I wondered at that a bit, but never looked up the details until now. The automatic pistol was invented in 1892, and Remarks was printed in 1887, which means the story itself was written well before the automatic was invented. However, something that wasn't quite "self-cocking" a double-action revolver(**) did have "an automatic dingus for throwing out the empty shells": the von Steiger auto-ejecting revolver. No, I'd never heard of it before. This was 1870's, so the dates work.
It used a little lever that, on cocking the hammer, slipped under the rim of the empty case just right of the live round, and as the hammer flew forward the lever snapped the empty case back out (originally right at the shooter :-( ). It worked, but was pretty complicated to make.
(*) A writer's group has been going over a story that includes a one-room schoolhouse scene, and that brought Nye's work back to mind.
(**) Brain freeze. Single actions had to be hand-cocked, of course.
The Smith & Wesson Schofield had an ejector that automatically kicked the brass out so you could quickly reload the cylinder. I believe that was one of the modifications Schofield himself made, to improve the pistol's utility to cavalrymen. It was a lot easier to reload while sitting on a moving horse than the more famous Colt Single Action Army. That'd be 1873.
ReplyDeleteSo almost exactly the same time
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