The Great "Half Cocked" Debate

I hear people every now and then arguing the merits of using the half cock shelf as a safety, or lowering the hammer down slowly letting it rest on a live round....using the half cock sear as a fail safe for manually cocking the hammer with your thumb, should your thumb slip off. 

 In the patent for the design, JMB referred to the half cock as "The Safety Position"...so initially it was intended as a safety shelf to keep the hammer from resting on the firing pin.

HOWEVER, the patent was 1910. 
The predecessor to the 1911 was the model 1910 which was exactly the same as the 1911 with ONE exception... NO THUMB SAFETY. 
Having the pistol in hand, the only way to have it on "safe" was using that half cock notch.

With the addition of the thumb safety there is NO reason whatsoever to ever lower the hammer slowly on a live round or to the half cock shelf as a "safety". 

And there ya have it.

The 1910, followed by the 1911;