item details
NamePercussion Revolver, LeMat.
ProductionLeMat & Girard; manufacturer(s); 1864-65; England
Classificationrevolvers, firearms
Materialssteel, wood
Registration NumberDM000355
Credit lineGift of the Police Department, 1960
Overview
LeMat Percussion Revolver.
This revolver has two barrels, and combines the features of a revolver and a shotgun.
The top barrel is chambered for .44 calibre percussion cartridges and is fed by a nine-shot cylinder that revolves on a .63 calibre smoothbore barrel that doubles as a cylinder axis pin. The two barrels are held together by a front and rear ring. The hammer has an adjustable lever, to allow either barrel to be fired at will.
The inventor, Jean LeMat, with his business partner Charles Girard, manufactured about 3,000 of their revolvers between 1861 and 1865, in France and from 1864 in England. About half of them were purchased by the Confederate States of America, with production ceasing at the end of the Civil War.