Herman Brevete: A Pepperbox Hidden in Your Bicycle Handlebars

In the 1890s, there was a lot of interest in small caliber, simple revolvers for self-defense by cyclists, primarily against dogs. This led to the creation of a whole category of “velodog” revolvers, and a Belgian designer named Herman patented this extension of the idea. It is a 6-shot, 5mm pinfire revolver that is mounted on the handlebars of a bicycle, locked in place and not obviously a gun, but easily removed for one-handed use. Mechanically, it is a simple double-action bar-hammer type pepperbox, but uses in split-pin type of cylinder axis that is unusual and interesting.