This is the Percival & Smith Repeating Magazine Pistol, patented in 1850. If I understand the description correctly, the cylinder in the front holds 24 bullets and the cylinder in the back holds powder and primer. To chamber a round, the user twists them up, then back down:
After cocking hammer, both chambers swivel upward 180 degrees allowing lead ball to fall into breech from front magazine and loose powder into chamber behind ball from rear magazine; primer pellet also seats itself.
It looks like an advanced version of the Lorenzoni, an amazing gravity-fed seven-shot repeating flintlock pistol designed in the 1680s.
Link -via Gun & Game | Photo via Guns & Knives
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That's a good point. It would have to be so precisely machined so that the powder magazine is completely separated once its opening into the chamber is closed. Apparently that's how the Lorenzoni works.
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Looks like one stray spark would blow the whole powder/primer cylinder up in your face.
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