Incendiary quarrels/arrows/crossbow bolts

[Andi]

Tonight we have launched some pages about incendiary devices and grenades on our web page (Sorry that they are available in German language only but we hope get them translated into English in the near future)

http://bummsbrigade.de/cms/index.php/de/zeug/feuerwerk

[Matchlock]

Great site, Andi,


And perfectly researched and illustrated as well, providing tons of historic material from original sources (14th to 16th century manuscripts and books)!
An exemplary and highly commendable site, also from an academic point of view!

Everybody interested in early warfare and earliest firearms - GO THERE!


Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

Please see my new thread
on THE ONLY KNOWN EXISTING INCENDIARY GUN ARROW, 14th-16th century:

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ght=incendiary

Best,
Michael

[Aerinsol]

After hearing a lot about this forum from my husband (Andi), I decided to drop in, too

Thank you very much for all the great information and fotos in this thread (and in many others)!

As a kind of introduction, I'd like to show you what we did in our backyard on sunday: Video "Burning incendiary quoit"

Of course this is a reconstruction, not an original
It was only our first try, so don't expect too much - and naturally we are a little hampered by current legislations (not being allowed to simply use black powder etc.)

The core was made of straw, wrapped in nitrified linnen, coated with a mixture of tar and sulfur and then coated in charcoal.

Hope you enjoy it anyway!

[Matchlock]

... sold with Sotheby's, London, in December 2004.

Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

This large iron grenade, 18th century, diameter 21 cm, was sold for 230 Eruo plus 23 per cent commision, on May5, 2014, Hermann Historica's, Munich.

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[Andi]

Our first experimental of burning a reconstructed medieval pitch garland (fire crown, quoit; German: Pechkranz) on 4. May 2014. The pitch garland was made of a ring of straw, bandaged with nitrated linnen and coated with tar and sulfur, covered by second winding of linnen with tar powdered with charcoal dust. It was built according to descriptions in medieval fireworks books such as Martin Merz: Büchsenmeisterbuch, South Germany 1420. The experiment did not meet our expectations and proved some constructional fault as it took too long until the pitch garland starts burning after igniting the match and its burning time was too long and the flames and smoke emission was too harmless.

Here a link zu a short video on youtube

http://youtu.be/JRIv19BFubA

The following image shows the highlit of the test.

[Matchlock]

Hi there,


I almost forgot to introduce this very rare item that has been in my collection since the 1980's. I have not touched it for many years because is stored hidden behind my small Giech Schlänglein or Tarrasbüchse (from Latin terra, meaning earth), re-using a Nuremberg cast bronze haquebut barrel of ca. 1470 struck with the arms of the Counts von Giech. This cute early 16th century 'cannon' comes from Schloss Thurnau near Bayreuth, Franconia/Northern Bavaria, via Sotheby's in 1996.

I discovered it in one of the numerous narrow but lofty 13th-14th century houses forming the Late Medieval city center of Regensburg, Bavaria. After graduating from university in 1982, I rented an apartment in an eight-storeyed 13th century house and soon started exploring both the two-storeyed cellar with its vaulted ceiling arching seven meters high, as well as the three-storeyed roof timbering where many old things were stored.
One day I almost fell when stepping on a thick but rather unsound and friable plank. Beneath it, in the false ceiling there was an amorphic mass of rotten textiles, straw, mummified pidgeons and deadwood, but also a greyish stone ball with something sticking out on its top. Amazed by the weight of the thing, I carefully took out a thumb sized tapering piece that literally had no weight. It contained some dark porous stuff center and uncovered a vertical hole in the ball. At first I thought that I had found a cannon ball but when I took the stone downstairs to my flat I met the elderly couple that owned the house. They told me that I could keep the item. In my apartment, I shined a flashlight into the hole, stuck my forefinger in and when I extracted it it was covered with fine black meal powder. By then I realized that this must be a very old grenade.
A few years later I read about the Thirty Years War clay grenades dug up in Ingolstadt, together with their fuses (see posts # ... and ... ), and acquired two specimens but I have never across another limestone grenade. It is especially notable for retaining its original fuse.

With a weight of 3.1 kilos, it is much heavier than the Ingolstadt clay grenades and, just like them, must have been dropped down on the enemies from a house or a wall.

Please also see my thread
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=12687&highlight=giech


I will also post the huge iron grenade or cannon ball soon that can be seen on the photos.
The sacristy cupboard on the right dates from ca. 1540; the wooden 'feet' have been shortened, and the former top piece with the Gothic crenelation is missing.


Enthroned on top of the cupboard is my highly important four-barrel Landsknecht mace of ca. 1540 that comes from the world famous Samuel and Llewellyn Meyrick collection, in 1830:

http://www.royalarmouries.org/about-...l-rush-meyrick

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...t=meyrick+mace




Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

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