pistol and revolver
Some revolvers are pistols- others are not. Long arm revolvers (muskets and rifles) were certainly around in the 17th Century (and possibly as early as the 16th) and persisted right up into the 19th being used in the American Civil War. Most of these had a serious draw back, being loaded with loose powder and ball there was a risk that flash from the chamber being fired could ignite the rest. At worst this could cause the revolving chambers to burst (often fatal to the firer) and at best the rounds from the chambers not lined up with the barrel would remove the hand (usually the left one) holding the gun stock and barrel ahead of the chambers. The introduction of metal cartidge cases both removed this danger and allowed the development of reliable magazine based guns (unreliable ones already existed). Some specialised long arm revolvers have persisted (I think there was a revolver combat shotgun in the 1960s). Revolving pistols continued to be widely used, in part because the mechanism is simpler and less subject to jamming through dirt and wet. Pistols issued to air crew and tankers appear to have been mostly (but not always) magazine loading automatics probably because they have less protrubances to be snagged when moving in a confined space and hopefully there should be less battlefield mud in a tank or cockpit
There thats my pedantry for this month - I'll go and have a lie down.
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