A unique bronze barrel wall gun (doppelter Doppelhaken), Nuremberg, ca. 1515-20

[cornelistromp]

Originally Posted by Matchlock

Hi Jasper,


Thanks for posting these!


I will have more on them soon.


The nail to the rear end of the pan on the wall gun dated 1537 you are refrerring to actually is the head of a rivet, the pivot for the swiveling pan cover.

Hi Michael,

thanks for your explanations and clarifications regarding this very interesting weapons
re: Nail in pan
I did not mean the pivot nail, There is also a similar nail hammered inside the pan you can see it on the picture. Do you maybe know its function?

VBW,
jasper

[Marcus den toom]

I would say this is a working life repair of the igniting pan
After so many shots, the corrosive blackpoder charge would have eaten right trough the quit thinly made pan... and no good can come from a pan with a hole in it.

[Matchlock]

Originally Posted by cornelistromp

Hi Michael,

thanks for your explanations and clarifications regarding this very interesting weapons
re: Nail in pan
I did not mean the pivot nail, There is also a similar nail hammered inside the pan you can see it on the picture. Do you maybe know its function?

VBW,
jasper

Hi Jasper,


I'm sorry for not getting the point,
and thanks for pointing me at a small detail I would otherwise have overlooked.

Marcus is absolutely right:
the pan was rusted through, and nailing was the easiest way to fill that hole, just like spiking a burnt-out touch hole.

Rust holes in pans can sometimes be oberserved on 500 year-old haquebut barrels which saw hard service for most of their long working life, especially during the Thirty Years War.
The reason being that those large wall guns were always kept right there in the same place - loaded and primed, and ready to be fired any moment. Thus the bottom of their pans kept rusting heavily from the priming powder they always held, and after centuries, they sometimes failed to hold it any more.

E.g., in the author's collection there is a heavy Late Gothic haquebut barrel that was wrought in ca. 1490 -1500, and restocked with a matchlock at the Regensburg City Arsenal during the 1640's, the most roaring latter years of the Thirty Years War; its pan, too, is rusted through - from holding the priming powder most if the time, and with no oiling done for centuries.
Its beechwood butt stock is branded with the Regensburg City arms, two crossed keys, and the letters ZG for Zeughaus (arsenal).
Photos of that 16 kg monster attached - Marcus, you doubtlessly remember handling it!
I also took images of the hole in the pan but my computer refuses to receive them from the camera ...


Best as ever to both of you,
Michael/Michl

[cornelistromp]

hi Michael,

thanks for the explanation and it is a beautiful and rare heavy "matchlock haquebut" or "haquebut musket" ?

vbw,
jasper

[Matchlock]

Originally Posted by cornelistromp

hi Michael,

thanks for the explanation and it is a beautiful and rare heavy "matchlock haquebut" or "haquebut musket" ?

vbw,
jasper

Well, Jasper,
Who am I to tell, to discern?!
Actually, as its weight of 16 kg is definitely too heavy to aim the piece the usual way, and considering that its barrel was a haquebut barrel about 150 before it got updated with the present stock and lock, I feel safe enough to call it a haquebut, or a wall gun.

Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

For a detailed discussion of that 16 kilogram monster of a matchlock wall gun/haquebut from the former Regensburg City Arsenal, now in The Michael Trömner Collection, please see author's thread:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=10481

Unfortunately, none of all those photos depicts the rust hole in the priming pan; I will get one, though - I promise!

Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

Originally Posted by Matchlock

For a detailed discussion of that 16 kilogram monster of a matchlock wall gun/haquebut from the former Regensburg City Arsenal, now in The Michael Trömner Collection, please see author's thread:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=10481

Unfortunately, none of all those photos depicts the rust hole in the priming pan; I will get one, though - I promise!

Best,
Michael

Finally, here are the images of the pan perforated by rust, due to holding the priming powder for hundreds of years.

For more details on this wall gun, see:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/editpo...tpost&p=179338


m

[Marcus den toom]

Three pictures, two of a fragmented wall piece, brass from Lichtenberg.