Ever seen ? heard of ? ..a Chicago Arms Palm Pistol ?

[joepistol]

Went out in the cold yesterday on my bike, needed to circulate some sta-bil thru the fuel system. Since I'm close, and had an issue to address,
decided to stop by and see my gunsmith / gun guru. He gets some interesting stuff in for repair / modification.
He had something I'd never seen before..a palm pistol. He had it apart & when asked about it, showed me the parts & explained how it worked.
I found it very interesting, got permission to take some pics, and then later last night, did an internet search on it.
Reason this unusual "revolver" was in for repair ? a broken ( actually, "cracked" spring )
.
This was made in the late 1890's.. internet says a Frenchman designed & built the early models, then sold the design to an American.
The American wanted to market the pistol @ the Chicago World's Fair, ..so contracted with a company to build 15K of them, for sale @ the Fair.
Builder was unable to complete the contracted amount of firearms, ended it a court battle, etc.. About 13K were supposedly built, all were sold
by around 1910. The internet showed several that have beautiful exterior finishing, but the inner parts look rough & crude.
The example I examined has finely finished internal parts, well made, precise fitting, etc..and had a rather plain exterior finish..blued, not nickle plated.
I'd guess it was an early production one, as the later models appear not as well finished, internally..
probably because production was sped up, trying to meet the contracted # of firearms contracted.

The pistol / revolver is a 7 shot..but fired a .32 rimfire rnd.
Doug told me this was a piece a gambler would keep in a vest pocket, as a means of keeping players honest,
or to extract revenge on dishonest ones.LOL


first pic is all the pieces:

the bottom piece , the C shaped metal, is the cracked spring..the new part being fabricated from the old part.

this is the cylinder..load rds from the inside, bullet facing outward"

[joepistol]

Here's the case: note the sear at the top..when the palm pressed the trigger, the sear move, then would break, firing fin ( attached to flat piece in center of frame) would rotate striking the cartridge rim & fire, the bullet would shoot out the barrel, visible between the index & middle fingers.


case with "cylinder " in place:

[joepistol]

another pic of most the pieces in place..



I found the clever design & workmanship remarkable, esp. considering that it was made before 1900..
the inner workings reminded me of a mechanical watch.
A last thought.. ever tried to find .32 "Short"rimfire ammo ?

mr 44 is correct..it does use 32 Short rimfire ammo.
Forgot to add the" Short".

[mr44]

They actually took 32 rimfire extra short I have one round somewhere