Superimposed firearms

[Marcus den toom]

correct again, ouch not a good day for me.
The multiple bullets on a row configuration is know to me, but i doubt it was used to often. I read that the bullets tended to get stuck inside the barrel?
On the other hand, i have seen replica's beeing fired without trouble. (not because they where replica's but because there is a lot of sense in the idea).

if i remember correctly (and that is pretty hard for me today apparently) i recall a firearm which used a trail of gunpowder in the middle of 2 barrels. With multiple holes in the barrel with a corresponding load of powder and bullet lined up.

[Matchlock]

Many horrible accidents must have happened when firing superimposed load guns. The tiniest mistake in the loader's concentration must have lead to a gore ...
I basically assume that it was literally impossible to flawlessly load them in the thick of a fight, so to speak ... And they of course were much too expensive and rare to voluntarily expose them to such a risk as well.


m

[Marcus den toom]

quit right indeed, especially since manpower was very cheap and even a "simple" farmer in a feudalistic society would have been able to shoot with the same accuracy as the pistol with the superimposed load (train of bullets / "roman candle" ).

Some other pictures than, quit a neat pistol, but horribly imbalanced i think (book: wheel lock firarms of the royal armouries, Craeme Rimmer, page 25)

[Matchlock]

Some twenty years ago, I handled another triple-shot superimposed-load wheellock pistol from that same series by the very same maker, preserved in as-new condition and retaining all its original bluing, in the world-famous Habsburg Collection in Vienna, while the museum was closed to the public.
It was rather ill-balanced but please remember that these actually were arquebuses and were always held with two hands, with the buttstock touching the cheek!

The date assigned by Graeme is exactly correct: ca. 1555, most probably Augsburg.

Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

I would like to add that the inside of the first detached wheellock mechanism posted by Marcus in this thread is for a ca. 1630 North Italian two-shot superimposed-load military carbine on the Bossi system.

I attached images of a Bossi carbine, formerly in the W. Keith Neal colln., from a Czerny's sales catalogue, and of three other superimposed-load wheellock guns from the W. Keith Neal colln., Christie's. Please mind that the flintlock musket, French, ca. 1640, obviously has severe working problems in both its locks as the cocks are not in the correct upright position for half-cock but they lean forward too much so that each flint actually touches the steel instead of standing clear off it!


Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

And the description to the ca. 1640 flintlock superimposed-load musket.

m

[Matchlock]

Another image of the fine military carbine on the double-shot superimposed-load Giuliano Bossi system, sold from the W. Keith Neal colln., Christie's, 12 Dec 1997.
It fetched 15,000 Deutsche Mark, auction fees included.

m