No encontraba el articulo, pero al fin lo encontre, aunque es mas bien sobre la historia de los revólveres .38/44 de S&W, de todos modos viene algo sobre la historia del .38 Super:
HISTORY
The introduction of smokeless propellant in the latter portion of the nineteenth century had a very significant effect on rifle cartridge ballistics. Literally overnight the average velocity of a rifle projectile was doubled. Range, penetration and trajectory showed similar improvements. Despite the enhanced performance made possible by the use of smokless propellant, very little effort was made to improve handgun ballistics until after 1930. While most manufacturers had begun to load their cartridges with the new powder, they had duplicated the old ballistics by loading a smaller amount of smokeless propellant. Indeed, in the period following World War One there was only one American handgun cartridge in production with a muzzle velocity in excess of 1,000 feet per second. Despite this high level of performance, the cartridge in question, the .38 ACP remained in comparative obscurity since its introduction at the turn of the century. The .38 ACP's unpopularity lay primarily in the fact that Colt hadn't chambered anything new for it since the original parallel ruler models that were obsolete at best. The .38 ACP's wallflower status was a loss to the firearms community as a whole. With a muzzle velocity of 1,146 feet per second and a 130 grain projectile, the .38 ACP generated about 380 foot-pounds of muzzle energy. It also exhibited better penetration characteristics than the 7.63mm Mauser or the 9mm Parabellum. Additionally, the cartridge possessed excellent long range characteristics. Fortunately for the .38 ACP, a historical accident was about to rescue it from historical obscurity.
During the First World War, various forms of body armor had been fielded by the combatants. These ranged in type from solid plate armor intended for r machine gunners to amalgams of chain mail and padded leather intended fr the brutal wars in the trenches. All of them were heavy and ungainly, and none of them would stop a rifle bullet; in consequence they were rapidly discarded after the war's conclusion.
The wartime body armor found new employment after the war, in unlikely hands. Specifically, gangsters and other members of the underworld realized that the body armor would defeat any and all handgun bullets so long as they did not exceed 900 feet per second. This included standard police armament of the day such as the .38 Smith & Wesson, the .38 Special, and the .45 ACP. Disconcerted police began to report miscreants moving away under their own power despite being hit center mass with the contents of an officer's service weapon.
The mystery was uncovered when a lawman brought down a goblin with a head shot and discovered that the ex-criminal had been wearing an example of the wartime body armor. The recovered armor was subjected to a series of tests, which indicated that current service weapon ammunition was incapable of defeating it.
The problem was turned over to Colt, who was charged with the task of developing a gun and cartridge combination that would overcome the armor. The task would not be easy; Colt continued testing the armor and found that it defeated every cartridge tested against it. Every cartridge save one, that is. The wallflower of the Colt line, the .38 ACP had no problem drilling neat holes in the armor time and time again. To ensure that the round would have the desired penetrative performance regardless of conditions, the velocity was increased to 1,300 feet per second. The resulting cartridge was known as the .38 Super Automatic. While the cartridge was up to the task, the old parallel ruler Colts were not, and a new firearm was designed for the new round. The pistol was basically a refined Government Model with the necessary internal dimensional changes required by the new cartridge. The new .38 Super pistol was adopted by a number of law enforcement agencies, to include the FBI.
Historic Firearm of the Month, August 2001