firearms but would rather refer to them by what they are; brand name single action spur trigger revolvers.
  
  the 'invincible' is one of the more uncommon brand names marked on a series of revolvers better known as 'defender'. what ever name marked on them all of these revolvers manufactured by johnson & bye and iver johnson all feature a single action mechansim based on patent number 139461 issued to charles fohel in 1873.
  
  this series of single action spur trigger revolvers were manufactured between 1873 and 1889 and marked with many different brand names. the most common being 'defender' and 'invincible' one of the least common. the use of the name 'invincible' was most likely stop about 1880. the name does not appear in any of the j.p. lovell co. catalogs of the mid 1880's. j.p. lovell co. was the sole distributor of all johnson & bye and iver joshnson products until 1894.
  
  back to the invincible offered in three frame sizes and four calibers all rimfires .22,.32,.38 & .41. most were smooth bore with only the front of the barrel grooved to look like rifling.
  
  do not fire modern ammo in these revolvers. they were safe and dependable in their day but that was well over 120 years ago.
  
  sorry for the long post but sometimes i just don't know when to shutup
  b.goforth

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