The Porter Turret Revolver,Designed and produced in the mid 19th century, the Porter Turret Revolver

The Porter Turret Revolver,Designed and produced in the mid 19th century, the Porter Turret Revolver was an attempt to produce a revolver design that was an alternative to that patented by Samuel Colt.  Invented by P.W. Porter, the weird rifle had a cylinder or “turret” which rotated horizontally around a vertically mounted pivot rather than a horizontal axis.  The strange Porter turret rifle was loaded much like a cap and ball revolver, with loose powder and a bullet.  The right hand side of the cylinder had nipples on which to place percussion caps for ignition of each chamber and the hammer itself was located on the side as well.  To operate the user worked the lever, similar to that of a Winchester Rifle, which rotated the cylinder and cocked the rifle.  Altogether the rifle fired 9 shots and was chambered in .36, .38, .44, and .48 caliber.  An interesting design in theory, the Porter Turret Rifle had one major flaw.  On rare occasions the rifle could chain fire due to errant sparks from the percussion cap.  This mean’t that the rifle could accidentally discharge multiple chambers at a time.  Since almost half of those chambers pointed in the direction of the user, an accidental discharge could spell disaster for the shooter.  Production and sales of the rifle halted when Samuel Colt spread rumors the Porter had been killed in such an accident.  After the failure of his turret design, the much alive P.W. Porter spent the rest of his life producing more traditional firearms. -- source link

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