[Philip]

Dear Fernando,
The use of a wooden plug (even a cork or thick paper wad will do) is useful in short barrels to confine the powder and make a proper explosion. In long, musket length barrels, even that is not necessary. A couple weekends ago I attended a military historical re-enactment festival at an old seacoast fort near my house, and there was a squad of "soldiers" trained and dressed in the manner of the English Civil War doing drills with matchlock muskets. Shooting with blank charges of course. What surprised me is how reliable these weapons can be (so long as it isn't raining!) -- misfires were at a rate of 2% at most, and the troops could discharge a respectable volley, the guns going off almost at once. Even more interesting was that for display purposes, a fairly good speed of fire could be obtained without using wads or plugs, and thus dispensing with the need to deploy, use, and put back the ramrod. Without ramming or wadding, the powder in the bottom of the barrel would explode quite nicely, making an impressive noise. I asked why, for the sake of realism, that they didn't just load a wad and go through the motions of ramming down a real bullet. The "commander" told me that they would do it at a proper shooting-range but in a place with crowds of public around, the risk would be of someone forgetting to remove the ramrod from the barrel, turning his espingarda into a harpoon launcher!

You mentioned an interesting application of the "handgonne" concept in war, to applications which didn't involve pointing it at someone and shooting a bullet. Yes, I've seen reference to fairly large-diameter things resembling the noisemaking Boeller, but used to blow open gates or strong doors. They were called "petards", the weapon was loaded with a suitable charge and fastened with its mouth against the gate. I also have translations of 15th-17th cent. Chinese military manuals which describe all manner of concealed explosive devices, operating under ground or water, some ignited remotely by a complex system of fuses.

I would tend to think that a barrel made to fire vertically upwards would have a priming pan that sticks out laterally, as you see on most Boeller. The larger of your two barrels appears to have the remnants of this feature, as I have pointed out previously.

Re: your comment about the move to outlaw fireworks in Portugal -- what a shame. Of course people get hurt in accidents, but on holidays when everybody's been drinking, they also crash their cars, fall off bicycles, and get into fights. Recorded sounds of firecrackers is no substitute for cannons firing sausages and other follies. Here in the States, most urban areas have banned firecrackers and the use of rockets and Roman candles by the general public. However, by an interesting legal quirk, the reservations on which the remaining tribes of Indians live are considered "sovereign territory" and they write their own rules regarding certain types of fun, such as casino gaming and fireworks. So they make good money from people driving to their territory to buy some impressive pyrotechnic devices. We used to be able to drive over the border to Mexico for the same thing, but the border inspections post-9/11 have spoiled that. It may be illegal to shoot them off at home, but the police can't arrest everybody!