The National Arms Company was a Brooklyn, New York-based manufacturer of firearms that flourished for a decade in the mid-19th century, around the time of the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

.

Among the weapons it manufactured were a derringer

Derringer

The term derringer is a genericized misspelling of the last name of Henry Deringer, a famous 19th-century maker of small pocket pistols. Many copies of the original Philadelphia Deringer pistol were made by other gun makers worldwide, and the name was often misspelled; this misspelling soon became...

 that fired the .41 Rimfire Cartridge

.41 Rimfire Cartridge

The .41 Rimfire Cartridge was first introduced by the National Arms Company in 1863 and was also known as the .41 Short and the .41-100. In most designations like this, the second number refers to the black powder load, though in this case, it is clearly impossible to fit 100 grains of black...

 (a round it introduced in 1863), and Daniel Moore and David Williamson's Pocket Revolver

Revolver

A revolver is a repeating firearm that has a cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. The first revolver ever made was built by Elisha Collier in 1818. The percussion cap revolver was invented by Samuel Colt in 1836. This weapon became known as the Colt Paterson...

 using the Caliber .32 Teat-fire cartridge

Teat-fire cartridge

The Teat-fire cartridge was a .32 caliber pistol cartridge designed by Daniel Moore and manufactured by Moore and his partner David Williamson for their Pocket Revolver, which were produced under both the Moore and National Arms marques by the National Arms Company of Brooklyn, New York in the...

 (which it made under both the Moore and National Arms marques).

The Moore Caliber .32 Teat-fire, which used a unique cartridge to get around the Rollin White

Rollin White

Rollin White was an American gunsmith who invented a revolver with a bored-through cylinder which allowed metallic cartridges to be loaded from the rear.-Early life:...

 patent owned by Horace Smith

Horace Smith (inventor)

Horace Smith was a gunsmith, inventor, and businessman. He and his business partner Daniel B. Wesson formed two companies named Smith & Wesson, the first of which was financed in part by Oliver Winchester and was eventually reorganized into the Winchester Repeating Arms Company-Early career:Born...

 and Daniel Wesson, proved very popular during the Civil War, with both soldiers and civilians. The "Teat-fire" cartridges did not have a rim at the back like conventional cartridges, but were rounded at the rear, with a small "teat" that would protrude through a tiny opening in the rear of the cylinder. The priming mixture was contained in the "teat" and when the hammer struck it, the cartridge would fire. Thus, it was akin to a rimfire cartridge, but instead of having priming all the way around the edge of the rim, it is centrally located in the teat.

National Arms produced about 30,000 of the Caliber .32 Teat-fire revolvers from 1864 to 1870, when it was acquired by Colt's Manufacturing Company

Colt's Manufacturing Company

Colt's Manufacturing Company is a United States firearms manufacturer, whose first predecessor corporation was founded in 1836 by Sam Colt. Colt is best known for the engineering, production, and marketing of firearms over the later half of the 19th and the 20th century...

. Colt continued to produce the .41 Rimfire derringer after the acquisition as an effort to break into the metallic cartridge gun market.