machiavellianfictionist:In 1859 John Walch patented a revolver design with a cylinder that would all
machiavellianfictionist:In 1859 John Walch patented a revolver design with a cylinder that would allow him to load two charges in each chamber, one after the other. The idea was to have twice as much firepower as the other revolvers in the market. While firearms with superposed loads have been around since the sixteenth century, as far as I know Walch is the first person to have them mass-produced.This particular revolver has five chambers in .31 cal. Both hammers had to be cocked before shooting. When the trigger was pulled, it would release them consecutively, firing both loads. The drawing in the last picture, from Walch’s patent, demonstrates how the system worked. The letter v represents a percussion cap, the letter n represents a bullet and the dots represent gunpowder. The right hammer would hit the upper cap, igniting the front load through a small tube, which is the reason for the raised ridges on the cylinder. Then the left hammer would fall on the lower cap, firing the remaining load.The Rock Island Auction Company has published a very interesting article explaining the history of this gun in more detail, as well as the reasons for its commercial failure. -- source link