I thought one of the reasons S&W came out with the Model 53 was that people were already fooling around with revolvers custom chambered (and barreled, I guess) in 256 Winchester Magnum. Ruger eventually made a single shot (the Hawkeye) in 256, but I think all the revolvers for it were custom jobs.
Do you think the 256 Win Mag have worked better than the Jet in revolvers? Did S&W go with the 22 Jet because they thought it worked better in a revolver, or because they thought 22 rimfire interchangeablity was a big deal?
Also, I am really startled that S&W made 14,956 Model 53s (thanks, whatnickname). That was either some mighty wishful thinking, or a lot of people were looking for novelty at the time.