I do not know if this was truly the first double-action pistol in 1851 but quite possibly was. A good design for a pistol and 5-shot, it could have been a mass-produced weapon for security and the British Army, but was plagued by several problems: difficult to reload, flash burns to the hands due to discharge gas escaping around the cylinders, and poor stopping power of the .36 caliber. Many that used it against enemies scored direct hits and were still bayoneted or sabered to death afterwards!!! The Prince of Wales favored the weapon and so a range of heavily inlaid and engraved versions appeared... but the bad performance even with the unique double-action novelty wore off and new pistols were found reverting back to single action high-calibers. The first double-action operational automatic was the German Walther P-38, 87 years later...