Joseph Enouy’s 8-cylinder, 48-shot percussion revolver, dated 1855

The Enouy revolver was a design patented by Joseph Enouy of Middlesex, England, who received British patent #1359 in 1855. The basic revolver was based on a transitional revolver design made by Charles Osborne in 1845. The innovative part of Enouy's design was the compound magazine design. In this particular example, each revolver cylinder is capable of holding 6 shots and there are 8 different revolver cylinders attached to the compound magazine wheel, thereby giving this weapon a capacity of 48 shots.


As you may have guessed, this weapon is very heavy, unbalanced and unwieldy at the same time. Due to the magazine wheel in front, the user can't carry this revolver is his pocket or in a holster either. This firearm design was not a success and Joseph Enouy didn't seem to manufacture many of them either. In fact, most of the pictures of this firearm available on the web are from one particular revolver made by Enouy, which was once owned by a Mr. Vokes. As there are no records of this revolver being manufactured and sold commercially, it is possible that the above example is literally the only one that was ever made. It is fortunate that we have a record of Mr. Enouy's patent application available.