Still got streaming cold; past the worst, but didn't go to Cafe Church this morning (didn't seem fair to spread germs). Stayed at home and got on with restoration work to above 'mystery object', which was completed later in the day. Its owner picked it up this evening. He was pleased to have it back in his collection. Just to help with any guesses, it's two and a half foot long overall.
Good night all.
12 comments:
Long stock and single banded short barrel suggests a broad spread of shot for close quarters fighting "Wait 'til you see the whites of their eyes" stuff. The mounting spike suggests it was either fired from a swivel or hooked over a parapet to take up the recoil. Simple touch-hole, fired using a linstock? C.15th European handgonne?
Hello Crowbard. Your comment is about right - as far as it goes. I'm not going to publish it for a day or two, though, in case anyone else wants to take a guess.
Hope all's well re Jude. Please keep us in the picture.
Love, Mike and Ann.
It's a Nightjack stick. Used by owners of historical chimneys to brandish at the hearth and scare away the Jackdaws nesting overhead.
Well done Rog! That is a distinct possible use for it. It would also make a rather effective club should a confrontational jackdaw come down the chimney, find the householder at home, and attack him/her.
Thanks Mike & Ann, Jude was in good spirits today, didn't get much sleep last night though, surgeon sounds very positive about outcomes. Spire is a very good hospital, very welcoming, caring, cheerful staff who are alert, attentive, responsive, informed and intelligent. I thought I was on the wrong planet!
That's good hearing, Carl. Give Jude our love.
The next comment (I am about to publish) came in from Crowbard a few hours after I'd published the blog entry. It's a pretty good description. The 'mystery object' is, of course, a hand cannon - with a good deal of restoration.
P.s. Crowbard - probably NOT used with a linstock, but never taken far from a small brazier with several irons in the fire, with which to fire the piece.
Once fired it would have made a very effective club.
Hi Mike, I hadn't come across the heated proggle method of firing light artillery before. Clearly effective but somewhat hazardous to all concerned, whichever end of the piece you're at!
Hello Carl. If you're referring to the capital 'L' shaped piece of wire illustrated in one of the articles on hand cannon, I think the writer refers to inserting this into the touch hole (with the resulting damage to the wire that you'd expect) neither have I. Every early hand cannon I've been able to examine (with the exception of the ones that have a pan on the side of the barrel, which is a slightly later type) has, at the least a shallow depression around the touch hole, meant to be used as a priming pan. If the touch hole and this depression is filled with priming powder, then the near approach of a piece of red hot metal (a poker say), is enough to fire the piece.
P.s. The problem with making sweeping assertions regarding early guns (and probably anything else) is that (if one is widely read on the subject, and if not then one shouldn't make any sort of assertion on it) having amde said assertion, one can immediately think of exceptions to it. e.g. exception to statement re shallow depression around touch hole, is probably the Loshult gun.
Exception to earlier assertion re the use of linstocks is that in the De Milemete manuscript illustration (the first European illustration of a gun) the soldier firing the piece does apper to be using a tool that can (possibly) be seen as a form of linstock.
Confessions over- you pays your money and you takes you choice.
I think the majority of our nation's population these days is very unfamiliar with fire as a domestic utility. The 'fire-wisdom' we considered 'instinctive' which was learnt over millenia has been lost in a single generation (dire warnings and complex instructions now accompany simple decorative candles). Few folk would now guess at the smoulder qualities of linen as used for carrying a source of ignition in a linstock.
I recall starting a post war Field-Marshall tractor using a scrap of smouldering linen in the screw-in fuse-holder inserted into the cylinder head to replace the salt-petre impregnated paper fuses which always seemed to get damp. The Field-Marshall made use of a single-cylinder two-stroke diesel engine (of about 6-litre capacity) coupled to a very large flywheel which was hand cranked (by two men)to fire up the engine.
Post a Comment