WEIGHT (LOADED) – 1.35 kg (2 lb 15.6 oz) loaded with 8 rounds *
SIGHTS – None
EFFECTIVE RANGE – 20 m (22 yards) *
OPERATION – Manual, Single-action
TYPE OF FIRE – Manual repeating
RATE OF FIRE – 8 rpm
FEED DEVICE – 8-round cylinder
FEED DEVICE WEIGHT (EMPTY) – 1.62 g (25 grains) black powder, 6 g (92 grains) Ball – per round *
FEED DEVICE WEIGHT (LOADED) – Eight rounds – 0.013 kg (200 grains) black powder, .048 kg (736 grains) Ball *
MANUFACTURER – Thomas Annely, Gunmaker, Bristol, England
STATUS – Antique
SERVICE – None known, commercial sales
Thomas Annely was a gunmaker in Bristol, England who produced his weapons in the mid-1700s. It is suspected that he was the manufacturer of this weapon as his name is on the lockplate. This is one of the earlier true revolvers, where the fixed barrel is in front of a rotating cylinder holding the chambers. It was made well into the time that the flintlock action was popular. However, this design utilizes a snaphaunce action with separate flash pan covers and frizzen. It is likely that the use of the separate frizzen is needed for the cylinder to be able to rotate freely underneath the firing mechanism. Each flash pan in the cylinder has a separate sliding cover to retain the powder charge as the cylinder rotates. The flash pan covers are relatively thick and fit into guides on either side of the cover and are each held down with an individual leaf spring. The covers have a stud on their muzzle end that is engaged by a long lever attached to the side of the hammer. When the hammer is drawn back to full cock, the long lever is drawn back to where it can snap over the stud on the priming pan cover. The frizzen would act much as a firing safety since the weapon cannon be fired unless the frizzen is pulled down into position manually.
When the trigger is pulled, the hammer goes forward to strike against the frizzen and create sparks. The long lever on the side of the hammer pushed against the stud on the flash pan cover of the chamber about to be fired. As the hammer strikes the frizzen for ignition, the flash pan cover is fully open with the priming charge exposed to the sparks. Drawing back the hammer would allow the shooter to manually rotate the cylinder to where it would index with the barrel for the next shot. Eight shots could be fired rapidly, very fast for the flintlock era. Reloading the revolver would be a much slower process.
