A friend of mine has an old book, circa 1940, that chronicles rhe history of Colt Revolvers. In it, there are a number of pages that reprints an article from 1857...see the title below:
Is this article widely known? It describes all the major steps in the production of a Colt revolver at the Hartford factory, and the author follows the manufacturing of Serial #138,565 (its a fictional number, since the gun being followed is a "navy pistol and the 1851 Navy serial number range was only up to 65,000 at the beginning of 1857; the only gun that could have such a high number would be a Pocket Colt and according to established serial # charts, the serial numbers were at 130,000 at the beginning of1857, so perhaps he was tracking the making of a Pocket Colt...but I digress). Anyhow, this article has lithograph drawings of views inside the factory and some of the craftsmen working at various machines. Its a fascinating(!!!) account, very informative.
After hearing members describe the assembly process at Colt, I remembered this article and finally dug it up late tonight. According to the article, after all parts of a gun were manufactured (I have skipped over many pages that describe this), they got inspected, and marked with the inspectors punch. The parts were then assembled into individual guns for the first time. The gun was now given its serial number stamp, and the "Address Colonel Sam. Colt, Hartford, Conn." got stamped on the barrel. As the gun was taken apart, all the parts that would bear serial numbers were then stamped, and then the parts were taken away for final finishing (the parts went to the Dry Polishing shop next, then for blueing and case hardening). After all final steps, the guns were then re-assembled ...."Guided by the numbers, they are once more assembled" ( this is where the Colt worker messed up on my Navy....grrrrrrrr). This is my summary of what the article said. Too bad he didn't provide a list of the assemblers so that I could continue my quest to dock the pay of a certain employee.
Since the arbor (a.k.a. cylinder pin) was not hardened, it would have been separated from the frame when it went for case hardening. So, definitely it was the assembler that messed up my Navy. After that, it got test fired, cleaned, and re-assembled but I doubt the arbor was separated from the frame during this. Dang you, assembler!
This article is a true gift to us all today, written by a visiting journalist in March, 1857.