Melvin Johnson-Dardick Revolver & Tround

[TomW 0]

For all you DARDICK REVOLVER enthusiast's, I found a 7 page article by Captain Monty Mendenhall very informative & the most comprehensive I have read about this short-lived weapon and its ammunition the "Tround" (Triangular round).

It can be found in the latest issue of Small Arms Review, September, 2005 Vol. 8.NO.12. It starts on page 30, and has many illustrations & photographs. As a bonus, he also has a picture of a Johnson Rifle, being loaded with a stripper clip.

I previously knew Melvin Johnson was loosly tied to the Dardick Corporation(previous posts), but learned he was in fact, an engineering consultant to David Dardick(inventor of the Dardick firearm). The article also pointed out numerous similarities, between the Johnson Rifle & the Dardick pistol, which the author credited to influence of Melvin Johnson.

[Jim Peden 0]

The notion of a shaped bore combined with a similarly shaped round was not exactly new when Dardick designed his weapon and ammo for it. In Manchester, England, in the late 1850's Sir Joseph Whitworth patented a 12-pounder Whitworth Rifle system for cannons (and also small arms) which used a hexagonal bore design instead of the usual rifling methods. The ammunition also carried the hexagonal design in order to follow the bore, thus allowing for better range and accuracy. Sir Whitworth manufactured his cannons in both breech-loading and muzzle-loading models. Whitworh guns of this type were used in the US Civil War and a number of them were imported by the Confederacy during the early months of the war before the blockade was tightened enough to be effective. It was the most accurate of the South's artillery weapons.