[Matchlock]

Originally Posted by Pukka Bundook

Hello Michael.

Brilliant minds needed,...and you include My name? This prooves I have you fooled!!

It is interesting this contrivance is viewed from above, or in other words, the only safe position anywhere close to it.
It could make a one-off land-mine so to speak, but is a bit complex for that!

To me, it appears to be the sort of thing a school-boy would doodle in the border of his excersise book, when his teacher was proving to be unusually boring..............I had many such fantastic devices in my books!...Stemming not from any brilliance of mind, but more from the mind being closed down, and the hand still 'running'!
That is about all I can say.

With very best wishes,

Richard.

Hello Richard,

Though mostly on your side with all your profound thoughts and notes, in this case (a school-boy doodling around in ... his exercise book) I feel that Emanuel's explanation is more intriguing: the outcome is just far too brilliant in its basic understanding of technical features as well as in the wide range of its devices to possibly stem from a doodling simple mind.

Best,
Michael