[brbethke]

I'll second that. Smith & Wesson started business with Rollin White's patent for bored-through cylinders. Colt (and everyone else) spent a lot of time and money trying to figure out how to make a cartridge-firing revolver that didn't infringe on that patent. That's why Colt didn't start making cartridge revolvers until the early 1870's, when the White patent finally expired.

[Kadric]

US Code Title 18 Part 1 Chapter 44 Section 921 (a)
(16)

The term ''antique firearm'' means -

(A)

any firearm (including any firearm with a matchlock, flintlock, percussion cap, or similar type of ignition system) manufactured in or before 1898; or

(B)

any replica of any firearm described in subparagraph (A) if such replica -

(i)

is not designed or redesigned for using rimfire or conventional centerfire fixed ammunition, or

(ii)

uses rimfire or conventional centerfire fixed ammunition which is no longer manufactured in the United States and which is not readily available in the ordinary channels of commercial trade; or