A 1548 Nuremberg Dagger-grip Over-and-Under Double Wheellock Pistol

Raf · 16th December 2013, 10:30 AM

I was tempted to suggest that the earliest wheelocks might have been created by crossbow makers. On the not unreasonable assumption that they had (once) been at the forefront of mechanising the weapons of mass destruction and had most to loose from the development of firearms . And therefore the most to gain. Transferring the technology is not that difficult to imagine. A sort of proto- wheelock using a thong wound around an axel powered by a large spring which is half a crossbow prod. The crossbow nut forming the basis for the wheel and the release mechanism. The experiment might have been sufficiently encouraging to suggest it was worth developing and the rest , as they say , is history. All the earliest wheelocks we know are combined with crossbows but we don't , as far as I know see combined crossbows and matchlocks .

There may well be something in the flint / pyrites argument . My personal feeling is that the two systems must have developed at more or less the same time , but we just don't seem to be able to find the evidence .

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16th December 2013, 10:30 AM	#16
Raf Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 252	I was tempted to suggest that the earliest wheelocks might have been created by crossbow makers. On the not unreasonable assumption that they had (once) been at the forefront of mechanising the weapons of mass destruction and had most to loose from the development of firearms . And therefore the most to gain. Transferring the technology is not that difficult to imagine. A sort of proto- wheelock using a thong wound around an axel powered by a large spring which is half a crossbow prod. The crossbow nut forming the basis for the wheel and the release mechanism. The experiment might have been sufficiently encouraging to suggest it was worth developing and the rest , as they say , is history. All the earliest wheelocks we know are combined with crossbows but we don't , as far as I know see combined crossbows and matchlocks . There may well be something in the flint / pyrites argument . My personal feeling is that the two systems must have developed at more or less the same time , but we just don't seem to be able to find the evidence .