REVOLVER, in fire-arms, is a weapon which, by means of a revolving breech or revol ing barrels, can be made to fire more than once without reloading. The invention is very far from new, specimens, with even the present system of rotation, being still in existence, which were manufactured at the beginning of the 17th century. Probably the first revolver to suggest itself was one in which several barrels were mounted on an axis, and made to revolve by the action of the trigger, so that their powder-pans came successively under the action of the lock. This principle was never entirely abandoned, and in the reign of George IV. was produced a pistol called the " Marlette, ' which had from four to twenty-four small barrels bored in a solid mass of metal, made to revolve as the trigger was drawn back. At close quarters, such a pistol would doubtless have been useful; but its great weight and cumbrous mechanism rendered aim extremely unsteady.
Contemporaneously from the first with the revolving barrels, went the formation of a revolving chamber or breech, pierced with several cylindrical apertures to receive the charges. Being made to revolve, each motion brought a chamber into line with the one barrel, common to all, whereupon the weapon was ready for use. Numerous patents for this principle have been taken out, including one by the celebrated marquis of Worcester in 1661. Various improvemdnts were made, especially in the mode of causing revolution, an American, of the name of Elisha H. Collier, patenting such a weapon in the UnitCd States and England about 1818. In 1835 col. Samuel Colt brought to a conclusion experiments of some years' standing, and patented his World renowned Colt's revolver, which was a great advance on all previous attempts, and is :substantially still in use. Colt's revolver consists of one rifled barrel of considerable strength and a massive chamber perforated with six or seven barrels, which are brought into a line with the barrel by action of the trigger. Each chamber has its nipple for a cap, which is brought under the hammer by the motion which brings the chamber or breech-piece round. In the most recent form of this revolver, the capped nipple disap pears, the cap being contained within the cartridge. The hammer is discharged by the
trigger, and acts nearly horizontally in a forward direction. tinder the pistol is a fixed lever-ramrod, which is used in loading the chambers. Besides all this, by withdrawing a bolt, which can be done in a moment, the entire breech-piece can be taken out, and replaced by another ready charged, so that by carrying a spare breech-piece, a person may fire twelve shots in less time than another could fire three if he had to load between the shots, Colt's revolvers are now extensively used in the naval and military services of America and Europe.
The principal rival of Colt's revolver has been the Deane and Adams revolver, although many more of various sorts have been patented in the interval. The "Deane" differed iu that it could be fired by merely pulling the trigger without also raising the hammer with the finger, as in Colt's; but this was found to be so dangerous in practice that the inventors soon substituted an arrangement under which it could be fired either by the trigger or by raising the hammer; and lastly, they introduced the great improve ment of a spur behind the trigger, which must be pressed by the middle finger, while the forefinger discharges the piece through the trigger. The revolver principle has also ecu successfully applied to the manufacture of a kind of revolving guns for small pro , jectiles, which are really aggregates of small-arms. The Gatling gun, a revolver of this class, in which the several barrels turned round a common axis, was used during the American civil war. But•the best known gun of this description is the French mitrail leuse or mitrailleur, of which so much was heard during the Franco-German war. That most commonly used had a group of 25 barrels, surrounded by a bronze sheathing, and :movable breech-piece; it was fired by means of a crooked handle or winch at the right band side. The range of such guns in a level plain is not great; but among fortifica tions, or in a narrow valley, they may be used with very deadly effect.