Talk:Watts' Revolver/@comment-38405930-20200201155237/@comment-1191892-20200203063811

Guns of that pattern aren't actually incredibly uncommon, here's a more bog-standard model:

http://i.imgur.com/NxYiZzs.jpg

They were a product of an odd and short-lived type of cartridge called "pinfire" where the gun's firing pin is actually part of the cartridge rather than part of the gun. Kinda dangerous since they could set themselves off if they were dropped on the exposed firing pin.