A Multiple Barreled Polish Organ Gun, ca. 1700

[Matchlock]

Unfortunately all I could manage to get is this little. I could not even find out in what Polish museum the item is preserved. Looks quite impressive from a psychological as well as a practical point of view anyway. The barrels are mounted immovably and would all fire simultaneously. Must have produced a tremendous impact ...

The bunch of barrels probably re-used from earlier German short arquebuses, length ca. 60 cm, the carriage and mounts late Baroque period, ca. 1700 or first half 18th c.

Any comment much welcome.

Best,
Michael

[Jim McDougall]

A very impressive weapon Michael!!!
I would imagine an instant volley from this could startle a charging mass of troops and impede thier advance in theory for a moment. After firing, I wonder how long it would have taken to reload this.

In noticing the barrels, they all seem of the same bore..I have read that the later type guns with standard bore were termed 'calivers' (i.e. caliber), what was the difference between that type gun and the short arquebus noted?

I have noticed the many interesting multiple barrel guns you have posted over time, and though intrigued by them, could not really formulate reasonable questions, but this is a start

All the best,
Jim

[Matchlock]

Hi Jim,

Thank you so much for your brilliant comment and I do hope to adequately respond, as it was exactly the question I had been hoping for.

Short (Landsknecht/mercenaries') arquebuses were in use from ca. 1450 (without locks) to ca. 1560 (with either match- or wheel-locks. Their overall lengths used to vary between ca. 80 and 100 cm, their barrels measuring about 60-75 cm in average, and they were ca. 4 kg in weight.

The term caliver, as is commonly agreed on in general by the leading experts - not just myself but e.g. the Royal Armouries Leeds - actually goes back to Jacob de Gheyn's ultimate work Wapenhandelighe van Roers, Musquetten ende Spiessen (A Treatise on the Handling of Weapons such as Calivers, Muskets and Pikes), first published in the Netherlands in 1608 (and which I proudly own ). Actually it means a lighter musket of smaller caliber and defines the musketeer as characteristically equipped with a matchlock musket of ca. 8-9 kg and an overall length of ca. 160-170 cm at around 1600, of ca. 18-20 mm caliber, plus a musket rest and leather bandoleer (usually comprising 6-14 wooden powder measures and a bullet pouch, and sometimes colloquially called the twelve apostles), and a sword. Doubtlessly that's where the term caliber originated from.

In contrast, a caliver is defined as a much shorter and lighter weighing matchlock gun of an average length of ca. 140 cm, reduced caliver of ca. 14-16 mm and weighing about 4 kg, and the caliver man wore a Schützenhäubel (pear shaped helmet - grrr, got to look up the correct English term in auction sales catalogs as the web is not helpful at all), a rapier and a flat curved powder flask attached to a leather frog comprising a bullet pouch.

Forgive me to call it a night, it's almost 3 a.m. in Bavaria and very late even for a nightowl like me. More following tomorrow ...

And everybody interested in learning more about the subject, please revisit my former threads

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...echt+harquebus

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...echt+harquebus

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...echt+harquebus


http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...echt+harquebus

and

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...tchlock+musket

Thanks and good night,
and with all my very best wishes to out there on route 66 from a dead tired
Michael

[Jim McDougall]

Hi Michael,
And in kind that was just the kind of response I was looking for!!!
It is really fascinating to learn that the term 'caliber' is derived from these lighter muskets, and the note on the premeasured charges in bandoleers...the twelve apostles. It is amazing the dimension added by learning these contemporary colloquialisms!

Thanks so much Michael!
Route 66 calls, and two days til we roll again

All the best,
Jim

[Matchlock]

Thank you again, Jim!

Here are some of the engravings from de Geyn's manual of exercise Wapenhandelinghe ..., 1608.

The musketeer wears a hat, the caliver man (Schütze) an iron Schützenhäubel.

Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

The rest.

[Jim McDougall]

Thanks very much Michael, great illustrations as always!!! This is like having access to the most fantastic books and art showing all of these.

I have just noticed, on the 'caliver man', that curious shape in the powder 'horn'. It seems this is very much the shape I have seen on Moroccan powder flasks, and perhaps the strong trade influences between England and Europe along that Meditteranean littoral brought this in as well as the gun types?

I need to find a photo of one of these Moroccan powder flasks (if I am using the correct term).

