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Bentley had manufactured revolvers at his Aston works between the years 1871 and 1883, by which time, revolvers of his Bull Dog pattern retailed in Britain at a price of fourty-two shillings each. Registration of the “Tower” trade mark was renewed by the Webley firm in 1918 and again in 1932.

AMERICAN VERSIONS

The earliest type of revolver manufactured in the United States to bear the words BULL DOG is represented by a little six-shot model with spur trigger produced by Forehand & Wadsworth of Worcester, Massachusetts. It was not of the Webley pattern but followed the same style as the Colt New Line series of 1872 with two patented features incorporated. The first was for a method enabling the cylinder stop to be operated by the trigger and had been patented by Ethan Allen in 1861 (U.S. Patent 33509), while the second was for a convenient means of housing a removable ejector rod inside the cylinder spindle, where both were retained by a spring catch at the front of the frame. In essence, it allowed the revolver to be emptied and loaded without the inconvenience of having to remove the cylinder. That particular arrangement was patented by Sullivan Forehand and Henry C. Wadsworth in 1871 (U.S. Patent 116 422). References to both patents were stamped onto the left-hand side of the barrel.