Mechanical Spear

[Queequeg]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

In any case, it will be interesting to discover whether anyone has heard of such a 'brandistock' with mechanical apparatus for deploying its blade.
What piqued your interest in this particular anomaly?

Actually, I was out hiking when some feral dogs decided to posture up to me.

A few swings with my (sadly normal) hiking stick and some loud yelling on my part was enough to drive them off, but I was thinking about what a plus a spear point at the push of a button could have been.

It got me thinking that a humble traveler in the late Renaissance or Enlightenment Age might have had something similar, allowing him to travel with a low profile but have a proverbial ace up his sleeve.