An automatic revolver also known as semi-automatic revolver, is a revolver that uses the recoil energy of firing for cocking the hammer and revolving the cylinder, rather than using manual operations to perform these actions. Despite the misnomer "automatic", such revolvers are actually semi-automatic. The weapon will not continue discharge continuously; the shooter must manually operate the trigger to discharge each shot. Examples of genuine semi-automatic revolvers are extremely uncommon, and the term is inaccurately applied to break-open revolvers with a mechanical linkage ejector that automatically empties spent (and unspent) casings from the cylinder upon opening of the breech. History An automatic revolver was communicated to Moses Poole, a patent agent, in 1841. The exact identity of the inventor of this weapon is unknown but in all likelihood it was a Frenchman by the name of Philippe Mathieu, who had patented, amongst several different types of revolver, an almost identical design two years previously. Another automatic revolver was communicated to British patent agent William Edward Newton by the Americans Mershon and Hollingsworth in 1854. Both of these weapons used clockwork as the power for achieving automatic operation. In 1863 a gas piston-operated revolver was designed by a Spanish gunsmith named Orbea. The Webley-Fosbery Automatic Revolver was designed in 1895 and became the first commercial and best-known semi-automatic revolver. Description A standard revolver is a manually operated weapon, using the action of cocking the hammer to advance the cylinder in a single-action, or the action of pulling the trigger to advance the cylinder and cock the hammer in a double-action. The idea behind an automatic revolver is to automate both actions, removing the need to manually cock the hammer between shots while retaining the lighter trigger pull of the single-action. This is accomplished by use of a reciprocating slide on the upper part of the frame, the motion of which is used to rotate the cylinder and cock the hammer in much the same way as is used in the majority of semi-automatic pistol designs. Examples The Norwegian Landstad revolver, designed and introduced in 1900. Its very unusual design featured a flat cylinder with two chambers, in which the bottom chamber was loaded from a sideways-inserted magazine that also functioned as the left grip plate. During firing, the revolver's reciprocating bolt would extract and eject the round from the top chamber after firing, load a round into the bottom chamber, and