Superimposed firearms

[Matchlock]

Originally Posted by Matchlock

Just an aside concerning the last picture attached in post #10:

The cock and steel of this ca. 1655-60 flintlock carbine are absolutely in the correct angle for mid-17th c. half-cock position demonstrating the malfunction of the superimposed-load flintlock gun in the above post (repeated here)!

m

And another instance of a ca. 1645 Westfalian flintlock haquebut (wallgun), the barrel about 100 years earlier, ca. 1540, the cock and steel (frizzen) in the absolutely correct position for half- and full-cock.
From Christie's Schloss Dyck museum sale, part I, April 15, 1992, lot 48. I bought it at Christie's sale and for about ten years, it stayed in my collection.

m

[Matchlock]

In the Koninklijk Leger Museum (Army Museum Brussels).

Please note the fact that - as is the case with many unusual and experimental guns! - all the serpentines are shaped and work differently! While three of them are snapping matchlocks and are released by the small, short trigger, the forward serpentine that initiates the first (topmost) shot is activated by the long tiller trigger that actually acts as a guard for the small trigger.


m

[Matchlock]

On my own account, and as I pleaded in post #2 above, the main title of this thread really should in any case be altered to

Superimposed Load Firearms.

It does not make any sense the way it reads now! The loads were superimpsed, not the guns!


Thanks, and best,
Michael

[kronckew]

not quite the same topic, but close: the superimposed load was the bane of the sergeants in a massed formation of muzzle loading muskets/rifles during volley fire.

excited soldiers would frequently forget to actually prime their weapon, and not notice they hadn't really fired a projectile, and, to maintain the 'flow' of their rank's motions, would reload a new charge, wad and ball on top of the existing one.

sergeants would, during lulls, have their squad drop their ramrods down the bore to see how much stuck out. one recruit was found (american civil war) to have had six loads in the barrel.

the sergeant would not have been amused. worming out charges is not fun. especially if you are being shot at. even worse, while being berated by an angry noncom.

i haven't decided if the recruit would have preferred to at some point in the making of the stack, to have primed and fired (and blown himself up) rather than suffer the wrath of his 3-striper.

oddly enough, the advent of self contained cartridges did not stop this effect, just reversed it a bit. recruits would forget to actually reload and would merrily recock their actions and dry-fire their way through a battle... again, if caught their sergeants would not be amused.

[Spiridonov]

Superimposed charge drawn by Ghiberti Bonaccorso (about 1500 year)

[fernando]

Great catch, Alexander.

[fernando]

Originally Posted by kronckew

... the superimposed load was the bane of the sergeants in a massed formation of muzzle loading muskets/rifles during volley fire....excited soldiers would frequently forget to actually prime their weapon, and not notice they hadn't really fired a projectile, and, to maintain the 'flow' of their rank's motions, would reload a new charge, wad and ball on top of the existing one... one recruit was found (american civil war) to have had six loads in the barrel...

I must be repeating myself but, notwithstanding the veracity (and plausibility) of the above said, i have learnt of episodes occurred over year during the Peninsular war with a different approach in similar scenario. Large numbers of troopers were not volunteers but 'taken' from their houses to active war, including consciencious objectors. So what the late did in battle was, instead of actually shooting the gun, only repeatedly load it, to give the sergeant the idea that, with such gesture, they were acting 'normaly'; hence the same superimposed result.