Double Guns

I RECENTLY EXAMINED a double-barrelled, breech-loading pocket pistol, made in England by Adkin, the likes of which I had never seen before. It was most unusual in that it broke open by means of an underlever, and was a pin-fire design.

The pin-fire was invented in 1847 by French-m Bernard Houllier, though another Frenchman, Lefaucheux made it a commercial success from around 1850. The pin-fire was the first practical self-contained cartridge that was reasonably rain-resistant. Each cartridge had its own firing pin protruding from the of the case head, which, when the round was chambered, slotted into a cutout at the top of the chamber-mouth, thus was exposed to the hammer strike. The earliest commercially successful breech-loading shotguns and rifles were pin-fires. In fact, the pistol I examined