All the best,
Jim

[Matchlock]

Hi Jim,

Good parallel concerning the Moroccan flasks but actually the German ones were a whole lot different.

For more on 16th and 17th c. German musketeers' and caliver men's flasks, please see my older threads

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...asks+musketeer

and especially

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...r+flasks+frogs


Best,
Michael

[Matchlock]

The short and swamped muzzle sections denote the exact dating.

Interestingly enough, Indian organ guns used to look very similar to the one on the right even in the 18th and 19th centuries, only their muzzle sections were longer being based on the German style of ca. 1520.

Best,
Michael

[Jim McDougall]

Fascinating illustrations Michael!
The DaVinci works have always been amazing and its hard to imagine how far ahead of his times he was. These multiple barrel weapons remond me a lot of the rocket launching units used in WWII.

Am I correct in assuming these multiple barrels were typically discharged simultaneously? It seems as if that would be a pretty much single op situation, as it must have horrendous to try to get these reloaded.
I would imagine truly psychologically devastating at initial blast though.
Sort of the scatter gun effect.

It seems that in terms of firing, single barrel discharge would have been a real challenge. Case in point, in the early 19th century, as percussion caps were invented, the revolving cylinder 'pepperbox' pistols had the right concept ideally, but there were problems with simultaneous discharge, which had of course less than desirable effect for the user. These were also notorious for misfires.
For these larger heavy ordnance type weapons, the ancestor of the 'machine gun' was the Gatling gun for multiple fire in my understanding.

It seems there are a number of guns I have seen, and I cant place them offhand, which were flintlock personal weapons with a number of barrels, I think four, arranged in this fanned fashion. I cant recall how these functioned in firing.


All the best,
Jim

[Matchlock]

Hi Jim,

Sorry, I forgot to mention how these actually fired.

Most of these organ guns simply had a common powder line applied connecting all the touch holes and would then fire simultaneously.

Regarding the interestig parallel you noted on English 18th c. flintlock pistols, I assume you are referring to the duck's foot type with usually four or five diverging barrels; they too were set blazing at the same time by a centrally boxed flintlock mechanism and corresponding touch holes.

Best wishes als always,
Michael

[Matchlock]

In the Arsenal of the noble family of Hohenlohe-Sigmaringen, the barrels ca. 1510 and half covered with wood, with just the touchholes spared.
The wheels are not original.
Overall length ca. 1.2 m.

m

[Anandalal N.]

Hi Michael,

Thank you immensely for these images from Gheyn's work. Indeed after reading Arne Hoff's Dutch Firearms I have been pondering how to access Gheyn when 'voila' you have provided a solution. So thanks again. I do assume the full book has more text to it? How large is it in its entirety?

A question. Till when in your opinon did the gun barrels continue to be made octagonal at the breech and rounded at the muzzle with a transition design as seen in Gheyns?

Regards.

Anan.

[Matchlock]

Hi Anan,

It's been good to hear of you again, pal!

De Gheyn's Wapenhandelinghe was the first exercise manual of its kind, mainly regarding firearms, and consequently had many followers (the first of them being Wallhausen in 1616) which mostly confined themselves to copy the original at large, and on a lesser level.

Actually the volume the frontispiece of which is engraved 1607 but was printed in 1608, comprises three sections of weapon handling commands respectively: for the caliverman (45 plates), the musketeer (42 plates), and the pikeman (32 plates). There is very little text, just a summary of the single commands prior to each section. If you are especially interested in the text in Old Dutch I can scan and post it.

Generally you will be well advised to watch out and seek the web for the perfect reprint:

Jacob de Gheyn: The Exercise of Armes (sic!), Lochem and McGraw Hill, Inc., ISBN 90-6087-271-1 or 07-016237-9.

I just noticed Amazon offering a paperback version at 14 USD:
http://www.amazon.com/Exercise-Armes.../dp/0486404420

As to your second question: in Germany, barrels with an octagonal breech changing to a round and longer forward section have been made starting as early as the late 15th century. The raised and acanthus leaves chiseled intermitting bands pictured by de Gheyn only arose in the 1550's. Actually not one single existing matchlock musket is known to be equipped with them ...

Best,
Michael

[fernando]

Hurry Anan,
They now have one copy less

[Matchlock]

Well done, 'Nando!

m