[Northkeep] Me see you have boom-boom stick...Bye-Bye

[Marc Carlson]

At 02:20 PM 5/11/01 -0400, Lucan wrote:
>>...    the earlyist recorded mention of any type of hand gun is durring the
>>reign of Edward III when they were brought into England from Flanders. in
>>1470.

With all due respect, I believe that while this may be an early reference in
English, there may be more information available.  There are references as
early as the 1350s to "gunnis cum telar" or guns with handles, which is
considered by some to refer to early hand-gonnes.  We -know- that the
so called "Tannenburg Hand Cannon" dates to earlier than 1399, since that's
the date the site it was found at was razed.  A similar bronze piece was found at
Loshult, Sweden and has been dated to the early 14th century.  These are
basically a short metal tube with the rear sealed off - a small hold drilled to
take the match.  The tube was then mounted on a long wooden tiller to help aim,
and reduce recoil (*snicker*).  Bores were generally half an inch to an inch
and a half.  These were then filled small balls, rocks, whatever.  They were probably
as effective as a sawed off shot gun.  In the 15th century we get the kind with the
hooks on the barrels (giving us the "hakenbusche", leading to the "arquebus").
The Matchlock was earliest illustrated around 1411 (in a manuscript illustration
that I'll be happy to share if you'd like to see it).

Marc/Diarmaid