Military History Photo Friday: The Apache Revolver

Apache Revolver, c. 1875, Curtius Museum, Liege. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons user Latente Flickr.

This curious weapon is called an Apache Revolver. It wasn't used by the famous Native American tribe, but by the underworld culture of Parisian street gangs that used their name in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

As you can see, the gun combined a six-chamber revolver that shot 7mm bullets, brass knuckles, and a spike. The revolver would have been inaccurate at anything other than point-blank range since it has no barrel and no sights, but the Apaches got down and dirty in their fights. In one famous brawl between rival Apache factions near Notre Dame, the police intervened to break them up, and the rival factions combined to beat up the cops!

A great advantage of this undersized weapon was that the whole thing could fold in on itself and be carried safely and inconspicuously in a pocket.

Folded Apache revolver in the National Firearms Museum, courtesy Wikimedia Commons user Amendola90.

I'm reading a fascinating book on the Apache right now. I might have to use them in an upcoming novel!

The Apaches at play. Image courtesy Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Military History Photo Friday: Pepperbox Pistol

I came across an interesting old gun in an antique shop here in Oxford. It was a so-called pepperbox gun much like the one pictured above. The pepperbox was an early form of revolver that, instead of having a cylinder that revolved, had four or more barrels that all revolved together. Early models had to be rotated by hand but later models had an action connected to the trigger so it would rotate with each shot.

The concept goes back to medieval times, and I wrote about a similar multibarreled handgonne on another blog. They were most popular from about 1800 up to around 1860, when they were replaced by proper revolvers. The pepperbox never saw any official military use that I know of and was strictly a personal weapon. While the multishot capability was a major benefit, it was front heavy and couldn't be aimed very well.

I've always liked antiques and was tempted to pick it up. But how could I justify spending 300 pounds ($460) on a gun that doesn't work anymore? Well, maybe it works. I'll let you try it while I stand at a safe distance.

Here's another percussion cap model, somewhat cruder, from the Museum of Weapons in Tula, Russia. While the gun shown above has six barrels, this only has four.

Images courtesy Wikimedia Commons.